Charms Of Wikipedia Analysis

The author of the passage Charms of Wikipedia, Nicholson Baker, talks about how far Wikipedia has come with an interesting concept. In this passage, he points out that Wikipedia is a dangerous place to rely on information where anyone can go in and edit, and essential put whatever they want, but that is what has made it thrive and grow even more to this day. However, he does so in a comedic and knowledgeable manner. Baker makes it known, and even obvious, that he has a lot of knowledge and credibility on the matter by a lot of the examples he exhibits. Some ways he shows his credibility, is his examples of when posts for Wikipedia was created, and how many people use it to this day. “More people use Wikipedia than Amazon or eBay---in fact it’s up there in the top 10 Alexa rankings… It has 2.2 million articles” (Baker 915). He also shows he has done his research by

Baker tries to persuade his audience, whom are users and future users of Wikipedia, by making the article light hearted and humorous, yet knowledgeable and plausible. “Say you’re working away on the Wikipedia article on aging. You’ve got some nice scientific language in there and it’s really starting to shape up… And then somebody--- a “vandal”--- replaces the entire article with a single sentence: “Aging is what you get when you get fricken old old old” (Baker 918). Instead of adding examples of derogatory examples of posts that were negatively altered, he instead chose to use more comical examples. This displays how he has a keen pathos in his passage. His attitude toward the whole situation of people going to Wikipedia, and changing people 's knowledgeable posts on certain topics is acutely composed. He explains how that is what has kept Wikipedia so alive and popular from this cat and mouse game of serious editors having to make sure there posting are safe from the irresponsible