SA #5

SA #5

Part 1: Notes

The first difference noticed between Michelle Citron's and Marshall McLuhan's biographies is the structure of the background information on each respective person. Citron has a short sentence under her name detailing what she does as a career, and then a separate section, "Early life" on her education. McLuhan's biography is more aesthetically pleasing. Instead of a meager sentence about what he does, the information under his name is a concise overview of his life's work, basically what he would be known for. Another paragraph, "Life and career", is a combination of his background information and road to success in his field. He has a more robust description, in part because a few topics that could have been split up into different sections were combined into one. Citron's "Early life" and "Career" are both short paragraphs that could have been combined.

Citron's page has very few links, one of which is to another biography of her life, a few others to the schools she attended and taught at. McLuhan's page has a plethora of links to other pages, in fact, nearly every paragraph has hyperlinked words, even if it's just the name of a city. This large difference in detail makes Citron's page seem more like a stub that needs to be completed. Additionally, the tone of Citron's biography is much more impersonal than that of McLuhan's. McLuhan's work is not presented in a list like Citron's is, it's described in paragraphs of text.

It's quite obvious that Sidgwick's biography on Wikipedia is very different than his Stanford Encyclopedia biography. Stanford's text is extremely detailed with quotes and in text citations. It takes on the tone of a scholarly report that includes a ton of information. The wikipedia biography is concise, to the point, and includes only general information. The types of information linked in the Wikipedia article are primarily locations, social groups or organizations, and key concepts. There is no linked information in the Stanford biography. Stanford's references are made up of mostly citations from published works on Ethics, whereas the Wikipedia article's references are medical journals and published works on the supernatural. The Stanford article has no illustrations to accompany the text, but Wikipedia does, and it's extremely helpful in putting a face with the name when imagining who this individual was. Sidgwick's Wikipedia page consists of a bibliography of his published works, Stanford does not. Overall, the structure of the Wikipedia biography is much more organized than that of the Stanford biography, which is written more like an academic essay on Sidgwick. 

Part 2: Featured Article 

One of Wikipedia's featured articles is titled "Acra (fortress)", on the history of a fortified compound in Jerusalem constructed by Antiochus Epiphanes after his destruction of the city in 168 BCE.

According to Wikipedia, all of their encyclopedic texts should be written with a neutral tone, representing the information fairly, without bias, and accommodating all of the significant views that have been published by credible sources on the subject. The article on Acra does this perfectly. It’s tone is completely unbiased, stating known facts about the history of the fortress and the battles that pertained to it without being biased towards the many Jews that were killed or the Seleucid suppressors. The writers and editors of the article remain incredibly unbiased as early as the second paragraph, refraining from stating their personal opinions on the location of the fortress, they wrote, “The exact location of the Acra, critical to understanding Hellenistic Jerusalem, remains a matter of ongoing discussion. Historians and archaeologists have proposed various sites around Jerusalem, relying mainly on conclusions drawn from literary evidence.” By doing so, trust is established among readers that the information is as accurate as possible, without the blemishes of opinion or personal belief.

Requirements for image use include: always tagging the image with one of the image copyright tags and stating where the image originated. The images should increase the reader's understanding of the text. Because the exact location and remains of the Acra are unknown, the images used in this article are not all that helpful for readers. Besides a map of Jerusalem that identifies the general location of the Acra, the images are unrelated. One is a border along the eastern wall of the Temple Mount, another is a potential remains site of the fortress, and another is Antonio Ciseri's art depicting the persecution of the Jews by Antiochus IV. However, the reason the images are unhelpful is not the fault of the writers and editors, it is simply because the location of the Acra remains an unsolved mystery.

Article titles should be recognizable, neutral, precise, concise, and consistent with the pattern of related articles' titles. The article titles of the piece fit the FA criteria perfectly. They are clear, concise, and leave no uncertainty for the reader about what the ensuing information is about. They are simple, neutral, and chronological, which is especially beneficial for readers because it eliminates issues of confusion and disorganization. For example, under the "History" section of the article, subtitles are presented logically in the order of "Background", "Construction", and "Destruction".

Analysis

In "Lessons of Wikipedia", Zittrain portrays that when humans are involved in situations where rules and regulations are lessened and there is room for individual creativity in collaboration, order is achieved because the members of the group have respect for the limits. The "Acra (fortress)" featured article on Wikipedia is an exemplary example of this. When individuals consider themselves a part of a whole, each feels the weight of responsibility for contributing quality information and revisions. Dozens of writers and editors came together to produce a text that is informative, without bias, and perfectly written.

In "Integrating the American Mind", Gates explains that one of the issues with education in the U.S. is that other cultures are not included in the curriculum. "We need to reform our entire notion of core curricula to account for the comparable eloquence of the African, the Asian, the Latin American, and the Middle Eastern traditions, to prepare our students for their roles in the twenty-first century as citizens of a world culture, educated through a truly human notion of the humanities" (Gates 346). This Wikipedia article in particular helps to solve this issue that exists in American schools by offering readers information largely unknown by students and non-students alike.

Researching the four biographies and examining the article on Acra in relation to Wikipedia's FA requirements, has shed light on the importance of remaining unbiased when providing information to the public on a subject that is unknown to many people. Writers and editors have an obligation to readers to supply information that is clear, concise, and that covers all aspects of a topic or issue.



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acra_%28fortress%29