Using Wikipedia to Teach Audience, Genre and Collaboration

Bilansky, Alan

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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/88338 Copy

Description

Title

Using Wikipedia to Teach Audience, Genre and Collaboration

Author(s)

Bilansky, Alan

Issue Date

2016-03

Keyword(s)

• Wikipedia
• informatics
• audience
• editing
• collaboration
• writing instruction
• genre
• standards

Abstract

This essay describes a sequence of assignments to guide students though an informed effort at making contributions to Wikipedia that persist, and suggests ways this set of exercises in social informatics may also serve a number of common goals in a variety of writing, literature, and other courses: analyzing and writing for explicit editorial guidelines (“standards” in information science; “house style” in editorial practice); understanding, conforming to, and even negotiating conventions of genres and subgenres; collaborating online; writing for an audience that is not only real but talks back; and developing deep understanding of revision and the writing, editorial, and publication processes. Students first learn Wikipedia policies and practices and analyze the historical development of articles before they make contributions. The pedagogical opportunities arguably outweigh the concerns of those who doubt the credibility of an open-authored encyclopedia.

Publisher

Duke University Press

Type of Resource

text

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http://hdl.handle.net/2142/88338

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