Revision history for GettingStartedWritingOnAWiki
Additions:
Some wikis are not set up to use CamelCase WikiWords but require another way to indicate a WikiWord, such as double square brackets. While there are good reasons for this, there are better reasons for using CamelCase to designate WikiWords. If you're setting up your own wiki, use CamelCase. It will encourage you to keep your WikiWords concise.
Deletions:
Additions:
Wiki articles develop over time, and often by multiple hands. So the idea on a wiki is to keep things centrally located - all in one place. Notes, the developing draft, and discussion on the draft are all posted to one place. Everyone's on the same page, everything is always current, and additions and changes and deletions are played out on the page itself.
Deletions:
Additions:
Wikis don't demand that you write in a particular way, but they don't give you any guidance on how to proceed, either. Wikis are very different writing spaces than weblogs and paper notebooks, and to make the most of them, you may need to learn some new moves, some of [[http://writingcommons.org/information-literacy/what-are-new-literacies | the new media literacy skills Kyle Steman mentions]]. Wiki users have developed some general practices for writing on wikis, given its simplicity and the strengths it provides. This article will help you get started developing your own techniques, whether you use a wiki collaboratively or on your own.
Deletions:
Additions:
rev July 2013
Wikis were designed with simplicity in mind. The writing space is minimal: A text field. The controls are minimal: Edit, Save. The formatting is minimal: Type to enter text, hit return twice to create paragraphs. Use equal signs or hash signs for headings, slashes for emphasis, enclose links in double-brackets, or just paste in urls. Create and link new pages by using WikiWords. The writing space is easy to read, and creating pages is simple so that you can focus on writing.
Wikis don't demand that you write in a particular way, but they don't give you any guidance on how to proceed, either. Wikis are very different writing spaces than weblogs and paper notebooks, and to make the most of them, you may need to learn some new moves, some of [http://writingcommons.org/information-literacy/what-are-new-literacies | the new media literacy skills Kyle Steman mentions]. Wiki users have developed some general practices for writing on wikis, given its simplicity and the strengths it provides. This article will help you get started developing your own techniques, whether you use a wiki collaboratively or on your own.
Wikis were designed with simplicity in mind. The writing space is minimal: A text field. The controls are minimal: Edit, Save. The formatting is minimal: Type to enter text, hit return twice to create paragraphs. Use equal signs or hash signs for headings, slashes for emphasis, enclose links in double-brackets, or just paste in urls. Create and link new pages by using WikiWords. The writing space is easy to read, and creating pages is simple so that you can focus on writing.
Wikis don't demand that you write in a particular way, but they don't give you any guidance on how to proceed, either. Wikis are very different writing spaces than weblogs and paper notebooks, and to make the most of them, you may need to learn some new moves, some of [http://writingcommons.org/information-literacy/what-are-new-literacies | the new media literacy skills Kyle Steman mentions]. Wiki users have developed some general practices for writing on wikis, given its simplicity and the strengths it provides. This article will help you get started developing your own techniques, whether you use a wiki collaboratively or on your own.
Deletions:
The wiki doesn't demand that you to make things fit particular ways of working, but it doesn't give you any guidance on how to proceed, either. Wikis are very different writing spaces than weblogs or paper notebooks, and to make the most of them, you may need to learn some new moves, some of [http://writingcommons.org/information-literacy/what-are-new-literacies | the new media literacy skills Kyle Steman mentions]. This article will help you get started developing your own techniques - whether you use a wiki collaboratively or on your own.
WikiWriters have also developed a terminology to talk about this stuff.
====The StyleGuide====
Wikis are typically collaborative spaces, so on well-established wikis, the local practices for working are collected in the StyleGuide. The StyleGuide presents the social customs for working on the wiki, tips for writing, suggestions for how to proceed. For instance, the [style guide at Weblogs and Wikis]( http://erhetoric.org/WeblogsAndWikis/wikka.php?wakka=styleguide) suggests how to get started on a new page:
Getting Started
You're reading and you see a place in an existing page where a concept or idea needs development, counterpoint, clarification, explanation, or variation. You add a WikiWord to the text. Sometimes the words you want are already in the text, JustWaitingForDevelopment. Just jam 'em together. Follow the link to the new page and get started. Or leave the page empty for someone else to develop.
You can also leave open-ended WikiWords in your own text to invite comment or elaboration from others. A later reader will see the ? and be prompted to provide this content.
Wiki users have developed some general practices for writing on wikis, given its simplicity and the strengths it provides.
Think of this article as a kind of default StyleGuide. Adapt from here.
Additions:
WikiWords are powerful because the WikiWord is both the title of the page and a link to that page. Once created, using the WikiWord anywhere on the wiki will link to that page. And that allows you to create a cross-reference to any page from any other page.
The idea is to distinguish between the stuff in ThreadMode and the stuff in DocumentMode. You could use formatting, sidebars, a suggestion and approval area, but all of that slows things down. In keeping with the WikiWay - quick and simple - wiki writers use a DoubleLine near the bottom of the page, typically created by typing two sets of hyphens to create a horizontal rule. Material above the DoubleLine is in DocumentMode, material below is in ThreadMode. This doesn't mean Finished/Unfinished. It's more like palette and canvas. Raw material (ThreadMode) and developing work (DocumentMode). It means placing material that is more fully formed and ready for further work above the line, while adding notes, roughs, jottings, headings without content, fragments of lists … below the line.
Refactoring is how wiki writers move from ThreadMode to DocumentMode. They refactor. The term comes from computer programming, where it specifies re-working code to be more efficient and effective. Programmers will often rough out a procedure on the fly, without much planning, just to get something working, and to get a sense of what the procedure will entail. Later, as they work though the rest of the program, they return to the procedure to rethink it, make it more efficient, faster, requiring less processing power and less cognitive overhead for other programmers to understand, while retaining the same functionality. By refactoring, complex steps can become one or two elegant steps. A long chunk of documentation explaining the procedure becomes a single line. The procedure itself becomes modular, reusable elsewhere.
Composing on a wiki can take advantage of the same working practices. Abandon involved planning. Instead, rough something out that just sort of works. It doesn't have to be elegant; it doesn't have to work well; but it's enough of a start to refine. It will be wordy, with lots of noise that will have to be cut out. It will wander. But it's on the page where you and others can refactor it. It may be above the DoubleLine, or below, closer to ThreadMode or DocumentMode.
In refactoring writing, that 250 word proto-paragraph might become a single sentence, even a single clause - something more efficient and effective and elegant than the ThreadMode freewriting and wandering. But that's what DocumentMode is: Prose refactored to effective high efficiency. Writing with a high signal to noise ratio. Writing that relies on every comma, word, clause, phrase, sentence. Writing that is well-wrought to make reading closely worthwhile.
For refactoring, use headings to organize the page. Review the threads to discover an emerging pattern for the page. Gather material under the headings and refactor it to suit the head. If a pattern isn't working, create new headings, try a different pattern. Use alternative patterns to refactor further.
For instance, a ThreadMode might be made up of a set of arguments. As you read through them, some seem to be for the matter at hand and some against. In good refactoring, start with two heads: Pro and Con, For and Against. Then as you collect the ThreadMode material under the heads, you can refine the headings to suit. //Pro// and //Con// might become //Strengths, Weaknesses, Complications, Views to Consider Further//.This might be called RefactoringByHeadings.
Use external links to sources on the web to document your topics. Use WikiWords to link to related topics and documents elsewhere on the wiki: other topics, alternative pages, revised versions, a variety of lists of topics. Internal linking using WikiWords becomes more valuable over time, as you build an expanding set of topics and notes. The mechanics of linking is handled by the wiki so you can concentrate on making sense. This takes effort over time, but the payoff is worth it.
After you've developed a mess of notes and directions, the leader can start drafting those ideas into DocumentMode: summarizing, combining, concatenating, rephrasing, collating. All join in. Phrase DocumentMode text in third-person. When you incorporate material from the thread, cut what you've used. When something needs more development or discussion, add a note to that effect, or move the point below the DoubleLine.
The idea is to distinguish between the stuff in ThreadMode and the stuff in DocumentMode. You could use formatting, sidebars, a suggestion and approval area, but all of that slows things down. In keeping with the WikiWay - quick and simple - wiki writers use a DoubleLine near the bottom of the page, typically created by typing two sets of hyphens to create a horizontal rule. Material above the DoubleLine is in DocumentMode, material below is in ThreadMode. This doesn't mean Finished/Unfinished. It's more like palette and canvas. Raw material (ThreadMode) and developing work (DocumentMode). It means placing material that is more fully formed and ready for further work above the line, while adding notes, roughs, jottings, headings without content, fragments of lists … below the line.
Refactoring is how wiki writers move from ThreadMode to DocumentMode. They refactor. The term comes from computer programming, where it specifies re-working code to be more efficient and effective. Programmers will often rough out a procedure on the fly, without much planning, just to get something working, and to get a sense of what the procedure will entail. Later, as they work though the rest of the program, they return to the procedure to rethink it, make it more efficient, faster, requiring less processing power and less cognitive overhead for other programmers to understand, while retaining the same functionality. By refactoring, complex steps can become one or two elegant steps. A long chunk of documentation explaining the procedure becomes a single line. The procedure itself becomes modular, reusable elsewhere.
Composing on a wiki can take advantage of the same working practices. Abandon involved planning. Instead, rough something out that just sort of works. It doesn't have to be elegant; it doesn't have to work well; but it's enough of a start to refine. It will be wordy, with lots of noise that will have to be cut out. It will wander. But it's on the page where you and others can refactor it. It may be above the DoubleLine, or below, closer to ThreadMode or DocumentMode.
In refactoring writing, that 250 word proto-paragraph might become a single sentence, even a single clause - something more efficient and effective and elegant than the ThreadMode freewriting and wandering. But that's what DocumentMode is: Prose refactored to effective high efficiency. Writing with a high signal to noise ratio. Writing that relies on every comma, word, clause, phrase, sentence. Writing that is well-wrought to make reading closely worthwhile.
For refactoring, use headings to organize the page. Review the threads to discover an emerging pattern for the page. Gather material under the headings and refactor it to suit the head. If a pattern isn't working, create new headings, try a different pattern. Use alternative patterns to refactor further.
For instance, a ThreadMode might be made up of a set of arguments. As you read through them, some seem to be for the matter at hand and some against. In good refactoring, start with two heads: Pro and Con, For and Against. Then as you collect the ThreadMode material under the heads, you can refine the headings to suit. //Pro// and //Con// might become //Strengths, Weaknesses, Complications, Views to Consider Further//.This might be called RefactoringByHeadings.
Use external links to sources on the web to document your topics. Use WikiWords to link to related topics and documents elsewhere on the wiki: other topics, alternative pages, revised versions, a variety of lists of topics. Internal linking using WikiWords becomes more valuable over time, as you build an expanding set of topics and notes. The mechanics of linking is handled by the wiki so you can concentrate on making sense. This takes effort over time, but the payoff is worth it.
After you've developed a mess of notes and directions, the leader can start drafting those ideas into DocumentMode: summarizing, combining, concatenating, rephrasing, collating. All join in. Phrase DocumentMode text in third-person. When you incorporate material from the thread, cut what you've used. When something needs more development or discussion, add a note to that effect, or move the point below the DoubleLine.
Deletions:
The idea is to distinguish between the stuff in ThreadMode and the stuff in DocumentMode. You could use formatting, sidebars, a suggestion and approval area, but all of that slows things down. In keeping with the WikiWay - quick and simple - use a DoubleLine near the bottom of the page, typically created by typing two sets of hyphens to create a horizontal rule. Material above the DoubleLine is in DocumentMode, material below is in ThreadMode. This doesn't mean Finished/Unfinished. It's more like palette and canvas. Raw material (ThreadMode) and developing work (DocumentMode). It means placing material that is more fully formed and ready for further work above the line, while adding notes, rough, jottings, headings without content, fragments of lists … below the line.
[looking for the local link to gloss this term]
Refactoring is how writers move from ThreadMode to DocumentMode. They refactor. I borrow the term from programming, where it specifies re-working code to be more efficient and effective. Programmers will often rough out a procedure on the fly, without much planning, just to get something working, and to get a sense of what the procedure will entail. Later, as they work though the rest of the program, they will return to the procedure to rethink it, make it more efficient, faster, requiring less processing power and less cognitive overhead for other programmers to understand, while retaining the same functionality. By refactoring, complex steps can become one or two elegant steps. A long chunk of documentation explaining the procedure becomes a single line. The procedure itself becomes modular, reusable elsewhere.
Composing on a wiki can take advantage of the same working practices. Abandon involved planning. Instead, rough something out that just sort of works. It doesn't have to be elegant; it doesn't have to work well; but it will be enough to refine and to build on. It will be wordy, with lots of noise that will have to be cut out. It will wander. But it's on the page where you and others can refactor it. It may be above the DoubleLine or below, closer to ThreadMode or DocumentMode.
In refactoring writing, that 250 word proto-paragraph might become a single sentence, even a single clause - something more efficient and effective and elegant than the ThreadMode freewriting and wandering. But that's what DocumentMode is: Prose refactored to effective high efficiency. Writing with a high signal to noise ratio. Writing that relies on every comma, word, clause, phrase, sentence. Writing that is well-wrought to make reading closely worth while.
For refactoring, use headings to organize the page. Review the threads to discover an emerging pattern for the page. Gather material under the headings and refactor to suit the head. If a pattern isn't working, create new headings, try a different pattern. Use alternative patterns to refactor further.
Use external links to sources on the web to document your topics. Use WikiWords to cross-reference to related topics and documents elsewhere on the wiki: notes, other topics, alternative pages, revised versions. Internal linking becomes more valuable over time, as you build an expanding set of topics and notes. This takes effort over time, but the payoff is worth it.
After you've developed a mess of notes and directions, the leader can start drafting those ideas into DocumentMode: summarizing, combining, concatenating, rephrasing, collating. All join in. Phrase DocumentMode text in third-person. When you incorporate material from the tread, cut what you've used. When something needs more development or discussion, add a note to that effect, or move the point below the DoubleLine.
Additions:
====The Simplest Writing Space====
Wikis were designed with simplicity in mind. The writing space is minimal: A text field. The controls are minimal: Edit, Save. The markup is minimal: Type to enter text, hit return twice to create paragraphs. Use equal signs or hash signs for headings, slashes for emphasis, enclose links in double-brackets, or just paste in urls. Create and link new pages by using WikiWords. The writing space is easy to read, and creating pages is simple so that you can focus on writing.
The wiki doesn't demand that you to make things fit particular ways of working, but it doesn't give you any guidance on how to proceed, either. Wikis are very different writing spaces than weblogs or paper notebooks, and to make the most of them, you may need to learn some new moves, some of [http://writingcommons.org/information-literacy/what-are-new-literacies | the new media literacy skills Kyle Steman mentions]. This article will help you get started developing your own techniques - whether you use a wiki collaboratively or on your own.
WikiWriters have also developed a terminology to talk about this stuff.
Wikis are typically collaborative spaces, so on well-established wikis, the local practices for working are collected in the StyleGuide. The StyleGuide presents the social customs for working on the wiki, tips for writing, suggestions for how to proceed. For instance, the [style guide at Weblogs and Wikis]( http://erhetoric.org/WeblogsAndWikis/wikka.php?wakka=styleguide) suggests how to get started on a new page:
Getting Started
You're reading and you see a place in an existing page where a concept or idea needs development, counterpoint, clarification, explanation, or variation. You add a WikiWord to the text. Sometimes the words you want are already in the text, JustWaitingForDevelopment. Just jam 'em together. Follow the link to the new page and get started. Or leave the page empty for someone else to develop.
You can also leave open-ended WikiWords in your own text to invite comment or elaboration from others. A later reader will see the ? and be prompted to provide this content.
Wiki users have developed some general practices for writing on wikis, given its simplicity and the strengths it provides.
Think of this article as a kind of default StyleGuide. Adapt from here.
Wiki articles develop over time, and often by multiple hands. So the idea on a wiki is to keep things centrally located -- all in one place. Notes, the developing draft, and discussion on the draft are all posted to one place. Everyone's on the same page, everything is always current, and additions and changes and deletions are played out on the page itself.
The WikiWord is central to using a wiki. WikiWords - more accurately, wiki phrases - are created in traditional wikis by using capital letters in the middle of the phrase or word, as in WikiWord, or CamelCase, or MyGreatIdea. The wiki treats a phrase in CamelCase (as this move is called) as a potential page name and a link to that page. That means that you, as the writer, treat a CamelCase word as a topic: A point of interest to be developed, a path to create, an idea, problem, issue, concept to think about. On any page, create a WikiWord to start a new page.
Some wikis are not set up to use CamelCase WikiWords but require another way to indicate a WikiWord, such as ##[[double square brackets]]##. While there are good reasons for this, there are better reasons for using CamelCase to designate WikiWords. If you're setting up your own wiki, use CamelCase.
Wiki writers have developed ways of working from notes-and-drafts-and-discussion-all-in-one-page to everyone's advantage. On a wiki, rather than thinking in terms of a writing a draft, think of moving from a set of loosely connected notes towards a more formal document. In WikiTerms, drafting is moving from ThreadMode to DocumentMode.
ThreadMode is a dialogue. It is open-ended, collective, dynamic, and informal. It can develop as a page or develop on a page but it develops organically, without knowing where it's going.
If you're collaborating with others, keep ThreadMode going by phrasing contributions in first-person (using I) and signing them. Place comments and additions near the material it addresses rather than simply placing it at the end of the exchange.
- Adding a comment furthering the conversation.
- Editing older comments to improve the flow or to re-open a discussion that has become closed. It's ok to trim ThreadMode redundancies to open the discussion. But be respectful to maintain meaning.
- Editing ThreadMode entries to create WikiWords.
- Splitting conversations by moving them to a new page. Develop each further.
- Capturing the ideas of the thread in a paragraph that suggests a pattern for the DocumentMode.
If you're working with others, develop the DocumentMode text in third-person and remove the names of contributors. (Place the names of all the contributors at the bottom of the section.) Add WikiWords to the text where concepts seem to open to new pages. Cut material you've used (it's recoverable if necessary), and move material that still needs to be incorporated to a place on the page for notes, below the DoubleLine.
====The DoubleLine====
The idea is to distinguish between the stuff in ThreadMode and the stuff in DocumentMode. You could use formatting, sidebars, a suggestion and approval area, but all of that slows things down. In keeping with the WikiWay - quick and simple - use a DoubleLine near the bottom of the page, typically created by typing two sets of hyphens to create a horizontal rule. Material above the DoubleLine is in DocumentMode, material below is in ThreadMode. This doesn't mean Finished/Unfinished. It's more like palette and canvas. Raw material (ThreadMode) and developing work (DocumentMode). It means placing material that is more fully formed and ready for further work above the line, while adding notes, rough, jottings, headings without content, fragments of lists … below the line.
[Insert image about here: students editing - including new WikiWords and DoubleLine.]
Wikis were designed with simplicity in mind. The writing space is minimal: A text field. The controls are minimal: Edit, Save. The markup is minimal: Type to enter text, hit return twice to create paragraphs. Use equal signs or hash signs for headings, slashes for emphasis, enclose links in double-brackets, or just paste in urls. Create and link new pages by using WikiWords. The writing space is easy to read, and creating pages is simple so that you can focus on writing.
The wiki doesn't demand that you to make things fit particular ways of working, but it doesn't give you any guidance on how to proceed, either. Wikis are very different writing spaces than weblogs or paper notebooks, and to make the most of them, you may need to learn some new moves, some of [http://writingcommons.org/information-literacy/what-are-new-literacies | the new media literacy skills Kyle Steman mentions]. This article will help you get started developing your own techniques - whether you use a wiki collaboratively or on your own.
WikiWriters have also developed a terminology to talk about this stuff.
Wikis are typically collaborative spaces, so on well-established wikis, the local practices for working are collected in the StyleGuide. The StyleGuide presents the social customs for working on the wiki, tips for writing, suggestions for how to proceed. For instance, the [style guide at Weblogs and Wikis]( http://erhetoric.org/WeblogsAndWikis/wikka.php?wakka=styleguide) suggests how to get started on a new page:
Getting Started
You're reading and you see a place in an existing page where a concept or idea needs development, counterpoint, clarification, explanation, or variation. You add a WikiWord to the text. Sometimes the words you want are already in the text, JustWaitingForDevelopment. Just jam 'em together. Follow the link to the new page and get started. Or leave the page empty for someone else to develop.
You can also leave open-ended WikiWords in your own text to invite comment or elaboration from others. A later reader will see the ? and be prompted to provide this content.
Wiki users have developed some general practices for writing on wikis, given its simplicity and the strengths it provides.
Think of this article as a kind of default StyleGuide. Adapt from here.
Wiki articles develop over time, and often by multiple hands. So the idea on a wiki is to keep things centrally located -- all in one place. Notes, the developing draft, and discussion on the draft are all posted to one place. Everyone's on the same page, everything is always current, and additions and changes and deletions are played out on the page itself.
The WikiWord is central to using a wiki. WikiWords - more accurately, wiki phrases - are created in traditional wikis by using capital letters in the middle of the phrase or word, as in WikiWord, or CamelCase, or MyGreatIdea. The wiki treats a phrase in CamelCase (as this move is called) as a potential page name and a link to that page. That means that you, as the writer, treat a CamelCase word as a topic: A point of interest to be developed, a path to create, an idea, problem, issue, concept to think about. On any page, create a WikiWord to start a new page.
Some wikis are not set up to use CamelCase WikiWords but require another way to indicate a WikiWord, such as ##[[double square brackets]]##. While there are good reasons for this, there are better reasons for using CamelCase to designate WikiWords. If you're setting up your own wiki, use CamelCase.
Wiki writers have developed ways of working from notes-and-drafts-and-discussion-all-in-one-page to everyone's advantage. On a wiki, rather than thinking in terms of a writing a draft, think of moving from a set of loosely connected notes towards a more formal document. In WikiTerms, drafting is moving from ThreadMode to DocumentMode.
ThreadMode is a dialogue. It is open-ended, collective, dynamic, and informal. It can develop as a page or develop on a page but it develops organically, without knowing where it's going.
If you're collaborating with others, keep ThreadMode going by phrasing contributions in first-person (using I) and signing them. Place comments and additions near the material it addresses rather than simply placing it at the end of the exchange.
- Adding a comment furthering the conversation.
- Editing older comments to improve the flow or to re-open a discussion that has become closed. It's ok to trim ThreadMode redundancies to open the discussion. But be respectful to maintain meaning.
- Editing ThreadMode entries to create WikiWords.
- Splitting conversations by moving them to a new page. Develop each further.
- Capturing the ideas of the thread in a paragraph that suggests a pattern for the DocumentMode.
If you're working with others, develop the DocumentMode text in third-person and remove the names of contributors. (Place the names of all the contributors at the bottom of the section.) Add WikiWords to the text where concepts seem to open to new pages. Cut material you've used (it's recoverable if necessary), and move material that still needs to be incorporated to a place on the page for notes, below the DoubleLine.
====The DoubleLine====
The idea is to distinguish between the stuff in ThreadMode and the stuff in DocumentMode. You could use formatting, sidebars, a suggestion and approval area, but all of that slows things down. In keeping with the WikiWay - quick and simple - use a DoubleLine near the bottom of the page, typically created by typing two sets of hyphens to create a horizontal rule. Material above the DoubleLine is in DocumentMode, material below is in ThreadMode. This doesn't mean Finished/Unfinished. It's more like palette and canvas. Raw material (ThreadMode) and developing work (DocumentMode). It means placing material that is more fully formed and ready for further work above the line, while adding notes, rough, jottings, headings without content, fragments of lists … below the line.
[Insert image about here: students editing - including new WikiWords and DoubleLine.]
Deletions:
Wikis were designed with simplicity in mind. "The simplest database … that could possibly work," wrote Ward Cunningham, the inventor of the wiki (Leuf, B, and W Cunningham. The Wiki Way: Quick Collaboration on the Web. Boston: Addison-Wesley, 2001). The writing space is minimal: A text field. The controls are minimal: Edit, Save. The markup is minimal: Type to enter text, hit return twice to create paragraphs. Use equal signs or hash signs for headings, slashes for emphasis, enclose links in double-brackets, or just paste in urls. Create and link new pages by using WikiWords. The writing space is easy to read, and creating pages is simple so that you can focus on writing.
The wiki is so simple that users need to bring new strategies for creating content to the wiki. The wiki doesn't demand that you to make things fit particular ways of working, but it doesn't give you any guidance on how to proceed, either. Wikis are very different writing spaces than weblogs or paper notebooks, and to make the most of them, you may need to learn some new moves, some of [[http://writingcommons.org/information-literacy/what-are-new-literacies | the new media literacy skills Kyle Steman mentions]]. This article will help you get started - whether you use a wiki collaboratively or on your own.
On well-established wikis, the local practices for working are in the StyleGuide. The StyleGuide presents the social customs for working on the wiki, tips, suggestions for how to proceed. But wiki users have developed some general practices for writing on wikis, given its simplicity and the strengths it provides. Think of this article as a kind of default StyleGuide. Adapt from here.
Wiki articles develop over time, and often by multiple hands. So idea on a wiki is to keep things centrally located - all in one place. Notes, the developing draft, and discussion on the draft are all posted to one place. Everyone's on the same page, everything is always current, and additions and changes and deletions are played out on the page itself.
The WikiWord is central to using a wiki. WikiWords - more accurately, wiki phrases - are created in traditional wikis by using intermedial capitalization, also called CamelCase. The wiki treats a phrase in CamelCase as a potential page name and a link to that page. That means that you, as the writer, treat a CamelCase word as a topic: A point of interest to be developed, a path to create, an idea, problem, issue, concept to think about. On any page, create a WikiWord to start a new page.
Some wikis are not set up to use CamelCase WikiWords but require another way to indicate a WikiWord, such as ##[[double square brackets]]##. While there are good reasons for this, there are better reasons for using intermedial caps to designate WikiWords. If you're setting up your own wiki, use CamelCase.
Wiki writers have developed ways of working from notes-and-draft-and-discussion-all-in-one-page to everyone's advantage. It involves working from ThreadMode to DocumentMode, by way of Refactoring - and using the DoubleLine to help writers distinguish draft text from document text. Rather than thinking in terms of a draft, think of moving from a set of loosely connected notes towards a more formal document. In WikiTerms, drafting is moving from ThreadMode to DocumentMode.
ThreadMode is a dialogue. It is open, collective, dynamic, and informal. It can develop as a page or develop on a page but it develops organically, without predictive structure. If you're collaborating with others, phrase contributions in first-person and sign them. Place additions near the material it addresses rather than simply placing it at the end of the exchange.
• Adding a comment furthering the conversation.
• Editing older comments to improve the flow or to re-open a discussion that has become closed. It's ok to trim ThreadMode redundancies to open the discussion. But be respectful to maintain meaning.
• Editing ThreadMode entries to create WikiWords.
• Splitting conversations by moving them to a new page. Develop each further.
• Capturing the ideas of the thread in a paragraph that suggests a pattern for the DocumentMode.
If you're working with others, develop the text is in third-person and leave the contributions. (Post the names of all the contributors at the bottom of the section.) Add WikiWords where concepts open to new pages. Cut material you've used (it's recoverable if necessary), and move material that needs to be incorporated below the DoubleLine.
====The Double Line====
The trick is to distinguish between the stuff in ThreadMode and the stuff in DocumentMode. You could use formatting, sidebars, a suggestion and approval area, but all of that slows things down. In keeping with the WikiWay - quick and simple - use a DoubleLine near the bottom of the page, typically created by typing two sets of hyphens to create a horizontal rule. Material above the DoubleLine is in DocumentMode, material below is in ThreadMode. This doesn't mean Finished/Unfinished. It means placing more fully formed and ready for further refactoring above the line, while adding notes, rough, jottings, headings without content, fragments of lists … below the line.
[Insert image about here: students editing]
Additions:
More? Try the [[http://erhetoric.org/WeblogsAndWikis/wikka.php?wakka=WikiWritingHandbook WritingWritingHandbook]]
