Nature Writing and Wikipedia Editing

After the hike I reviewed in my last post, I was reminded of my senior year of high school when I spent part of a semester working on a project involving nature writing. Nature writing is a rather specific genre of writing that encompasses stories, poetry and other forms of writing with influence from the natural world.

While researching about nature writing, I found the wikipedia article titled "Nature Writing" to be lacking certain important aspects. While the article covered a lot of earlier influential writers, it lacked modern and 20th century nature writers. The only part that referenced more modern work was the Further Reading section, which only seemed to list the authors and titles, with no mention of their specific works or potential influence. I chose to add to this section annotation about the authors and the books. The section before my editing read as:

Further reading[edit]

• Finch, Robert, and John Elder, eds. The Norton Book of Nature Writing. New York: Norton, 1990; Nature writing: the tradition in English. edited by Robert Finch and John Elder. New York: W.W. Norton, c2002.
• Keith, W. J., The Rural Tradition: William Cobbett, Gilbert White, and Other Non-Fiction Writers of the English Countryside. Hassocks, Sussex: Harvester, 1975. This book has a useful bibliography.
• Lyon, Thomas J., ed. This Incomparable Land: A Book of American Nature Writing. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1989.
• Lillard, Richard G. (April 1973). "The Nature Book in Action". The English Journal. National Council of Teachers of English. 62 (4): 537–48. 
• Mabey, Richard, The Oxford Book of Nature Writing. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995.
• Stewart, Frank, A Natural History of Nature Writing. Washington, D.C.: Island Press, 1994.
• Trimble, Stephen, "Words From the Land: Encounters with Natural History Writing". Reno: University of Nevada Press, 1995 (revised edition). ISBN 978-0874172645.

I believe this section needed editing because although the titles and authors can provide information, the section discussing the early pioneers of nature writing went into detail about the authors. By adding even a sentence or two someone who is new to the genre could have a better idea of the information additional books and reading can provide them. Below is what the section I edited looks like now. 

Further reading[edit]

• Finch, Robert, and John Elder, eds. The Norton Book of Nature Writing. New York: Norton, 1990; Nature writing: the tradition in English. edited by Robert Finch and John Elder. New York: W.W. Norton, c2002. This book is an all encompassing guide and encyclopedia of 200 years of nature writing.
• Keith, W. J., The Rural Tradition: William Cobbett, Gilbert White, and Other Non-Fiction Writers of the English Countryside. Hassocks, Sussex: Harvester, 1975. This book has a useful bibliography. In addition, this book goes over specific parts of nature writing, including landscape, pastoral and country life literature.
• Lyon, Thomas J., ed. This Incomparable Land: A Book of American Nature Writing. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1989. This book is an introduction guide to the genre. It goes over the vastness of the genre and American writing within the genre.
• Lillard, Richard G. (April 1973). "The Nature Book in Action". The English Journal. National Council of Teachers of English. 62 (4): 537–48. This textbook styled book mainly consists of the history behind nature writing.
• Mabey, Richard, The Oxford Book of Nature Writing. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995. This piece also goes over the magnitude of this genre and presents essays from varying nature authors.
• Stewart, Frank, A Natural History of Nature Writing. Washington, D.C.: Island Press, 1994. This books concentrates on the origins of American nature writing.
• Trimble, Stephen, "Words From the Land: Encounters with Natural History Writing". Reno: University of Nevada Press, 1995 (revised edition). ISBN 978-0874172645. This book is a representative collection of essays which goes over the contemporary part of nature writing.

By editing this section I was able to actually read parts of these books and have a better understanding of the genre itself. I think this is a positive aspect of wikipedia editing. That by editing and researching, even if they may delete it later on, you can learn more and have a better understanding of the topic you're interested in. 

Happy Trails!

Daisy