Analytic Reflection

Analytic Reflection

Of the wealth of information gained from taking this course, what has been the most influential is the insight I've ascertained on the world of Wikipedia and ideas from Porter's "Intertextuality and the Discourse Community". The combination of these two elements from the course have taught me that writing is a process that involves the contribution of many great minds that influence each and every piece of text in a completely unique, one-of-a-kind way.

This Wikipedia group endeavor has illuminated that there are many elements that go into the creation of a single article. I once thought writing was something done by one individual, alone. I've realized now that it takes a community of thinkers, each providing their own sliver of wisdom, for the final product to manifest.

In retrospect, I understand that the process that we as a class have taken part in through creating our very own Wikipedia article correlates perfectly with Porter's theory. Porter explains that in each and every text exists intertextuality, the theory that all types of written discourse contains hints of the past. "Examining texts 'intertextually' means looking for 'traces,' the bits and pieces of Text which writers or speakers borrow and sew together to create new discourse" (Porter 34). Our group effort with the Wikipedia page is an example of the network of influences, both unique personal to each individual and of the past, that blend together to form a final product that is essentially a reflection of our perceptions of the world.

Porter and Grant-Davie's theories combined have also been very influential to my understanding of the writing process. From Grant-Davie's "Rhetorical Situations", I've learned that the exigence of a text, aka "an imperfection marked by urgency" (Grant-Davie 265) is more than just an obstacle, it is the means with which an idea is understood and mediated on through rhetorical discourse. Exigence is also a platform from which a writer can persuade an audience. The knowledge I've gained from studying Grant-Davie's theory has illuminated for me the fact that we as a group have identified an exigence and have responded to it by creating a new platform for discourse by writing a Wikipedia article. We have also utilized the constraints of our exigence to our advantage. In choosing a Wikipedia article as the form to publish our knowledge, we gain ethos by allowing our text to be influenced by the constraint of maintaining a neutral, unbiased tone as opposed to formulating an article that is full of fallacies and opinions that are objective.

Although what I have learned about how texts have influenced my own thought and writing is a very powerful lesson, it is the understanding of how these texts have shaped who I am and what I believe that I find most valuable. As a result, this course has shed light on what makes me, me.

Works Cited

Grant-Davie, Keith. "Rhetorical Situations and Their Constituents." Rhetoric Review. 2nd ed. Vol. 15. 
     London: Taylor & Francis, 1997. 264-279. Spring, 1997.

Porter, James E. "Intertextuality and The Discourse Community." Rhetoric Review. 1st
     ed. Vol. 5. London: Taylor & Francis, 1986. 34-47. Autumn, 1986.

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.

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

Copyright: Good or Evil?

Copyright: Good or Evil?

Ridolfo and Rife delve into a case study that questions the ethos of a Michigan State University student’s photo remediation and rhetorical velocity (the strategic concept of delivery where the rhetor speculates the possibilities of the recomposition of a text depending on how he or she thinks the text will be used in the future). Maggie's story entices the audience to confront controversial issues of rhetorical appropriation and copyright in terms of ethics and intellectual property. The implications for using intellectual property are undoubtedly connected to rhetorical theory and the delivery of a text. This text highlights the ways in which copyright is perceived and the ways that perception needs to change. Copyright law is more than just a limiting regulation, it is also a means for rhetorical creativity to exist.

In "Plagiarism and Promiscuity, Authors and Plagiarisms", we learn that issues of plagiarism and appropriation vary depending on power, status, and hierarchy. "As Martin's taxonomy makes clear enough, the designation of plagiarism has at least as much to do with where you reside in a power structure as it does with whether you did or did not present someone else's text as your own” (Wiebe 34). Plagiarism becomes a rhetorical grey area when considering the idea that there is no original thought. Any text, whether it is written or spoken, references other texts or occurrences, cultures, and languages. In this way, plagiarism is basically untraceable, but the substance of texts, and everything that has ever been said, can be considered plagiarism. Most of our thoughts and utterances are secondhand, adopted from another outside source, and conveyed by the plagiarist with assurance that the thought began with them. 

No text exists that was not created by a blend of knowledge ascertained by earlier works. This idea relates to Maggie’s controversial issue with MSU using her photo on their website and promotional texts. Her photo influenced and inspired the creators of those later texts, and left a mark on history and creativity that cannot be denied or deemed as plagiarism. Her moment in the snow later served as the focal point in the remix of new thought and creativity that was unavoidably influenced by the past.



https://campus.fsu.edu/bbcswebdav/pid-6800561-dt-content-rid-38256208_2/courses/ENC4404-0001.fa14/ridolfo_courant_rhetorical_velocity.pdf

https://campus.fsu.edu/bbcswebdav/pid-6800560-dt-content-rid-38256207_2/courses/ENC4404-0001.fa14/wiebe_plagiarism_promiscuity.pdf

In Wikipedia We Trust

In Wikipedia We Trust

In "Lessons of Wikipedia", Zittrain introduces the theory that when humans are in situations that are heavily regulated, our behavior adjusts to actions based on reward and punishment by an arbitrary external authority, rather than an intrinsic motivation to maintain a better world that we help to construct. When rules and regulations are lessened, basic order can be achieved because people decide to respect limits and other people with the absence of enforced rules. His ideas describe Wikipedia—when individuals see themselves as part of a greater whole, each feels responsible for maintaining order; they are a connected community under a common goal.

The Internet, since its creation, has functioned as an encyclopedia in and of itself. Expert and amateur writers and bloggers are free to make public whatever information they want, and when someone does a search on a particular topic, a wide variety of information may come up. Search engines function as an encyclopedia written by many authors, not just one or a few, and this gives searchers the privilege to pick what they want to read. Wikipedia's foundation is based on verkeersbordvrij (the idea that unsafe is safe, or more simply put, less rules and regulations lead to a public mass effort to maintain order and high standards), dialogue between readers, writers, and editors where alterations can be explained, and a team of core editors that serve as the overseers.

In "Editing Out Obscenity: Wikipedia and Writing Pedagogy", Hood portrays Wikipedia as a "collaborative writing endeavor" that has great potential as a compromise of knowledge and opinions of many people. Because Wikipedia articles are constantly being edited and monitored for vandalism, over time the only result is that their quality would improve. Wikipedia, unlike other encyclopedias, places value on the process of writing and editing, not on the final product. Wikipedia is all about achieving harmony and solidarity when working in concordance with others readers and writers to fully inform the public on a topic and to give them the best information possible.

In "Integrating the American Mind" by Gates, he explains that there is a problem with he American teaching curriculum, that students do not learn about other cultures and their histories because high schools and colleges are focused on European and American societies, with America as the perfect example of how a society should be since the Greeks, in a similar way to how Christians looks to Jesus as an example. "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). Wikipedia offers students and individuals alike to do so because it covers such an immense, broad array of subject matter and international history down to the most obscure, rarely known cultures.

Wikipedia is an amazing resource for many reasons but most of all because it functions as a group effort that is maintained by readers and writers who want to see the overall education of Wiki users by offering them the most accurate information possible. It's a resource that trusts its contributors who want nothing more than to contribute to the spread of knowledge.

SA #4: Integrity, Intertextuality, and Exigence of Wikipedia Articles

S.A. #4: Integrity, Intertextuality, and Exigence of Wikipedia Articles 

 

The sources for the Wikipedia page "John Bauer (Illustrator)", are credible, published books, some of which are exclusively about Bauer. This is especially advantageous for readers wishing to gleam knowledge from this article because the information comes from published works. None of the sources are unreliable, they are all respected. A few of them are even textbooks. Because of this there is no uncertainty as far as the integrity of the sources.

There is a spelling error in the first sentence of the section on "Courtship and marriage". Bauer's name was spelled "Baer". It is unknown whether this error occurred because of a simple editing oversight, or if the writer of that particular section was not knowledgeable on the subject to spell his name correctly. Other than that, upon further investigation other facts proved true including that Bauer met his wife, Ester Ellqvist, while at school at the Royal Swedish Academy of Arts, that the Bauer's and their son, Bengt, died by drowning in a mass causality boat accident on Lake Vattern, that historic painter, Gustaf Cederstrom was one of his teachers, and that his famous painting The Fairy Princess was inspired by his wife.

The information in this article is very reliable, albeit the minor spelling error here and there, but not every writer has the patience to re-read their work. The sources are what make this article reliable. Because the article is not ridden with extraneous details readers might find it more in accordance with the true facts of Bauer's life. 

The article functions similarly to Porter's theory of intertextuality in that it has elements of iterability and presupposition. The article uses references, quotes from Bauer's art professors, and traditions of culture while making the assumptions about the reader that he or she is knowledgeable of certain types of art such as frescos and cultures within Sweden without giving explanation on these topics.

After reading the Wikipedia article in its entirety, it became obvious that the writer (or writers) included information that was especially valuable that piqued interest in the reader. This is similar to what Killingsworth writes on when he explains concepts of human interest and news value when considering how an audience will interpret information. "For a story to be considered "news," it must tell readers something they don't already know, something they haven't already heard or become accustomed to" (Killingsworth 134). There were obviously details of Bauer's life that were not newsworthy enough to include, but the writers focused on facts that were unique and personal that readers might not have known.

Read the Wikipedia article here: 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Bauer_%28illustrator%29#CITEREFCorin2013

The Importance Of Time To Rhetoric

The Importance Of Time To Rhetoric

Killingsworth and Handa’s argument definitely have strong similarities. Both texts explain the ways in which rhetoric is used today, the analytical and technical skills needed to present it successfully, and the best ways to appeal to the audience at the perfect time.

In "Appeals to Time" from Killingsworth's Appeals in Modern Rhetoric, he explains the ways in which rhetoric exists in society today in comparison to that of the past in order to appeal to the audience in the most ideal way. "The news and advertising industry often use a simple version of the appeal to time, with newness occupying the position of value" (Killingsworth 39). Killingsworth places heavy importance on the kairos and exigence of rhetoric, conveying that they are designed to serve a purpose at a certain time in order to be successful, meaning that authors and rhetoricians alike need to be conscious that their strategies appeal to time in order for it to be presented to the audience at the most ideal moment.

In The Multimediated Rhetoric of the Internet, Handa explains the purpose of remediation on platforms such as the Internet. Handa explains that time, societal culture, and the media function together to form an argument that is especially powerful in terms of affecting the audience. Handa explains that in this day and age, the Internet is very important in terms of portraying an exigence, because its relationship with time is more lucrative than that of many other ways to communicate an idea, such as speeches for example. Handa also writes about the different forms of rhetoric, whether it be conscious or unconscious, spoken or unspoken: "Furthermore, if we ask what might be involved in analyzing a compelling rhetorical performance given digitally, we need to account for a Web site's non-verbal as well as verbal communication and whether or not the total performance foes in fact make an impact on that 'social world in which we live'" (Handa 17).