Wikipedia is a powerful and useful platform where just about anyone can access any kind of information on just about anything. Topics range from the sciences to the arts to famous people over the years. Needless to say, you can find whatever you are looking for on Wikipedia. However, with that being said, you never know if what you are reading on Wikipedia is true. Anyone is able to access the information and edit it in any way they would like, whether that is adding something completely incorrect and random in or correcting a fact that was wrong before.
I chose a Wikipedia page on something I knew a little something about already, the New York City Ballet. I was a ballet dancer for thirteen years and have made many trips up to New York City to see this world renowned company dance three beautiful pieces. I have visited where the School of American Ballet is as well as auditioned for their summer dance program when I was younger. I still have a passion and desire to go back up to New York to see them dance more. Reading through the article and the various different sections, the author(s) really hit mostly the history of the company and how it came to be. The opening sentence states, “New York City Ballet (NYCB) is a ballet company founded in 1948 by choreographer George Balanchine and Lincoln Kirstein.” This implies that the Wikipedia page is already starting at the right place. What I mean by this is that usually with organizations or things that have a history, a Wikipedia page will start out with stating the basic history and facts that need to be known about the topic. Here, the author(s) gave information that this is a ballet company, when it was started, and who it was started by. This automatically sends a signal to the reader that this seems to be a credible source because of the uniform opening sentence. Ethos is also established at the very bottom of the article with the amount of sources used that are online as well as books that are correctly cited. The audience of the article is anyone who reads this page. The author(s) make the sections easily readable and easy to understand. By using language that is known by most people and not making the statements confusing, the general population will be able to read this article and take something away from it. The purpose of this article is to inform the public about the New York City Ballet, which it does well through sections such as history, programming, and dancers. The article provides many different hyperlinks to various ballets and famous people if the reader does not know what a certain term is, which also helps establish credibility as a real Wikipedia article. Overall the tone of the article is straight forward, providing no opinion or bias. This establishes even more ethos. As for pathos, there should not be much in Wikipedia articles because this would get the reader and this usually deals with photos or words that pull at your heart strings, which the New York City Ballet should not. Logos comes up in the article quite a bit. The entire article appeals to reason because it all makes sense when you read it. It mentions Peter Martins many times and every time it does, it always refers to him as the “Chief Ballet Master.” This consistency proves that he must, in fact, be the Chief Ballet Master, therefore Logos is apparent. This article presents many credible sources and stays consistent throughout the text, which proves it a stable and credible Wikipedia article.
3 Comments
Chad Howser
3/6/2018 11:50:25 am
Having no knowledge of ballet at all let alone the New York Ballet. However, this Wikipedia page provided me with the information necessary to gain a general knowledge on this company as a whole. So in this way it does complete the goal of what this page is meant to do, introduce the subject and then if need be go a little more in depth. Your analysis recognizes these facts and then continues to show how this can be generalized to an audience that may know nothing about this subject. Another important thing you noticed is that pathos is not present and that is shouldn’t be present in Wikipedia articels at all.
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Amanda Duncan
3/7/2018 08:13:34 am
Prior to reading your analysis on the New York City Ballet I did not know much on the topic. One thing that I really enjoyed about your RAB was that you chose the topic for a specific reason that connected to your life. I liked how you included that you used to do ballet because I think it was a great way to draw your audience in. I also think you did a great job explaining who the audience would be by connecting it to the language used through out the Wikipedia page. You explained how the general population would be able to make sense of the article. One thing you could include is an example of a sentence that uses common ballet language for the audience.
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Sarah
3/8/2018 07:46:15 am
WOW! Awesome post. I would first like to address the fact that your first RAB was something over New York and now your second RAB is somewhat following that theme. I really like that idea and I will be interested to see if you continue to do that for all of your other RABS. I like how you picked something that you already knew about and could relate to on a personal level because of your childhood. Although Wiki page does not take a its, I like how you picked a side and explained that. As chad said above, you recognize that there is no pathos in the article BUT that is not supposed to be present in a wiki page. SO GREAT!!
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