Reflection on Editing Wikipedia for the First Time

I began by creating an account, which was very easy. They asked for a user name, password, and captcha verification that I was not a robot. After that, I thought about what articles I might want to review. What do I know about? First, I looked at the RSU page. It is pretty well looked-after, as you might expect. Then I looked up the Anna Sewell page, since I recently did a project on her and know quite a bit about her life. Her page is in pretty good shape, but I noticed they listed a cause of death and I know her biographers debate what she actually died of. The cause of death was uncited. I googled the causes and found one source that matched; suspiciously, the wording was EXACTLY the same as the Wiki entry… someone was copying someone… at the bottom of the second page there was a note saying the content came straight from Wikipedia. So a dead end there.

I noticed there are Article/Talk tabs on the left side of the page for each entry and Read/Edit/New Section/View History tabs on the right side. You can switch between views to see what’s going on what I’d call “on-stage” or “backstage” for each entry. “Edit” is where it gets complicated—in terms of code and content! “History” shows the history of all edits, who made them, when they were made, etc.

I pulled Sewell’s most recent biography from my shelf and checked to see if the cause of death listed on the Wiki page was there… Found it! The Wiki writers were correct, the cause of death they listed was Sewell’s official cause of death, according to doctors of her time; however, today it’s speculated that Sewell’s death may really have been caused by complications from the SLE form of Lupus. I’m not sure if I’m ready to go into all that and also Wiki policy advices writers stay away from speculation. So, I just decided to add a citation to the cause of death. Sewell’s most recent bio wasn’t mentioned in the entry’s references at all, and it really should be there, anyway.

So, actually adding the reference took a bit of time, but it was fairly easy to add after clicking Help and finding the code to copy-and-paste. Basically, on the Edit page, I changed

Sewell died on 25 April 1878 of [[hepatitis]] or [[Tuberculosis|phthisis]], five months after her book was published, living long enough to see its initial success.

to

Sewell died on 25 April 1878 of [[hepatitis]] or [[Tuberculosis|phthisis]]<ref name="test">''Dark Horse: The Life of Anna Sewell'' by Adrienne E. Gavin. p. 165. Sutton Publishing (2004). ISBN 0-7509-2838-7.</ref>, five months after her book was published, living long enough to see its initial success.

Image of Article History, including my most recent change

Image of Article as it now reads to viewers after my addition

And that’s it! My first contribution.

~Sara

Introduction to APA Style: The Basics

Recently, a student told me she was new to APA Style and felt completely lost. For anyone else who's just starting out with APA Style or who never received a formal introduction to APA Style, I HIGHLY recommend this tutorial from APA itself: just click here to access it! The tutorial is 21 minutes long and very thorough. You can pause it at any time to take notes or page through your APA Style Guide to mark the pages it references.

A second useful feature of the tutorial is that it's searchable. Just choose the Search tab on the right side of the screen once you've started the tutorial. Then, enter the term or phrase you want to find information about.

A final useful feature I'll mention here are the sample papers and reference examples that are included with the tutorial. They are mentioned during certain points of the tutorial, but you can access them at any time you have the tutorial open by clicking the tiny paperclip icon in the bottom right-hand corner of the slides.

Got more questions about APA in-text citations, the reference page, or formatting? Just email us at writingcenter@rsu.edu!

~Sara

Ray Bradbury's Short Story "The Veldt"

If you are reading or have read Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451, you should also check out his (very) short story, "The Veldt," from 1950. The story is along the same lines as Fahrenheit but focuses on a mother and father, their automated house, and their very creepy children. Click here to read the story.

Deadmau5 composed a song, "The Veldt," based on the story, and there's an animated video that goes along with it. Great complement to the story and a great example of a story transformed from written text to different media. I've posted it below for easy access:

~Sara

RSU Writing Center Tip: Different Citation Styles -- MLA, APA, and Chicago

Looking for a quick way to shift from one citation style to another? The Purdue Online Writing Lab (OWL) has a handy chart to help. Click this link to have a look.

For more explanation and models, see The Everyday Writer's "MLA Documentation" and "APA, Chicago, and CSE" in the back of the text in sections 48-54. You can also find that very same information in The Everyday Writer online supplement at this link.

Got questions about writing? Reply to this email, drop by the Writing Center in BH 206 during weekday walk-in hours (9 a.m. to noon), or reply to this email and request an appointment outside of walk-in hours. See our scheduling policies posted to our website at this link. Don't forget, we can help you online or over the phone, too!

Happy writing,

Sara

RSU Writing Center Tip: Citing a Work in an Anthology (MLA)

RSU Writing Center Tip: Citing a Work in an Anthology (MLA) 

To create a Work Cited entry for a text from an anthology, like The Norton Reader used in the Composition I courses, see the section "A Work in an Anthology, Work, or Collection" at the Purdue Online Writing Lab, which shares the model below:

Lastname, Firstname. "Title of Essay." Title of Collection. Edition number. Ed. Editor's                               Name(s). City of Publication: Publisher, Year. Page range of entry. Medium of                               Publication.

Remember, if you cite multiple works from the same anthology, you must do things differently. First, you'll create an entry for the entire anthology. Then, you'll create mini-entries for each of the multiple works you cite from the anthology. Those mini-entries will be like the model below:

Lastname, Firstname. "Title of Essay/Story." Editor's Lastname Pagerange.

Example:

Didion, Joan. "On Going Home." Peterson et al. 1-3.

For more explanation and models, see The Everyday Writer pages 383 and 386, numbers 10 and 11. You can also find that information from The Everyday Writer at The Everyday Writer Online Supplement at this link, also under numbers 10 and 11.

Got questions about writing? Reply to this email, drop by the Writing Center in BH 206 during weekday walk-in hours (9 a.m. to noon), or reply to this email and request an appointment outside of walk-in hours. See our scheduling policies posted to our website at this link.

Happy writing,

Sara

Thinking about the Process

Timelapse Writing of a Research Paper

Last time I wrote, I blogged about being in process. You should know three things about the writing process if you don't already:

1. The writing process occurs in stages. 

Those stages include all the things you do in preparation to write, all the things you do as you write the lines/sentences, and all the things you do after you've written to tidy up and polish the work.

Earlier Stages                               Middle-ish Stages               Later Stages
Prewriting                                      Drafting                                 Revising/moving sections
Free writing                                   Filling out the outline               Proofreading
Outlining                                       Integrating evidence                Editing
Researching topic/audience            Peer review                            Fact-checking
Peer review                                                                                 Peer review

2. The writing process is not linear, which is to say that it doesn't happen one separate activity at a time. 

It's more cyclical, more messy.

For example, sometimes while I'm attempting to fill out my rough outline, I realize I need to do more research, so I return to that stage. Or, sometimes as I'm integrating evidence, I'll realize that my argument is just not working and needs to be tweaked, so I turn to free writing, prewriting, or outlining again to help me re-organize or re-think my argument.

3. Everyone's process is different. 

Every single writer's process is different. From the tasks that they find most helpful and rely on, to the environment and media they prefer to write in, to the order that they perform the tasks in, to their back-up plan if the regular process does not work--

every. writer's. writing. process. is. different.

Here's what good writers do: every good writer thinks about his/her writing process and makes an effort to figure out what works best. Good writers experiment with different writing activities.

Good writers aren't always the people with the natural talent for writing--more often, they are the people who think about their habits, who are conscious about what works and what doesn't.

Looking back at that last blog entry, I notice that my particular writing process is heavy up front. I spend most of my composing time gathering information and cycling between outlining and researching, as well as prewriting my thesis and topic sentences. I have to do these tasks together to do them efficiently. (This is me thinking about my writing habits.)

Happy writing,
Sara

In Process

Hi, all,

Are you working on any summer writing projects? I've got several going, and two of them are essays for a collection about teaching with children's literature. One is focused on teaching with Anna Sewell's 1877 Black Beauty and the other on teaching with Keiron Gillen, Jamie McKelvie, et al.'s 2013-2014 reboot of the Young Avengers.

As I work on these projects, I'm reminded how very important a conscious and reflective writing process is. Without it, I'd be doomed to a terror and shame spiral--it's very easy to get caught up in the pressure and ever-expanding challenges of every major writing task. These essays are not really that long (2500-4000) words, but it's not really the length that determines the amount of fear. Instead, it's the challenge of purpose and audience.

Why am I writing, really?

What is it about this topic that is compelling?

For whom am I writing?

What does the audience know about my topic?

I've gathered all my familiar aids. My favorite way of taking notes, music to get me pumped up about writing after I've taken a break and lost momentum, friends to talk to about my ideas, all that stuff.

Something I learned about recently (from a student who came in for a Writing Center appointment this Spring!) is the information that MS Word stores about how many revisions/edits you've done and how many hours you've worked on a document. Check this out:

I'm only in the note-taking,outlining, and prewriting stage and already I'm on my 95th revision! Neat.

Happy writing,
Sara