Sourcing for Wikipedia
“Writing is an exploration. You start from nothing and learn as you go.”
E.L. Doctorow
Personal Experience
Contributing to Wikipedia has been a learning experience. The experience has been filled with highs and lows. A lot of coffee has been drunk and a lot of coffee has been spilled trying to complete both of these massive assignments.
One of the hardest things I faced with writing for Wikipedia was finding good sources. Sources are important for doing any kind of writing. Especially if you want your writing to be taken serious.
Wikipedia has its own rules when choosing sources for adding content to articles. Whether the articles are established or new the rules must be followed.
Your content can be taken down if the rules or not followed do to plagiarism and not following other outlined requirements. Other outlined requirements including obeying copyright laws. Not obeying copyright laws could get your material flagged or removed.
Wikipedia Rules !
Wikipedia has guidelines for choosing sources for wiki contributions. Making sure the sources are verifiable. Verifiability means that sources are quality sources like: textbooks, books that have been published by reliable publishers, and literate reviewed articles. Wikipedia also wants its contributors to use notable sources. Notable sources are those that have been significantly covered, reviewed and researched.
Data Storage Wiki Contribution
Data storage is the Wikipedia article that I chose to add information. Data Storage is a broad enough topic but it can be narrowed done to a few different innovations. So, once I narrowed it down to only two pieces of technology it was time to begin finding sources.
My first approach was to look on Galileo. The information I found on Galileo was good but it was overwhelming. So, I started printing the article out and breaking them down into smaller parts. But, an unforeseen problem occurred when I got ready to cite my source on Wikipedia.
I actually post to the Data Storage Wikipedia article in which I spent my time editing. I published my information under the sub heading “Floppy Disk” and in less than a day someone had removed my information. They accused me of posting information not from a reliable source.
I then started trying to break down the reason why the contributor took my hard-work down. My first reaction was to put it back up but my mind went back to the trainings in Wikipedia. After I calmed down I figured out what was wrong with my source. Then I went back to the link of my source. It lead me to a page that looks something like this.
Good Writing
Taking notes and making list while reading a pile of eBooks was my journey. I wrote and rewrote my article contribution content over and over again til I reached a draft that I was comfortable with turning-in.
According to Brian Carroll’s Writing & editing For Digital Media 2nd Edition good writing consist of a few things like:
-Be brief
-Be precise
-Be active
-Be imaginative
-Be direct
-Be consistent
-Be aware
In writing for Wikipedia I had to keep all of these thing in mind. Good writing no matter what platform you use must be good content. Content worth reading will be read.
Links Matter
When writing for Wikipedia links are very important. Source links are suppose to take your audience directly to your sources. Galileo links require you to be logged into an account. So, they are not directly accessible. Galileo possess rich information but all the members on Wikipedia do not have access to the universities system of Georgia’s database. So, I had to find other sources for my article that anyone can access.
The picture above is an direct illustration of where a link takes you when you attempt to cite a source from Galileo. You do not want a Wikipidian to run into a blank wall when trying to verify your source or conduct their own research. This damages your credibility. I know this from first hand experience! While on my Wiki experience I was accused by a contributor of having unreliable sources. Which was a far accusation because the link took him no where! I intended on him landing on the page in the picture below.
eBooks and Google Searches
My saving grace for my article contributions were eBooks. The eBooks were founded under Google’s book tab. They provided great information and also provided a way to link my sources so my audience could read them for more information if they would like. The eBooks that I chose were peer reviewed so if they wanted to go back and read some of the reviews they have that option.
eBooks are readily available online and they come with an ISBN (International Standard Book Number). The ISBN made them incredibly easy to source in Wikipedia. All I had to do was copy and paste the ISBN and Wikipedia automatically generated a citation for my information that I used in my article contribution.
Established Wikipedia Article
Contributing to an established Wikipedia article can be tough even if the information that you have written is accurate. The person who has set the agenda for the article plans on keep with that agenda. So, your information may get deleted several times.
This experience with writing for Wikipedia has most definitely given me a tougher skin because my hard-work has been erased several times this semester but I have not allowed that to stop me.
I continued to write and edit my work though my effort seemed to be wasted. The community rules of not starting a war of wars lead me to working on my own writing instead of being worried about what another Wikipidian thought about my work.
What I Learned From Wikipedia
Creating an Wikipedia article is not as easy as it seems. I never worked tireless day and night on content before even doing several research papers in college. Even for a research paper you do not have to maintain the level of consistency that Wikipedia demands. The level of consistency that Wikipedia demands include staying neutral in tone and context. While stay neutral you must also be informative. Wikipedia makes you nerves because you are contributing but you are not alone people come behind you and hold you accountable unlike writing a research paper!
