Many students assume that the online, free encyclopedia, Wikipedia (Links to an external site.) is a valid, authoritative and useful reference source for their scholarly work as a student at NVCC. Many teachers say that Wikipedia is garbage and should never be used. Which is it?
In this assignment, we will be examining just how authoritative (and stable) Wikipedia (aka Wiki) is. First, you will examine a specific entry from Wikipedia and check for changes that have occurred over a period of six months, and then you will compare the information from the Wikipedia entry with the information from the Encyclopedia Britannica Academic (BA), an established reference source.
Since you may have never really looked carefully at a Wikipedia entry,
Chose a term to analyze
Your term must be in both Wiki and and BA. (See How to Access Encyclopedia Britannica Academic Online (Links to an external site.). If you are unable to access Britannica, please let me know, and I will suggest an alternative reference source. If you are not a registered NVCC student, you may have trouble accessing BA, please contact your instructor. )
Your term must fit the chronology of your course. (before 1500 CE for HIS 101 and HIS 111; after 1500 CE for HIS 102 and HIS 112)
You have a textbook with hundreds of pages of history that you can use to help you decide on a term–check the book’s index.
You should choose a research term that is clear, focused and doable. For example, “World War II” or “The Roman Empire” will be too difficult and too large to analyze in this assignment. You simply are not going to be able to expertly compare 12 pages of material on, for example, World War II, with the twelve pages of material in BA. So, instead of picking “the Roman Empire,” you should pick “Trajan.” Instead of picking “Zhou dynasty,” you might pick “King Nan of Zhou.” Instead of “World War I,” you might pick the “Chemin des Dames.” Here are some sample suggestions (Links to an external site.) for research terms.
You must email your term choice to your instructor for approval at least two days before the assignment is due.
Your Wikipedia entry must be approved by your professor.
We do not accept terms that are primarily U.S. history, nor do we accept any World War II terms, national socialism related entries, or Hitler, Stalin, Napoleon. Your professor has final say on whether an entry is appropriate.
With the permission of your instructor, instead of using BA, you may compare your English-language entry with the equivalent Wikipedia entry in a foreign language, for example, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beslan_school_hostage_crisis (Links to an external site.) and ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Террористический_акт_в_Беслане (Links to an external site.).
Your analysis paper should be no more than two pages
double-spaced, one-inch margins, font size 10 or 12
brief introduction and conclusion paragraphs (each not to exceed three lines)
name, and only your name, at the top left of the paper
Consider such questions as these to help you organize your paper:
Is the specific information contained in both the Wikipedia and BA entries the same or different? How different?
How much have the Wikipedia and BA entries changed (or not changed) over a period of at least six months?
Do we have any idea of the credentials/authority of the authors who created the Wikipedia and BA entries?
Do the entries footnote sources of reference information and provide suggested reading and websites? From your writing in the course, you already note that cited evidence is extremely important!
Your overall conclusion should then assess how does the Wikipedia information compare with the information in BA? Which encyclopedia do you find most useful for the term that you have selected.
Since you are writing a comparison, you need to be fair. For example, if you examine how many times Wikipedia changed, then you should examine how many times BA changed.
Blue bar
Is Wikipedia good or bad? That is partly what you are answering in this assignment, but I would also like to point out that a Wikipedia article can often be an excellent starting point for research on a topic or a quick source of general information. For example, I use Wikipedia all the time if I am looking for the birth or death dates of a historical figure. of if I am looking for suggested sources of more information, as Wikipedia entries always have footnotes and a bibliography of books and websites. Finally, Wikipedia can be extremely useful on topics of relatively newer historical events. For example, in my HIS 242 (History of Russia II) course, I ask that students check the entry for the Beslan School Hostage crisis. (Links to an external site.)
Wikipedia is often also a pretty good source for recent cultural events or people, such as Camila Cabello (Links to an external site.).
HERE IS THE RUBRIC AND INSTRUCTIONS
WIKIPEDIA APPROVAL & INSTRUCTIONS
This is a good choice. Both articles are a reasonable length, and the Britannica article has the necessary “Article History” tab. Go for it.
USE THIS GUIDE WHEN YOU WRITE YOUR PAPER:
PURPOSE: Your paper should assess the overall stability and authoritative nature of the Wikipedia entry for your research term. Your paper should compare the specific information contained in both the Wikipedia and Britannica entries.
Part I
Some students use the model paper on the course site as their guide. If you do, please be careful not to spend too much time summarizing the articles. The best papers I’ve received have been straightforward analyses of the two sources.
10 points — Opening statement (1 sentence) establishes your position
10 points — Brief summary of the Wikipedia article (3-4 sentences)
10 points — Brief comparison with Britannica Academic content (3-4 sentences)
Part II
Use the TALK, VIEW HISTORY, and ARTICLE HISTORY tabs to answer these questions about the Contributors’ Credibility:
10 points — How much have the Wikipedia and Britannica entries changed (or not changed) over a period of at least six months? Why did the entries change? What issues are discussed in the Wikipedia TALK area? Here is a special note about the Wikipedia “View History” tab:
Make sure you click on the TALK and VIEW HISTORY tabs in Wikipedia — this helps you look “behind the scenes”. If you click on the VIEW HISTORY tab first, then you see one set of comments about the article and how it was created. This is where you get that information about changes over the last six months. But if you click TALK and then click VIEW HISTORY, you get the history of the talk section. It confused me at first — I didn’t realize there are two ways to VIEW HISTORY and they aren’t the same thing.
10 points — How much have the Wikipedia and Britannica entries changed (or not changed) over a period of at least six months? Why did the entries change? What issues are discussed in the Wikipedia TALK area?
10 points — What did you learn about the credentials of the authors who created the Wikipedia and Britannica entries?
[I don’t know if you ever tried to contribute to Wikipedia. But it’s an urban myth that anyone can do it. It is just not that easy anymore since there are so many formatting requirements that you have to follow, and there always seems to be someone reviewing a contribution.]
10 points — Do the articles provide footnotes, sources of information, citations of sources, or suggested readings and websites?
Part III
20 points — For your topic, how does the Wikipedia information compare with the information in Britannica? This is the most important part of your analysis, and you should provide some specific examples. Since you are writing a comparison, you need to be fair. For example, if you examine how many times Wikipedia changed, then you should examine how many times Britannica changed.
10 points — Conclusion
10 points — Grammar, Style, Formatting. Use the TurnItIn tools to proofread your work.
Place the URLs of your two articles at the end of the paper.
YOU MUST watch the youtube video before starting
Here’s a post (Links to an external site.) about the editing process on Wikipedia.
My topic is M’iraj you must use the articles for this analysis
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isra_and_Mi%27raj
https://academic-eb-com.eznvcc.vccs.edu/levels/collegiate/article/Mi%CA%BFr%C4%81j/52928
