Wikipedia is an excellent tool when it comes to English as well as writing skills. It can enhance the ability to create as well as edit or reform papers. While it gets a bad reputation among the academic community for researching it can be academically helpful within the sphere of writing. What Wikipedia can teach as a tool is how to make drafts.
Drafts can mean all the difference in the world of writing. In my own words, writing is progression not perfection. One cannot simply sit down at a desk and type out a beautifully scripted piece of literature in one sitting and expect it to be their best work ever. Writing is a process that requires much more than one glance at a piece of work. It can take many times of revisiting and revising until the perfect draft can be formed. Without this idea of drafting and re-editing it can be hard to even know what to begin typing or what to even type about.
This writing construct is well illustrated in the article "Shitty First Drafts." As Anne Lamott puts it in this article "Very few writers really know what they are doing until they've done it. Nor do they go about their business feeling dewy and thrilled. They do not type a few stiff warm-up sentences and then find themselves bounding along like huskies across the snow" (1). It is important to note that in this article Lamott makes not that even experienced or professional writers will even have trouble when it comes to writing papers. In this article the claim is that the only way to make a quality writing is by drafting. Lamott comes up with the idea of a "shitty first draft" in which she explains how to go about the beginning process of writing a paper. "The first draft is the child's draft, where you let it all pour out and then let it romp all over the place, knowing that no one is going to see it and that you can shape it later. You just let this childlike part of you channel whatever voices and visions come through and onto the page. If one of the characters wants to say, "Well, so what, Mr. Poopy Pants?," you let her. No one is going to see it" (2). In a sense the first draft is just about getting something on paper, whether or not it makes sense. This process is almost like free form writing.
Once the first draft is done then the fine tuning of the paper can begin. Crossing things out and creating new leads or starting in a new direction will redefine the paper and give it more coherence for the readers. This begins the re-editing and revising portion of the drafting process, which in turn creates the readable literature that will connect with the audience with the argument or point of the paper. While revision and editing are key components in the writing process the most important and difficult part is that of coming up with the first draft.
This construct of drafting becomes a key part of when using something like Wikipedia. Wikipedia, an online website where anyone can enter information regarding any topic becomes a haven of drafting and editing. When entering information regarding a topic on Wikipedia one must first look to see if an existing article has already been uploaded. If there is no existing article a new page must be created on the website. When a new page is created it can either be submitted for review or just posted to the site. Either way it is posted the author's work is going to be viewed by someone who will want to figure out the authenticity of your work by checking sources. If something seems inaccurate the page can either be removed or re-edited. Because of this interaction among the website editors and other users drafting becomes a very important part in the process of posting articles to the website. It is important to draft because no one would want to work hard on making a page only to have it removed or re-edited over due to lack of sources or inaccuracies.
Whether someone is posting a new piece to the site or editing a former page, a Wikipedia user can utilize a "sandbox" tool in which they can make all of their edits and original drafts in before making changes to the page. This allows for a place where "shitty first drafts" can be made. Once the first draft is done the page can be previewed, which will show what it will look like once posted. By using this one can easily see where they may have left out a source or can see where they may have put some bad text and can easily edit it before submission. Drafting plays a major role in the Wikipedia world and if one wishes to keep their article on the site they must utilize the drafting process in order to create the best and most reliable work possible.
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