A Wikipedia Wonderland

Have you ever had a question about something, and typed it into Google? One of the top websites that appears in your search bar about your topic should be Wikipedia. Wikipedia is a "multilingual, web-biased, free-content encyclopedia project operated by the Wikimedia Foundations and based on an openly editable modem." The name Wikipedia comes from "wiki," a term that means "a technology for creating collaborative websites" combined with the term encyclopedia. Wikipedia doesn't always have all of the information you may be looking for, but have no fear. Wikipedia is a completely user friendly site that allows for any individual to access it, and edit an article to a better quality. The down side is that not every topic out there will have enough information about it and need to be expanded. Also, some topics may only have one or two sentences about them and need a lot of help. This is done through use of web/wiki lingo called stubs. What a stub is, is an article that needs improvement. There are thousands of stubs in a variety of genres. If you click on one sub category of a stub, it will take you to a plethora of specific topics under a particular genre in order of importance. For example, if you click on the sub-category 2010's songs, you will stumble across pieces in alphabetical order. Under this genre you will find pieces that need improvement such as Merry Go Round,  a song written by new artist Kacey Musgraves. Another topic in need of improvement in this category is the song On Top of the World, a song by hipster group Imagine Dragons.

Now, if you think that stubs are pretty cool, then you will be impressed by the articles in need of expansion. These are topics that will be marked either, expand section, empty section or incomplete. These topics go beyond that of a stub. These are organized into sub-categories which are organized by month and year of updates or addition of the topic. Then within these sub-categories, you will find topics organized in date order. For example, if you click on the sub-category February 2013, you will come across topics such as 1934 Detroit Lions Season or 1951 Philosophy.

Now to put this concept to the test, I have chosen twelve words that I feel represent the Advanced Writing and Editing course and have described what they fall under.

1. public discourse (redirected to public sphere)
2. stasis (does not exist)
3. sci-tech (redirected to The Science Academy of South Texas)
4. public argument (does not exist)
5. exigence ( redirected to Exigent Circumstance in United States Law)
6. constraints (does not exist in terms of our class)
7. audience (needs citations)
8. genre (needs citations)
9. white paper (needs more)
10. discourse (developed; needs to be cleaned up)
11. intertextuality (needs citations)
12. blog (fully developed)

As you can see, all of these terms relate in some way to the concepts of stubs and articles in need of expansion. Only one, being blog, is a fully developed site that didn't need improvement or expansion.


Now lets put the credibility of the citings of these topics to the test.

Did you know... "that Maling Kutang was filmed in under a week and included a gorilla costume and 'magic' underwear and panties?"  Well neither did I. By checking Wikipedia, i clicked the link and learned that in fact this Indonesian Comedy film made in 2009 was a movie about chasing a magic bra after it had been stolen. I did not however find evidence to prove that the film was made in under a week, nor did the links underneath help me to discover this prood. This leads me to see this as a not so credible source to explain the fact being stated, even though Wikipedia does prove the second part about the gorilla suit and underwear. This piece could definitely use more information to make it more credible. Also, under sources, for it to be considered reliable it must entail the actual piece of work, creator of work, or publisher of work to establish proof. It uses reviews on the film to create the information to talk about the mixed reviews and the quality of film. It doesn't really go into much detail of these mixed reviews which also creates uncertainty, making another argument why this Wikipedia topic should not be accounted as completely accurate. This is why we should be skeptical of what we see and believe from Wikipedia. Because although some facts may be accurate and credible, not everything is.

Time is of the Essence

In Killingsworth's "Appeal to Time" he makes reference to the idea of how time is represented through modern and classical rhetoric. In regards to classical rhetoric time is represented through types of speech, being forensic, epideictic and deliberative speech. In Modern rhetoric examples are given through types of documents to represent the past present and future, being reports (past), instructions (present), and proposals (future.)

He also puts an emphasis on the importance of timeliness and urgency and represents these through the concepts of “kairos” and “exigence.” “Kairos” is finding the right argument for the right moment, whereas “exigence” is when topics emerge as urgent consideration at a particular historical time. He represents in his article the Martin Luther King Speech as an example of exigence. During the time of this speech it was relevant to speak of this topic because the inequality of race was at a high. A key point that I found important was the idea of urgency being related to relevance. Therefore the relevance of a particular argument can be determined by the urgency of its meaning.

Time is a huge issue in the concepts of what is going on. The term modern popped up all over this article;  the idea of modern being understood as something that is occurring right now. Everything in time is in the present and moving toward a better future. In my opinion, every aspect of life involves time and the strive to become better or to create something better. There will always be a “modern” in the life of everyone, and in terms of rhetoric we will always reflect of the past to see how it affected the present, but the overall goal is to use this to move on to the future and continue expanding the rhetorical theory over time.

Teaching Levels of Policy Conflict.

The op-ed article I chose was “The top 10 reasons students cannot cite or rely on Wikipedia.” I believe this is biased because it is stating the reasons you should not use it as a sole source and doesn't give any evidence as to why it would be completely factual. It does provide examples of people who falsely put information into Wikipedia and who the editors are, but there is no absolute way to prove all information is factual. Therefore I would ultimately call this a simulation argument because it pretty much is one sided as to why we should not use Wikipedia for citing and as a credible source. I feel that in Kaufer’s description of weighing the sides, we can pick out the fact that this article is one-sided in that it gives no supporting evidence to why Wikipedia could be used as a credible source for research. It is setting the scales heavier for the reasons why they cannot be credible sources. If we looked at It as a visual, we would see a complete imbalance. 

I believe that there is some misdirection in the article on Wikipedia, and falls in to the ethical violation of style criteria. I think that the article misleads the audience to disregard Wikipedia completely as a source, and if this is so, then what reason does it have to exist and why hasn't it been shut down. I didn’t see really any examples of “The Usage Rule”, where the writer is deliberately trying to confuse the readers. Perhaps, if we look at the section at the bottom of the article, we can see the statement “Wikipedia can actually be a constructive tool in the classroom if understood and used correctly.” This sentence completely contradicts the entire article where the word “cannot” is predominately used. I think it is misleading to add this sentence into the article when the whole article is about why not to use Wikipedia as a source. It’s a contradictory sentence.

In terms of “ideographs” and “value” terms, there were a few words in the article that stood out. The words that had a sense of value in my eyes were reliable, unreliable, and trust. I think that the audience needs to establish a sense of reliability on what the author is speaking of. I also think that by using the word unreliable and reliable in the same paragraph can confuse the readers. It could challenge its sense of credibility. Trust is probably the strongest word in the article, and is used to represent the number one reason why we shouldn’t cite or rely on Wikipedia as a source. Wikipedia says, “We do not expect you to trust us.” This right that is building a relationship with the reader because we are believing this statement about Wikipedia because the author has told us that it is true. We are trusting the author with our opinion on Wikipedia. I think that it is channeling discourse in that it creating a conversation with the author and reader. The conversation is building trust by giving credible information about a not so credible website, so by the end you are trusting the author, and then the word trust pops onto the screen a solidifies that feeling. Thus, Trust would be the most important word in the article in my opinion.

Wikipedia: Fact of Fiction?

While working on Assignment Three, I chose to edit the piece on Wikipedia, and the ten reasons why students cannot cite or rely on Wikipedia. Throughout my piece, I first read it multiple times to grasp an understanding on the concept of what I was reading. Once I developed that understanding, I proceeded to make grammatical changes as well as rewording some sentences to make them either stronger or more comprehensible. I learned these in Style and When Words Collide.

I feel that this source itself was an example of lower states, in that it is more fact based and it exists as itself. I think that the people going on Wikipedia and entering false information, as stated in the  article, is an example of higher stases. I feel the article is geared toward the audience of Wikipedia users, as well as college students, and students of any age.

I think that this article proved to be helpful because it gave me a hands on experience in the line of editing, which all in all will prove to make me a better writer. With practice makes perfect.

Suburban Sprawl's Impact on New Ruralism

Everyone wants to live their lives in different ways. Some people long for that Big City life, whereas others hope to avoid the mass amounts of people and prefer the close knit, small town life. Personally I am fond of large cities, but I can see why others may feel differently. Living in a community where everything is close-by, neighbors are friendly, and green does sound intriguing. And the people who enjoy this style of living would want to fend of these city folk from transforming and cluttering their living space. This can be done through the concept of New Ruralism.

New Ruralism is “a response for those rural areas on the urban edge that are most at risk for the encroachment of suburbanization, environmental degradation and industrialization.” (Stratton) The idea of New Ruralism is the combination of both “smart growth and sustainable agriculture.” (Stratton) With these trends, New Ruralism hopes to re-connect with the land.

The basic principles that create the foundation for what New Ruralism should contain are characterized in Stratton’s article. First off, “the rural area needs an identity rooted in the agricultural, ecological, geographical, or cultural attributes to be preserved.” Next, “the primary use of the land dedicated to farming should be small to medium scale agriculture integrated with areas for wildlife and habitat management.” Another important principle of New Ruralism is “maintaining a public environment that is accessible to residents and visitors alike form all segments of society.” Last but not least comes the most important concept of New Ruralism. They must be “high-density mixed land use in the areas where development occurs.” These principles are the main components in having a defined and successful example of New Ruralism.  By creating more self sufficient neighborhoods it will help to improve the spread of the sprawl. By becoming a community that doesn’t rely on use of coal and other resources it will also provide a better way of living, meaning less cars, more walking and biking. (350.org)

Now with all of this information comes the question, why? Why do we care about New Ruralism, and what is it trying to do? The reason New Ruralism is becoming such an anticipated type of community is because of the effects of urban or suburban sprawl. What suburban or sprawl is, is the “unplanned, uncontrolled spreading of urban development into areas adjoining the edge of a city.” So with the development of New Ruralist communities, the hope is to limit or remove the problem of sprawl. “There is a vaccine against sprawl, a way to ward off the encroachment of those who see the land as an accessory and not a commodity, and it is New Ruralism.”  Sprawl contaminates the beauty and nature of a community. But, if we keep communities clean and well maintained and have more nature and trees, etc., then we will see New Ruralism in action and results will be seen. With more nature based communities without the effects of sprawl, Oxygen will be clean, will reduce noise pollution and much more. (Crop life)

The ways in which New Ruralism has attempted to take a stand against this sprawl is through examples where some concepts of these communities are being portrayed.  A prime representative of these attempts is in the city of Serenbe, Georgia. In this community there are “three distinctive hamlets, with restaurants and retail shops, an organized farm, a wastewater treatment plant and enough walkways that strolling has become more efficient than walking.” (Stratton) They wanted to “flow with the natural terrain of the land.

Through these examples, New Ruralists have been able to see what concepts are working and what still needs improvements. There are ways for communities to become New Ruralist communities. There a few important steps that must be made for the transition. First, the community must be “organizing the community around a vision to support the conservation of existing green space, promote land values and encourage sustainable development.” Next would be for the community to “develop a master land use plan, delineating areas of development from those left for conservation.” Then “zoning ordinances should be updated to allow for mixed land uses and to create legitimate ways to advance walk ability over driving.” Also, a development “cannot have more than four large-scale retail establishments” for it to be considered New Ruralist. The key to creating a New Ruralist development is by “establishing an apparatus to conserve the land in perpetuity.” For any community trying to transform into a New Ruralist one, these are the things that must be done for it to be considered New Ruralism.

The entire need for New Ruralist communities derives from the fact that there is suburban sprawl. Whether or not these communities will put a noticeable end to the sprawl isn’t guaranteed, but hopes are high in having a decrease. This process will take time, but in the end it will be beneficial for the environment and will create an easier lifestyle away from the sprawl. 

SOURCES:

climate solutions
Crop life
New Ruralism

Stratton, Emily M. "New Ruralism." University of Georgia Land Use Clinic (2009): n. pag. University of Georgia School of Law and School of Ecology, Fall 2009. Web. 6 Feb. 2013.

Analytic Reflection