published_or_final_version / abstract / toc / Linguistics / Master / Master of Arts in Applied Linguistics

This thesis is called “Citation needed – the perceived credibility of Wikipedia among higheducation students”. The purpose of this thesis is to discover the opinions about the credibilityof Wikipedia among high education students. The assumption is that students are aware ofbeing source criticizing and do not directly cite Wikipedia in academic works. The main research question is: what are the views of the perceived credibility of theinformation on Wikipedia among high education students? The theoretical framework is made out of previous research specific related to Wikipediabut also theories around memory creation, assessment of sources and credibility. The method used is qualitative, with semi-structured interviews. The material consists ofinterviews with nine participants. Their answers are transcribed and presented in themes andthen analyzed. The main results are that the perceived credibility of the information on Wikipedia amongthe students is that it is fairly credible and their views of the encyclopedia are that it is fastupdated and neutral. They also believe that Wikipedia isn’t for academic usage so in allaspects the students do not make a thoroughly assessment of the encyclopedia’s credibility. Further implications are that Wikipedia would be ruined if anyone tried to make itacademic. Wikipedia fulfills an educational tool for the public even though it is not alwayscorrect. It is important to be reminded that Wikipedia contains errors but no other source iscompletely flawless either. In that sense it would be smarter to start a new encyclopedia, ifthere is such a need, perhaps open for professors only and would in the end only containvetted information, however mostly/only in academic fields. The length of the thesis is 56 pages in total and approximately 21 000 words. Keywords: Wikipedia, encyclopedias, source criticism, credibility, Nationalencyclopedin,students, in-depth interviews.

Originally presented as the author's Thesis (doctoral--Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, 1989. / Includes bibliographical references (p. [309]-336) and index.

This dissertation critiques and updates the theoretical frameworks for understanding encyclopedic and diagrammatic images as presented in the scholarship of Lucy Freeman Sandler, Barbara Maria Stafford, John Bender, and Michael Marrinan. It offers a new model for examining the cognitive role of images by studying an important medieval encyclopedia, On the Properties of Things, originally written in Latin by Bartholomaeus Anglicus in the thirteenth century. Bartholomaeus’ text was the most popular encyclopedia of the later middle ages and four vernacular translations were produced and circulated between the fourteenth and sixteenth centuries. Significantly, the French translation of the compendium, coming out of the vernacularization movement of King Charles V but radiating out to other production centres, involved the design of an elaborate and novel illustrative program. The present project examines two exceptional fifteenth-century French copies of this encyclopedia (BnF fr. 9141 and BnF fr. 135/6), and interprets them in light of the shifting intellectual culture and evolving reading practices of late-medieval lay audiences. The information-rich and highly aestheticized miniatures found in such encyclopedic manuscripts have traditionally been defined, by Sandler and others, as having an explanatory function and the capacity to elevate the content of the text through displays of material luxury. My model expands the significance of such images by highlighting their capacity to promote thought. I argue that images in didactic compendia can (i) encourage the reader to actively engage with the text through representations of aristocratic readers performing their understanding of the book socially, and (ii) facilitate visual thinking by aesthetically reflecting the structure of the encyclopedic text through the diagrammatic strategies of the collection, compression, and division of fragmented information. Though the images in my two manuscript case studies take distinct approaches to reader engagement and the mediation of knowledge, in both cases the power of these visualizations rests in the cognitive acts and range of mental associations they provoke. This dissertation demonstrates that epistemically-dense images, in addition to merely reflecting a text, could shape knowledge as it was being formed in the minds of active viewers, readers, writers, and artists, in an intellectually rich period in late-medieval France. / Graduate

This study concerns itself with the phenomenon of literary encyclopaedism, as especially evident in James Joyce's Finnegans Wake, Philippe Sollers' Paradis and Ezra Pound's Cantos. The study focuses on developing the notion of an encyclopaedic literary mode and on establishing the existence of a genre of fictional encyclopaedias. It finds an encyclopaedic mode in literature to be one comprehending and imitating other literary modes, both mimetic and didactic. Further, the idea of a fictional encyclopaedia is developed through an understanding of the traits of the neighbouring forms of essay, Menippean satire and epic, and through an understanding of the paradoxes associated with the making of the non-fictional encyclopaedia. The fictional encyclopaedia thus comprehends and exceeds the following traits: 1. A tension, characteristic of the essay, between integrated autobiography and impersonal (and ultimately fragmented) exposition of the categories of knowledge. 2. A tension, characteristic of the Menippean satire, between tale and digression, between a single narrating subject and a multiplicity of transient narrating voices. The menippea also contributes a simultaneous preoccupation with the most sacred and the most profane subjects. 3. A totalizing drive characteristic of the epic, a desire--rivalling the urge to tell a story--to list or include all aspects of the culture in the epic past. The fictional encyclopaedia also translates into fiction the following paradoxes associated with the encyclopaedic enterprise: 1. The recognition, implicit in the drive to trace a complete and eternally-perfect circle of the arts and sciences, that encyclopaedic knowledge is always ultimately incomplete and obsolete. 2. The recognition, at the heart of the attempt to produce an objective and unmediated picture of the world, that encyclopaedic knowledge is ideologically shaped and textually mediated. The dominance of the encyclopaedic gesture in Finnegans Wake, Paradis and the Cantos allows us to account for the characteristic length, obscurity and "bookishness" of these works; they absorb the traits and tensions of essay, Menippean satire and epic while yet exceeding these traits in their fictional translation of the encyclopaedic paradoxes noted above. This translation manifests itself in each work as a characteristic parodic hesitation before the authority of totalizing predecessors; it manifests itself in the texts' fascination with images of a paradisiacal completion and timelessness, a tendency that is undercut by a repetitive, digressive or fragmented form which asserts the inevitability of time and incompletion. Further, the Wake, Paradis and the Cantos, in their overt and extensive intertextual activity, emphasize the textual boundaries of encyclopaedic knowledge. Nonetheless, in their foregrounding and valorization of speech rhythms, the works also repeat the challenge that the encyclopaedia brings to its own limited nature as written book. / Arts, Faculty of / English, Department of / Graduate

published_or_final_version / Education / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-28T14:16:15Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Catarina Justus Fischer.pdf: 4541087 bytes, checksum: da705d458bc92d85ab6ba2890e987c03 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2012-05-23 / Johannes Heinrich Alsted (1588-1638), a Calvinist scholar from Hesse, which at that time was a part of the Holy Roman Empire was the reputed author of Encyclopaedia Septem Tomis Reserata. Due to the singular historical context within which his life and works developed, he was taught by several important theologians, philosophers, linguists and mathematicians belonging with the German-Calvinist contemporary network. Nevertheless, he appealed to the Aristotelian tradition, Raymond Lull and Petrus Ramus as main sources to build his own method for a systematic approach to knowledge. Since his main concern was with pedagogy, Alsted s method sought to make learning easier, and for this purpose he appealed to the concept of encyclopedia. The present study analyzes the multiple sources employed by Alsted to elaborate a Tree of Knowledge of his own, and the fundamental epistemic and methodological principles that underpin a project that culminated in the renowned Encyclopaedia. Special attention was paid to the section on music taken as study case, in order to understand better the internal structure as well as the historical-scientifically determinants of this extraordinary work / Johannes Heinrich Alsted (1588-1638), um estudioso calvinista de Hesse, situado no então Sacro Império Germânico, é o reconhecido autor de Encyclopaedia Septem Tomis Reserata. Em função do peculiar contexto histórico em que se desenvolveu sua vida e sua obra, foi discípulo de importantes teólogos, filósofos, linguistas e matemáticos da rede germânico-calvinista da época. Apesar disso, para a construção de um método próprio de abordar o saber de modo sistemático, tomou como suas principais fontes obras aristotélicas, assim como as de Raimundo Lullio e de Petrus Ramus. Tendo a pedagogia como sua meta principal, o método desenvolvido por Alsted visava facilitar o aprendizado e, para tanto, valeu-se do conceito de enciclopédia. O presente estudo busca analisar as múltiplas fontes utilizadas por Alsted na elaboração da sua própria árvore do conhecimento , assim como os princípios epistêmicos e metodológicos que subjazem esse projeto, o qual culmina na célebre Encyclopaedia. Destaque especial foi dado à música, enquanto estudo de caso, de maneira a compreender melhor tanto a estrutura interna, quanto as motivações histórico-científicas dessa obra magna

A software GPS receiver is a functional GPS receiver in software. It has several advantages compared to its hardware counterparts. For instance, improvements in receiver architecture as well as GPS system structure can be easily adapted to it. Furthermore, interaction between nearby sensors can be coordinated easily. In this thesis, a SGR (software GPS receiver) is presented from a practical point of view. Major components of the SGR are implemented in Matlab environment. Furthermore, some alternative algorithms are implemented. SGR implementation is considered in two main sections namely a signal processing section and a navigation section. Signal processing section is driven by the raw GPS signal samples obtained from a GPS front-end of NordNavTM R-25 instrument. The conventional and the block adjustment of synchronizing signal (BAAS) processing methods are implemented and their performances are compared in terms of their speed and outputs. Signal processing section outputs raw GPS measurements and navigation data bits. Since the output data length is insufficient in our case, navigation section input is fed from AshtechTM GPS receiver for a moving platform and TrimbleTM GPS Receiver for a stationary platform. Satellite position computation, pseudorange corrections, Kalman filter and LSE (least squares estimation) are implemented in the navigation section. Kalman filter and LSE methods are compared in terms of positioning accuracy for a moving as well as a stationary platform. Results are compared with the commercial GPS outputs. This comparison shows that the software navigation section is equivalent to the commercial GPS in terms of positioning accuracy.

The purpose of this thesis is to explore how categorisation of marginalised groups is done on Swedish Wikipedia. Taking its starting point in social constructionism and critical knowledge organisation research, classic knowledge organization is seen as inherently flawed. In its quest for universal knowledge organisation systems, the fact that knowledge is contingent (emerging and constructed), is obscured. This runs the risk of marginalising marginalised groups further. Instead it is claimed that knowledge organization systems ought to strive for transparency by inviting its users to witness and take part in the knowledge process. A discourse analysis was made on two source materials: an interview study with three editors of Swedish Wikipedia and openly available discussion threads from Swedish Wikipedia. The result of the discourse analysis shows that the wider to write at Wikipedia discourse contains two nodal points: neutrality and consensus. The neutrality nodal point is a floating signifier in the sense that two different discourses try to give it two different meanings. In one of the discourses neutrality is seen as possible to achieve when describing reality. Categorisation is uncomplicated, it is simply a case of reflecting the categories that already exist ”out there”. In another discourse neutrality is seen as something impossible to achieve when describing reality because it is ever-changing and many-faceted. Categorisation is hard and complicated. Between these two discourses there is a discursive struggle which is mitigated by the nodal point consensus. Through discussions leading to consensus a ”neutral enough” way of describing the world is achieved. Categorisation on Wikipedia can thus be seen to achieve the transparency that critical knowledge organization research requests: the categories are results of discussions that all reading users can access. But there is doubt as to how many of the reading users of Wikipedia actually find and read the discussion pages. If there are only a few who ever finds the discussions, the transparency remains low and the constructed nature of Wikipedias knowledge organization system remains obscured. This is a two years Master’s thesis in Library and Information Science.

Any text which criticizes, undermines and/or transforms the encyclopaedic ideal of ordering and textualizing the world in a closed, linear fashion can be defined as a post-encyclopaedic text. This thesis explores both theoretical and artistic texts which inhabit the realm of post-encyclopaedism. In the past, critical speculation on encyclopaedism in literature has been concerned with the ways in which artistic texts attempt to live up to the encyclopaedic ideal. In some cases, this effort to establish an identity between the artistic text and the encyclopaedia has led to an ignorance of the disruptive or even deconstructive effects of so-called fictional encyclopaedias. Once we recognize the existence of such effects, we must begin to examine the techniques and possibilities of post-encyclopaedism. Hence we can see post-encyclopaedic qualities in the condensed meta-encyclopaedism of Jorge Luis Borges' "Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius", the disrupted quests for encyclopaedic revelation in Herman Melville's Moby Dick and Thomas Pynchon's Gravity's Rainbow, and the principle of textualized world as fugue in Louis Zukofsky's "A"-12. In addition, we can create a theoretical space for the post-encyclopaedic text by weaving together Mikhail Bakhtin'sideas on the novel as opposed to the epic, Michel Foucault's notion of restructuring the closed circle of the text through mirrored writing, Jurij Lotman's theory of internal and external recoding in texts, and Umberto Eco's concept of the open text. By combining an investigation of theoretical and artistic texts which lend themselves to post-encyclopaedism, we can create a generic distinction between texts which attempt to be encyclopaedic in themselves: and texts which disrupt and/or transform the encyclopaedic ideal / Arts, Faculty of / English, Department of / Graduate