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The Wikipedia element of English Composition will involve basic learning about the policies and procedures of the encyclopedia, critiquing an article, and making a small improvement to an article. Complete specifications are located in our Canvas shell.
Read this short overview: Evaluating Wikipedia
For this assignment, you'll evaluate a Wikipedia article by posting an essay in your Wikipedia userspace and by making (or suggesting) a change to the article. Consider three of the following questions (you choose which three):
Citations
Age
Structure/Completeness
Grammar/Voice
Select an article about a topic that interests you, but keep in mind that some Wikipedia articles are extremely well-developed, and will be difficult to critique. Critiquing the article on Harry Potter or Michael Jackson would be almost impossible given the many hundreds of dedicated and experienced editors who have worked for years to ensure a high degree of excellence. Other subjects are less well covered.
Consider starting with a general area of interest, and follow links until you find an article that has some room for improvement. I might start looking at the Seattle page on Wikipedia, since I live there. I see an article on grunge music, which I follow to the page on the band Gruntruck. This page has some content, but not much. It would be a good article to critique.
Use a thesis sentence and thesis format. Since this is our first outing with a thesis sentence, please use this template:
"I visited the _____ page on Wikipedia, and found three aspects of it worth commenting on: _____, _____, and _____."
Please note that once you submit your work on the due date, I consider it to be your final draft. If you've made a mistake or left something out, you'll have to live with it, so make sure your submission is as accurate and complete as possible.