Editing Wikipedia can be daunting for newbies, especially as a student editor contributing to Wikipedia for the first time as a class assignment. This guide is designed to assist students assigned to add cultural anthropology content to articles on Wikipedia. Here's what other anthropology editors will expect you to know.
You're editing a resource that millions of people use to inform themselves about the world, to draw conclusions about human behavior, guide policy decisions, and make sense of their culture and those of others. Anthropologists understand the value of responsible writing and the neutral presentation of facts — Wikipedia is your chance to put theory into practice!
Wikipedia editors in the social sciences have developed these guidelines for writing about anthropology-related topics. Take the time to read and understand the suggestions here to make sure you meet expectations when you edit Wikipedia. When articles don't meet these guidelines, fixing mistakes costs valuable volunteer time that could have been spent improving content.
If you aren't comfortable working within these guidelines, talk to your instructor about an alternative off-wiki assignment.
Part of the Wikipedia experience is receiving and responding to feedback from other editors. Don't wait until the last day to make a contribution, or you may miss out on important comments, advice, and ideas that could improve your work. Volunteers from the Wikipedia community will likely read, respond, or ask questions about your article. If you get a comment, make sure you acknowledge it. Discussion is a crucial part of the Wikipedia process.
Wikipedia articles must be written in your own words. Plagiarizing by copy-and-pasting or close paraphrasing — when most of the words are changed, but the structure and meaning of the original text remains — is against the rules.
For a Wikipedia assignment, such plagiarism is a violation of your university's academic honor code. Plagiarism on Wikipedia will be caught by other editors, there will be a permanent record of plagiarism tied to your account, and your instructor will be notified. Even with standard resources like textbooks, you cannot directly copy descriptions of social concepts, studies, or theories into Wikipedia.
The best way to avoid plagiarism is to make sure you really understand your material, draw from a number of different sources, and write about it in your own words. You may use direct quotation when it is important to keep the original wording, but be sure to explicitly mark what is being quoted, and cite the source.
Everybody on Wikipedia wants to make it the best it can be. Take the time to understand these guidelines, and soon you'll be contributing important knowledge to a resources millions of people use every day!
Consider looking for interesting and plentiful sources before you choose a topic, and then develop an article based on what you find. Also look for topics on Wikipedia that are missing, poorly developed, or incomplete. For example:
Not all anthropological topics and theories merit their own article. Consider adding an anthropological perspective to an existing article, like an article about a social phenomenon or cultural belief.
For ideas, check out WikiProject Anthropology. And see the Finding Your Article training: dashboard.wikiedu.org/training/students/finding-your-article
Unlike many academic papers you've written, a Wikipedia article prioritizes secondary sources over primary. Avoid citing primary sources, that is, where authors participated directly in the research or documented their personal experiences. Look instead for sources that put their findings in context.
Cite these sources:
Do not use:
Sometimes, however, it makes sense to cite a primary source like an ethnography, especially if it’s the main source of information about your topic. If this is the case, you can use the source to back up basic details, but do not cite it as your only source for major claims. Don’t generalize findings: you can’t apply a research study about a single group of people to a larger group of people. And resist the urge to add your own analysis.
Remember your audience is global. Try to find sources from other parts of the world (they do not need to be in English!), and reflect any significant differences in content or terminology.
For Wikipedia's guidelines on finding good sources, type this shortcut into Wikipedia's search bar: | shortcut WP:RS.
Consider the content of a source. Weigh conclusions of a book or journal article against other sources in your field. It's a good idea to draw from a number of sources when making a claim. Always try to use sources that are subject to a peer-review process.
Consider the publisher of a source. Work cited should come from a reliable publisher of anthropological literature, such as Oxford University Press, Bloomsbury Publishing, or University of Chicago Press.
Creating a well-balanced article requires an overview of all major viewpoints about a topic. Scholars frequently disagree, and sometimes their methods or perspectives result in competing narratives or interpretations of an anthropological phenomenon. Give appropriate weight to aspects of the topic as reliable literature covers it.
You're not just writing about a topic; you're writing about how scholars have written about it. Resist the urge to add your own analysis or to connect multiple sources together to form an argument. See | shortcut WP:NOR.
A concept that you may consider to be obvious, may not be to others. Take, for example, the concept of “common sense”, which is defined differently in differing cultures. Write for a general audience, explain terms where necessary, and wikilink to other articles where readers can learn more.
Wikipedia is committed to presenting facts. You may discuss in your anthropology courses if 'objective' writing is really possible. But on Wikipedia, there are expectations about what encyclopedic writing looks like. Think of Wikipedia's guidelines as a set of its own cultural practices. Read more | shortcut WP:NPOV.
[INSERT TEXT BOX:] What is a lead section? At the top of every article is a lead section, which summarizes the article's content. It may be a good idea to save writing the lead section until the end, so you can be sure it properly summarizes what you've covered. It should cover all of the most important ideas from the article, and shouldn't include information that doesn't appear elsewhere in the article.
Every article will be unique, but there are some general sections that readers and other editors will expect to see. Add, remove, or reorder these suggested sections as needed. Keep in mind that most research and theories don't deserve a stand-alone article, but may form an important part of an article about a broader topic.
Writing about a people
For a good example, see the article for the Toraja.
Also see Wikipedia's suggested Outline of culture or Outline of anthropology.
Writing about a cultural phenomenon
For a good example, see the article for 2012 phenomenon.
Writing about a theorist or figure
To learn about writing biographies, consult the Editing Wikipedia articles: Biographies handout, available at https://wikiedu.org/biographies
As you start writing, remember to keep these guidelines in mind:
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