Elena Gardenghi, Eleonora Girolami, Isabella Maffei

1. The aim of this essay is to explore how data from Wikipedia can be used in corpus
linguisTcs research (is explora6on of this methodological ques6on the main aim of
the study?). The English-language Wikipedia has been widely used in computaTonal
linguisTc studies, but there is less corpus-based work on the language of Wikipedia
from a variaTonist perspecTve. In order to show that the language of Wikipedia can
be studied through corpus linguisTcs, this paper invesTgates whether the language
of the English arTcles is closer to American English or BriTsh English. The data for
this study comes from Westbury Lab Wikipedia Corpus (2010). The results indicate
that Wikipedia arTcles in general favour American English usage norms, which
reflects the large number of contribuTng editors based in the US. On the other hand,
BriTsh English holds its own in arTcles with Tes to the UK, which exhibit a higher
incidence of spellings and grammaTcal forms associated with that variety.

Elena and Eleonora pointed out that in abstract #1 there are at least two missing
sentences. Together we have noTced that the aim of the arTcle is missing and should
probably be included in the first sentence. (The first sentence usually sets the
scene, providing a context or raison d’être for the study/ar6cle, with the precise
aim of the study following this). Eleonora observed that the first two sentences lack
cohesion (yes, there is a definite non-sequitur here), therefore there should be an
addiTonal sentence in between. ASer reading the arTcle, we have found a clearly
stated aim and together we have modified it to fit the abstract. Isabella has then
realized that the research quesTon of the arTcle was completely missing from the
abstract and together with Elena, they wrote the sentence that went in the second
missing space.

2. In this essay, I provide a content analysis of commercially and criTcally successful

films that perpetuate popularized Islamophobia, which is oSen masked as
irreconcilable religious and cultural difference although it has in fact been
consistently manufactured and weaponized throughout history in order to further
Western imperial interests. Recycled tropes and stereotypes in cinemaTc depicTons
can be traced back to historical orientalism and poliTcal Islamophobia, both of which
were instrumental in garnering support for the War on Terror. The films that I will
take into consideraTon in my analysis are The Hurt Locker, Argo, Zero Dark Thirty and
American Sniper. In these films Islam is seen as an ‘other’ that cannot be reconciled
with the protagonist of the film. Although my analysis primarily discusses these films
within the context of twenty-first century Islamophobia, I also demonstrate how
persistent negaTve stereotypes draw from centuries-old tropes, and how US foreign
policy since the Eisenhower administraTon has been condiTonally tolerant of Islam,
conTngent upon broader geopoliTcal imperial interests.
Isabella has noTced that in abstract #2 there is a sentence that implies the presence
of a list of film Ttles (NB The cohesion-crea6ng word “these”). Together we have
seen which were the films used in the arTcle and Elena and Isabella have
constructed the missing sentence. We have then noTced that the method was
missing and aSer reading the arTcle we agreed that the closest thing that could be
found was how the films fed into negaTve prejudice. Therefore, we have included
the sentence aSer the movie list. (A good, clarifying addi6on).

5. This study looks into the idenTty of brown female arTsts living in the post-colonial
society of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan today. It examines the role, status, and
ideals of a handful of women arTsts and educators from the '80s, mostly members
of the Women AcTon Forum, who have helped define the current idenTty of
Pakistani women by iniTaTng feminist debates. The concept of feminism in post-
colonial society is mulTdimensional and needs to be explored to combat the
misconstrued and imposed idenTty of Pakistani women as miserable, second-grade
ciTzens of the third world. Dominant religions and cultural pracTces in this region
designate woman to a disTnct status in society. In Islam, women are seen as the
followers of FaTma—the leader of all Muslim women in paradise—and are ranked
amongst the greatest humans (Qutbuddin, 2006, 249) while Hinduism considers
them as devis—divine beings (Pintchman, 2011). The invesTgaTon adopts
ethnographic methods of research along with established approaches to
historiography that involve discussing, collecTng, documenTng, digiTzing and
analysing the informaTon.The analysis demonstrates that the colonial singular
monolithic construct of Pakistani women as women of the third world desperate to
be rescued from their condiTon is wrong since Pakistani arTsts already express their
idenTty and femininity through their art which does not exclusively deal with
oppression.

We have noTced that the conclusion seemed to be missing in abstract #5. Together
we have extracted the concept from the arTcle and built the sentence in a way that
fit the abstract. Moreover, we have debated on whether something was missing in
the middle but ulTmately agreed on adding the conclusion only.

While methodology and findings/conclusion are not always included in abstracts,

your approach seems to focus on overall clarity through summarising the ar6cle.
Not a bad idea.

A gramma6cal point: In discussion reports I’d expect the simple past rare than the
present perfect.