Genre Uptake as Boundary-Work: Reasoning About Uptake in Wikipedia Articles

Ana Cooke

Research output: Contribution to specialist publicationArticle

6 Scopus citations

Abstract

The circulation of scientific and technical genres in online publics can shape both public opinion and policy deliberation about issues such as global warming. While rhetoric and professional writing scholarship has documented the myriad ways that genres are transformed as they circulate across discursive boundaries, few examine how argument shapes those transformation and circulations. Drawing on Gieryn’s concept of boundary-work, this article analyzes arguments in the discussion pages of Wikipedia articles about global warming to document how editors argue about genre as they deliberate over what counts as reliable sources of global warming knowledge. This analysis demonstrates how argument mediates genre uptake and circulation. In doing so, it helps account for how technical and scientific genres circulate in contemporary online publics.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages175-198
Number of pages24
Volume51
No2
Specialist publicationJournal of Technical Writing and Communication
DOIs
StatePublished - Apr 2021

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • Communication
  • Education

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