01687nas a2200169 4500008004100000245008100041210006900122260005600191300001100247520107600258653001001334653000901344100001901353700002201372700001701394856010601411 2005 eng d00aCollaborative Authoring on the Web: A Genre Analysis of Online Encyclopedias0 aCollaborative Authoring on the Web A Genre Analysis of Online En aLos Alamitos, CAbIEEE Computer Society Pressc2005 a99a–3 a
This paper presents the results of a genre analysis of two web-based collaborative authoring environments, Wikipedia and Everything2, both of which are intended as repositories of encyclopedic knowledge and are open to contributions from the public. Using corpus linguistic methods and factor analysis of word counts for features of formality and informality, we show that the greater the degree of post-production editorial control afforded by the system, the more formal and standardized the language of the collaboratively-authored documents becomes, analogous to that found in traditional print encyclopedias. Paradoxically, users who faithfully appropriate such systems create homogeneous entries, at odds with the goal of open-access authoring environments to create diverse content. The findings shed light on how users, acting through mechanisms provided by the system, can shape (or not) features of content in particular ways. We conclude by identifying sub-genres of web-based collaborative authoring environments based on their technical affordances.
10agenre10awiki1 aEmigh, William1 aHerring, Susan, C1 aSprague, Jr. uhttps://genreacrossborders.org/biblio/collaborative-authoring-web-genre-analysis-online-encyclopedias