User:Dmarbury94/essay

This my reflective essay on my time in this class and it should explain what I did during this course and also the improvement from the first day until now.

First, Critiquing Articles:

During the article evaluations I learned that certain information can be accurate but if you do not have the right sourcing and its not a legitimate source then the information will be removed. The administrators are going to make sure that it is not any vulgar or outright defamation of character on Wikipedia. I approached the article I critiqued by making sure I had good sourcing and that they were creditable enough for the article I chose to do. Anybody can add information to any article but if the references not legit then it will be deleted. I decided what to add to my article by visiting google and searching my topic to see what information came up. I made sure that my references were good and that the sites were not just something somebody made up.

Second, Summarizing your contributions:

I have made many edits on Wikipedia. Most of my edits were to my own information that I added on there. I edited a little information to some articles like Young Dolph, but it was removed because at that time I thought you could just copy and paste some information and it would be alright. I thought wrong and the information I had added was removed, I’m guessing due to copyright. I also had typed up an article on the Birmingham Post Office, but it was later removed also because Wikipedia didn’t find it significant enough to be published on there and I did not have any other sources besides what I got from the archive’s museum downtown. They say it was because it was not the actual first post office. I made a few more little minor edits like removing false information or just changing some information around. The last article I did was on The Winter Soldier (2018 novel) by Daniel Mason and it was a good article, it was nominated to be on the front page under the Did You Know section. It has yet to appear on there, but it was approved so I hope to see it on there before the semester is over. I do not think it even compares to my first article I typed up because I really did my research on this one and made sure I had adequate sourcing other than just some newspaper articles.

Third, Peer Review:

I know we did peer reviews in class before and I have always told my peers that they were doing great on their assignments. I told one peer that they chose a nice topic they just did not have enough information on the article and to add more sources for notability. It just really depended on what topic was chosen to what my response would be. My peers offered me some changes on my first article which was the Birmingham Post Office but as I stated above it was removed. When I typed up my second article I did not get any recommendations on changes from my peers, it was more from Shalor on Wikipedia who helped me develop my article to where it is now.

Then, Feedback:

I received some feedback from Shalor on Wikipedia. She looked over my article and saw I had added some information that I did not need too. She removed it and added some information to help make my article better. I responded to her by thanking her because at one point I was lost on what to do and if I needed to add more information to it. I also asked her if there was anything else I could do but I didn’t receive a response. Later on in the week my article got approved and nominated to be in the Did You Know section on the front page of Wikipedia.

Finally, Wikipedia Generally:

I learned how to use Wikipedia and also how it works. Before this class I had no idea that you could do some much on Wikipedia and that you could really become known on there. It taught me how to edit different articles and how to gather information while making sure the source was notable. I do not think I have an assignment that was going to be posted on the worldwide web where you have to make sure all the information you are typing is good and notable. I’m a criminal justice major so we do not do anything like this at all in my classes, this is the first class to where I have to do everything right. I think the public understands Wikipedia more than people think, long as your sources are creditable I don’t see a problem. Many professors though do not allow you to use Wikipedia as a source because anybody can add or remove information which is the only thing I think they should improve on. My topic is pretty understandable, it is a book, so you can always go find it and read it to get a better understanding of the information in my article. It is important because this site is full of information on any thing you can think of from snow tires to the Pythagorean Theorem and it should be where you have to have a legit profile. By that happening I am sure instructors would not mind their students using it as a source.

Conclusion:

I have lots of fun in this class and it has taught me a lot. I really did not know how to use Wikipedia before this class. It is so much information on here that I did not know existed and you can also add your own which is good too.