Important Definitions for Wikis in Writing Education Research

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Important Definitions for Wikis in Writing Education Research:

1 A-E
2 F-M
3 N-R
4 S-W
5 X-Z
6 Page Links

A-E

Blog – a form of shared on-line journal that may contain news, articles, and thoughts of various individuals, which in turn may be commented upon by others.(Educational Blogging article)

Cognitive Writing Paradigm –

Writing is a set of distinctive problem-solving cognitive processes, which writer’s orchestrate and organize during the act of composing. These processes are hierarchically organized with component goal-directed processes embedded within other processes, which are created by the writer’s themselves.
The important thing about writing is to incorporate heuristics that help the mind organize the writing process to use problem-solving strategies for the best possible writing.
Good writing is writing that uses problem-solving heuristics to organize the process of writing using goals created by the mind of the writer.
To write well is to incorporate hierarchical goals, created by the writers, to problem-solve and place power back into the hands of the writer.

Composition – the act of putting together parts (words, sentences, phrases, paragraphs, etc.) in order to create a unified whole.

Collaboration – the act of working together with others to achieve a common goal. (Collaborative Learning article).

Discourse Community [1] – the people who use, and therefore help create, a particular discourse. A discourse community:

has a broadly agreed set of common public goals.
has mechanisms of intercommunication among its members.
uses its participatory mechanisms primarily to provide information and feedback.
utilizes and hence possesses one or more genres in the communicative furtherance of its aims.
in addition to owning genres, it has acquired some specific lexis.
has a threshold level of members with a suitable degree of relevant content and discoursal expertise.

Discourse [2]– a concept describing all forms of communication that contribute to a particular, institutionalized way of thinking; and community

<spand id="electronic writing space"></span>Electronic Writing Space – electronic space (software, website, etc.) where a writer may compose written text. This space brings with it its own characteristics and assumptions measured through the lens of societal acceptance.

Expressive Writing Paradigm –

Writing is a process centered on the student’s thoughts (dealing mostly with free writing), concentrating on content, not style. It is an opportunity for growth and a chance to express the writer’s intentions and thought in a process of self-discovery, which communicates an experience about an experience.
The actual process by which a writer explores, in a process of self-discovery, and adds to the writer’s overall experience with a goal to attain knowledge and find his or her authentic voice.
Good writing is a form of communication that builds, through language, a sturdy discovery of thought, which enables the writer to acquire knowledge and organization through the process of writing and communicates that knowledge of an experience to the reader.
To write well is to engage in the process of pre-writing, writing, and revision, which explores the meaning of the writer’s experience and communicates that experience to the reader.

F-M

Ideological Writing Paradigm –

Writing is the realization of the socially constructed norms of a discourse community and the use of those norms to create effective discourse. It is a process of exploration in the dominance and differences in written language. A process of collaborative inquiry into individual language processes.
In writing, writers learn about the social constructs that shape the individual and explore resistances and identifications in a process of self-discovery.
Good writing is effective expressions and communication that comes from within the writer and recognizes and communicates social constructs.
To write well means to have the ability to explore your personal narrative with insight into cultural influences on your writing and re-invent oneself collectively outside of private self and possessive individualism of the dominant cultural community.

Ideology – the body of ideas or manner of thinking consistent with and reflecting the social needs and aspirations of an given individual or social group (see discourse community).

Learning Environment – Place or area in which student participates in the acquisition knowledge.

N-R

Objectivist Writing Paradigm -

Writing is a mysterious, skills-based activity that reflects the writer’s ability to employ correct applications of grammar and usage, which are arranged in certain ways to achieve a certain meaning, which then creates a certain effect in the reader.
Writing is important as a toll for keeping language standard following rules of structure, rigidity, form, syntax, and grammar.
Good writing is stylistically consistent and grammatically correct writing that follows normal rules of grammar, usage, and style, while maintaining an overall pattern in organizational formula in which the writer is aware of the effects of style on the reader.
To write well is product-oriented writing that follows specified rules of rom which demonstrate one’s awareness

Paradigm – A set of assumptions, concepts, values, and practices (a perspective) that constitutes a way of viewing reality for the community that shares them (at a particular time), especially in an intellectual discipline. citation

Pedagogy – principle and methods of instruction, 2) activities of teaching, educating, instructing which impart knowledge or skill, 3) function of teacher.

Process Paradigm – Paradigm which was a direct reaction to the formalism and focus on grammar and style in the product of the writer in the Objectivist paradigm and focused instead on the individual writer and his or her process of composing. The expressive and cognitive paradigms are process paradigms.

Postmodern Writing Paradigm - Focuses on the fluidity of meaning in both the writing process and product with special emphasis on the unknowability' of truth(s).

Rhetoric – 1) the art or study of the effective use of language, especially in where language can influence thought or conduct, 2) the language used by to discuss a particular environment, and tends to be native to that environment (i.e. rhetoric of technology) (see discourse community, community discourse).

Rhetoric of Technology - the rhetoric that accompanies technology and demonstrates how that technology becomes a part of our community and discourse.

S-W

Social-Constructivist Writing Paradigm –

Writing is a social activity viewed as a process o assessing and adapting to the requirements of a particular discourse community using the discourse (texts and language) that comes from the socially constructed standards of that community in an effort to exercise the will and identify the self within the constraints of a discourse community. Writing simultaneously enters and constructs the discourse community.
The important thing about writing is learning the discourse of a community in order to enter and affect the community.
Good writing is appropriate to its discourse community, adapts to its conventions, addresses its issues, and incorporates procedural and declarative knowledge while contributing knowledge to the field and re-shaping its standards.
To write well is to be well-received by the discourse community by meeting its expectations, integrating subject matter knowledge with knowledge of situationally appropriate linguistic and rhetorical conventions, as a post-socialized writer, and impacting the construction of the discourse itself (intertext).

Social Software - software that supports group interaction by 1) augmenting human socializing and networking capabilities and/or 2) "enabl[ing] people to rendezvous, connect or collaborate through computer-mediated communication and to form online communities.

Broadly conceived, this term could encompass older media such as mailing lists and Usenet, but some would restrict its meaning to more recent software genres such as blogs and wikis. Others suggest that the term social software is best used not to refer to a single type of software, but rather to the use of two or more modes of computer-mediated communication that result in community formation.[1] In this view, people form online communities by combining one-to-one (e.g., email and instant messaging), one-to-many (Web pages and blogs), and many-to-many (wikis) communication modes.[2] In many online communities, real life meetings become part of the communication repertoire. The more specific term collaborative software applies to cooperative work systems.

Common to most definitions is the observation that some types of software seem to facilitate "bottom-up" community development, in which membership is voluntary, reputations are earned by winning the trust of other members, and the community's mission and governance are defined by the communities' members themselves.[3] Communities formed by "bottom-up" processes are contrasted to the less vibrant collectivities formed by "top-down" software, in which users' roles are determined by an external authority and circumscribed by rigidly conceived software mechanisms (such as access rights).

Also social software systems create persistent links between users, and through these persistent links, a community is formed. The ownership and control of these links - who is linked, and who isn't - is in the hands of the user. Thus, these links are asymmetrical - you might link to me, but I might not link to you. Also, these links are functional, not decorative - you can choose not to receive any content from people you are not connected to, for example. Social software therefore by design reflects the traits of [social networks]." - From Wikipedia [3] Accessed on 21 Dec. 2006 10:00 EST.

Teaching – 1) to impart knowledge by/in/through instruction or example, 2) to guide another to attain knowledge.

Wiki - A collaborative website that allows users to modify content through a web browser. Entered text is translated from a simple mark-up language into HTML through the Wiki Software. Wiki comes from the Hawaiian word “wiki wiki,” which means “quick,” dubbed by Ward Cunningham who created the first wiki in 1995.