OPTION A: ANALYZING A WIKIPEDIA PAGE

How often have you heard that Wikipedia isnt a good source of information and that you shouldnt use it in papers? Are these really reasonable statements?

Wikipedia may be an imperfect source, but it can be an excellent source of information. When selecting sources to use in your work, you need to consider the audience and context for your work, as well as the credibility of your sources. Sometimes, using Wikipedia is okay. However, many pages have incomplete information or lack citations. There are systemic problems with Wikipedia, though, in terms of what types of sources are considered reliable. Credible sources in the real world (such as oral histories of Indigenous Elders) dont always count as a reliable or credible source in the world of Wikipedia. This is inherently problematic. (Read this article for information on what Wikipedia considers to be a reliable source.)

This option in the source evaluation assignment gets you to critically analyze a Wikipedia page of your choosing. This option gets you to practice finding, evaluating, and documenting a Wikipedia article and critically analyzing its credibility.

In addition, this assignment builds the foundation for one of the assignment options you have for the last assignment in this course. For your final assignment, you have the option to revise the content and/or citations of your selected Wikipedia page to improve its credibility (as learned and discussed in CMNS 1140) and to reflect on what you learned during this process. Completing that final assignment option is only available if youve completed this option (Option A) for the source evaluation assignment. i.e., If you think you might want to complete the Wikipedia page revision for your final assignment, then complete Option A for the source evaluation assignment. (You can change your mind later and not to the Wikipedia page revision option for your final assignment. However, you wont be able to do the Wikipedia page revision option if you havent selected Option A here.)

What to do in this assignment:

1. Select a Wikipedia page that interests you. It is important that you have determined that it can be improved in some way. Stub articles or Class C articles often provide a good starting point for what this assignment gets you to do.

2. Explore and read through the content on the page and on its accompanying Talk page. The Talk page provides information on what improvements various Wikipedians are discussing and considering.

3. Provide your analysis of your selected Wikipedia page by answering ALL of these questions in full, complete sentences and using appropriate paragraphing:

   Introduction: What page/topic did you select? What is the URL?