Reflection

Editing a Wikipedia article was one of the most unique assignments that I have had while being in an English class.  I found the experience to be very enjoyable and challenging at the same time.  Being able to write about a topic involving my major not only incorporated my interests into the writing, but also allowed me to showcase the knowledge I have involving Exercise Physiology.  This assignment was also challenging in the sense that this writing was going to be out on the internet for anyone to view at any given time.  In the past, all of the writings I completed for a class have been almost solely directed towards the teacher who would be grading them because, in the end, a good overall grade was all that I was trying to achieve.  However, in this assignment my attention was directed towards the audience that would be coming to the article to learn, research, or reference information that could potentially be that I wrote and contributed to.  I have never had this sort of pressure to make sure that what I was saying was understandable and correct while writing before, it was definitely a positive experience.

                Since high school (when writing really started to form  and become important), I remember teachers stressing that Wikipedia was not a reliable source and how negative they would talk about it during any sort of writing that required research.  Doing this assignment showed that this argument is not always completely the truth, though.  Yes, almost anyone can contribute to almost any article on Wikipedia, but there also must be cited sources backing up the information that you add to each article.  It is refreshing to hear in this course that Wikipedia is actually a useful tool.  A site with so much easily attained information use to seem like such a waste when it was frowned upon by teachers in most other classes. 

                Another positive that Wikipedia offers is how it offers exercise in different aspects of writing.  When using and contributing to Wikipedia as we have, there are different ways to practice and improve our writing by simply working with the articles themselves.  In James P. Purdy’s essay “Wikipedia Is Good for You?!,” he offers three different ways in which Wikipedia helps the writer: using it as a source, using it as a starting place, and using it as a process guide.  The first one, using it as a source, is probably something most of us are experienced with (whether frowned upon or not) because we go to Wikipedia to find information on a subject.  The second two are more along the lines of how it can help the structure of our writings.  The sandbox page on Wikipedia is a good example of how it can help writers in their processes.  The sandbox is a perfect place to create a rough draft and edit it before even placing it in the article itself.  

                Intertextuality is the idea that all writing at least has some portion of it that comes from writings somewhere else.  James E. Porter explores this idea in “Intertextuality and the Discourse Community.”  Wikipedia is a perfect example of this concept in the way that it is a series of built articles, put together by many different sources.  None of the writing that is put into the articles is original, because it has come from a different source, but they are still a series of facts cited from other pieces throughout books or from the internet.  In comparing writing to the monk Adso of Melk discovering only remnants of an ancient library, Porter explains intertextuality as: “The writer in this image is a collector of fragments, an archaeologist creating an order, building a framework, from remnants of the past.” By using this phrase, Porter explains that all of our present created writings are just built by inspirations of writings that have already occurred before.  It all goes along with the idea that everything has been done before and that we can only build onto what has already been created as opposed to creating all new works every time we write.  Again, Wikipedia is a great example of this.  An article is created (the original text) and then it is revisited time after time to either be edited with new writings, or used as inspiration or reference to help a new idea.