User:AsyaVitko/Preparatory Assignment

On Maosim
The article on Maoism presents facts on what is known as Maoist political theory or thought. In the scope of the article there are: historical context in which Mao's theory was developing; summary of the key ideas of Mao's theory; place Mao's theory has taken in the world. Article does not give detailed information on any of the aspects mentioned above. For example, in the list of the stages of Mao's intellectual development it is mentioned that in the period from 1935 to 1945 there was separation from the Soviet model, however, nowhere in the article it is clarified what the relation of Maoism to Soviet model was. Another example comes from the subpart on Yan'an period: it is mentioned that Mao produced a number of works that would later be called Mao's thought, however, it does not give specific names of those works. Thus, I think the article in general would benefit from more historical details that illustrate the presented facts. The article is useful to those only starting Chinese philosophy since it helps to create a surface understanding of Maoism. The entry is well balanced since it pays equal amount of attention to the three aspects in the scope. However, in the subpart on Maoism's international influences there is a lack of information on some countries such as Bangladesh, Afghanistan etc. Thus, the article would benefit from additional and more detailed information in this subpart. However, my concern is that if more facts and figures are added to this aspect, the focus of the article will shift towards the international influences of Maoism. If this seems the case after information is added, I would consider creating a separate entry for this topic.

On Marxism-Leninism-Maoism
This article includes information on the differences between Mao's Thought and Marxism-Leninism-Maoism (MLM), the origins of MLM, main components of MLM. I did not find the subpart on the origins particularly useful as it does not give any details and does not list names of the key individuals involved in the formation of MLM. Also the subpart would benefit if a broader historic context was described that would explain reasons behind MLM formation. Subpart on the components of MLM also contains limited amount of information, and though I found it more useful, still it would be beneficial to enrich it with more details. For example, I would be interested to know if there is something analagous for Leninism and Marxism-Leninism or the concept is unique for Mao's Thought and MLM. Influences of MLM are better developed than influences of Maoism in the article on Maoism. Overall the entry seems to be balanced between the three aspects it covers. Also I did not notice any major inaccuracies in information presentation.

On Contradiction
The article on Mao's essay called "On Contradiction" is well-developed in a sense that it gives a good summary of the article's contents and origins. It was rather useful for me in that it helped to consicely formulate all the important components of Mao's philosophy. I also did not notice historical inaccuracies in the article. I think the entry would benefit if its scope was enlarged to include more information on the reaction in the public and influences the essay had on other thinkers, place it took in the philosophical movement of dialectical materialism. Also it would be helpful to have more information on how exactly the essay must be seen as a philosophical underpinning of Maoism.

Writing for Wikipedia
Opportunities are to learn in greater depth about Chinese philosophy through reading various sources and summarising them. The chances are that it is possible to find something not yet covered in Wikipedia, since Chinese philosophy does not seem to be an easy topic to study, hence, does not seem to be deeply covered in Wikipedia. Challenges are to choose and narrow down a topic of the entry since it requires broad familiarity with the field. Also it is not easy to find good historical sources that provide objective information on the Chinese philosophy, particularly Chinese philosophy of the XX century. When choosing sources for writing an entry, assessment of their origins, content, purpose has to be made to fully understand the level of their objectivity and accuracy. Another challenge I foresee is writing a good summary, since it is important to feel what extent of details is good and when adding more details becomes excessive making it harder to comprehend the information. The differences from a philosophical essay are the following: Wikipedia entry must be a presentation of facts rather than discussion or development of ideas. Even though, facts might be contradictory in different secondary sources, the purpose of the entry is to give an overview of differences but not to make a judgment on which views carry more truth in them. Also I would assume that a Wikipedia entry targets general public - those who are not the professionals in a field and intend to get a taste of the matter - thus, entry should not be overloaded with technical terms. If such terms do appear, they must be clarified that is not all the time required in a philosophical essay.