SA #6: We, the Wikipedians

SA #6: We, the Wikipedians

 Preliminary Notes

What I've learned from the Wikipedia Editing Tutorial: if you edit a page, provide information on why you made the additions or alterations in the "Edit summary" box below the edit window. The explanation can be as short or long as you desire. Afterwards, in the sandbox page, select the "Edit" option again and write "Testing" in the summary box. Secondly, I learned that the "Show preview" tool is a great resource. It allows writers and editors to view the page before they save it, allowing them to make sure it's formatted the right way.

What I learned from the Wikipedia "Help: Editing" page: We can all be proud that we are Wikipedians! No matter how minor our alterations are, we helped make Wikipedia the renowned Encyclopedia that it is today. Paragraphs are begun with a leading space and they are separated with a blank space. References are a very important aspect of adding information to a page. Otherwise, they might be removed.

I chose to review and edit the article "Bulgarians in Albania" for two reasons. One because I found the topic interesting, and two because I'm more comfortable editing for errors in spelling, grammar, and sentence fluidity than I am adding new information; this article in particular requires copy editing because of poor translation. 

Analysis

This editing task has helped me understand that there are many aspects that contribute to the creation of a Wikipedia article. Members of the community are not expected to complete an article all on there own; each person can contribute by providing their own slice of knowledge, and for some that's as simple as fixing spelling errors or adding commas where needed. For others, that's adding information on a topic, and if the information is riddled with errors that's okay, because there are members of the community that will help. What I'm trying to say is that I've learned that as a Wikipedian I am not alone.

The theory behind Porter's "Intertextuality and the Discourse Community" is that there is no original work, and just like Wikipedia articles, each piece of writing has intertextuality, meaning it contains fragments of information from the past. "Examining texts 'intertextuality' means looking for 'traces,' the bits and pieces of Text which writers or speakers borrow and sew together to create new discourse" (Porter 34).

On Wikipedia, all writing derives from the same network of contributors, a discourse community dedicated to the spread of knowledge. Two aspects of Porter's theory of intertextuality exist on Wikipedia. On each page is iterabilitity, the tracing and utilization of references, quotations, allusions, traditions and phrases, and presupposition, the assumptions an article makes about its reader. Wikipedians use these influences to include the types of information they believe their audience wants to know. According to Porter, the true nature of writing is about being able to recognize yourself within the constraints of a text. These constraints are similar to Grant-Davie's in that they exist with each other in their own discourse communities, forming boundaries and guiding writers.

Wikipedia articles are platforms for a discourse community, not just a single author; a place where many works influence and work together to create a new product that is essentially a reflection of society.