Date of Award

12-2010

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

Legacy Department

Professional Communication

Committee Chair/Advisor

Hilligoss, Susan

Committee Member

Howard , Tharon

Committee Member

Taylor , Summer

Abstract

This thesis is a case study analyzing the revisions made to three Wikipedia articles, 'The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy,' '2009 Northwestern Wildcats football team,' and 'Murder of Annie Le,' in September, 2009. After tracking and coding the revisions made to each of these three articles using categories developed by Sam Dragga and Gwendolyn Gong and Lester Faigley and Stephen Witte, I describe the types of changes made to Wikipedia articles, the differences in changes made to articles at different levels on Wikipedia's quality scale, and the features that make online editing distinct from print editing.

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