Dr Ben Lauderdale from the Department of Methodology at the London School of Economics and Political Science delivered a special masterclass on Tuesday 24th May 2016. Ben’s research focuses on the measurement of political preferences from survey, voting, network and text with a particular focus on using text data. This event presented the latest developments in ways social scientists can use text and provides an excellent opportunity to explore the promises but also the limitations of this quickly expanding research field. For further information on text analysis in social science see Felix Krawatzek and Andy Eggers Podcast Series.