I have a few BBQ’s and A’s About This….

I revised my thinking because Wikipedia entries can be useful to students. The encyclopedia’s usefulness follows directly from its popularity and from the seriousness with which those who administer the site oversee and vet individual entries and provide guidance about researching with Wikipedia, citing Wikipedia, and editing text.

When asked to revise a wikipedia page in need of some help, I chose to edit Regional Variations in Barbecue. As I have noticed in editing this piece, as Carra Leah Hood did in her web-based piece, Editing Out Obscenity: Wikipedia and Writing Pedagogy, Wikipedia is more often than not used as a highly useful starting point for the modern student. Even if it is not necessarily a stable enough source to allow it as a citation, the material that is present serves as an excellent point to gain a basic understanding of a given topic. This relates directly to my analysis and subsequent editing of the Wikipedia page Regional Variations of Barbecue. I found that this article had the potential to spark interest in a reader in many different areas of this topic. Yet, its main idea became blurry, and thus problematic, when I took a closer look.

            One large discomfort I had with this article, which caused me to omit countless sentences from the existing text, was its inclusion of seemingly off-topic ideas. If Wikipedia is to serve its purpose as a starting point for a student’s research, then the topic at hand must be extremely focused. This page, at times, seemed to branch out and include information that did not directly concern the Regional Variations of barbecue but ideas that this field may distantly come in contact with. For example, its inclusion of how vegetarian products require closer attention when on a grill – under the section of United Kingdom and Ireland, along other inclusions about a General Motors commercial within South Africa’s section.

            Elements of BBQ style were also attributed to certain specific countries, when, in actuality, they applied to every country. For example, the Germany section spoke of the immigrants within Germany applying their own variations on BBQ, based on traditions from their homeland. Yet, this is not something specific to Germany. Every country would experience this immigrant effect.

            Probably the largest adjustment I made to the organization of this piece came with the re-ordering of the sub-headings. I moved the North America section just below the introduction – and identified the four main types of American Barbecue – to create a much strong grounding for this article. In other sections, the American style of barbecue is referenced as being different than or similar to other countries. Yet, in having North America at the end, the completely uninformed reader would have no idea what exactly these other countries were being related to.

            Corbett and Eberly’s The Elements of Reasoning clarified for me why the former method of organization didn’t sit well with me. It is stated in this piece, under the section entitled Overgeneralizing, “One very common diversion of reasoning is generalizing without looking at enough cases to support a sweeping conclusion” (124). Though I may not have re-worked this article to completely support my theory, it is my strong belief that this author formed his view of barbecue variations as they related and differed from the North American style. I attempted to enhance the author’s idea that North America was the ‘beginning of barbecue.’ In order to avoid a fallacy, such as overgeneralizing, this article needs to be more clear about its basis of barbecue [and what that means] and the variations that stem from that strong base.

            I think one major problem with this article is the title itself. Because I am from North Carolina and consider myself relatively familiar with barbecue, it was difficult for me to work with this title. I found myself asking whether the author was actualy talking about the physical food barbecue or if they were talking about the social event of holding a barbecue. Choosing one of these would take the article in two very different directions. I feel that the article, with its current title and in its current state, is a muddy combination of the two. At times, the focus is on the food preparation and meat selection, and at others the social conventions of a barbecue event are discussed. Yet, it is not equal for every location discussed.

Corbett, Edward P.J., and Rosa A. Eberly. "Becoming a Citizen Critic: Where Rhetoric Meets The Road." Trans. Array The Elements of Reasoning. . 2nd ed.Allyn and Bacon, 121-138. Print.

Hood, Carra Leah. "Revision in Thinking." Editing Out Obscenity: Wikipedia and Writing Pedagogy. N.p.. Web. 10 Apr 2013. <http://www.bgsu.edu/departments/english/cconline/wiki_hood/index.html>.