User:Jorte106/sandbox

Week 4 Assignment 1.) Blog posts and press releases are considered poor sources of reliable information. Why? Blog posts and press releases are typically a person's opinion, not fact. To write information about a topic based on a person's opinion would be irresponsible for multiple reasons, such as the fact that his or her opinion may be uninformed or purely based on personal bias. Reliable information is information that has been reviewed by many, critiqued, and compared to other verifiable facts; it does not come from one person's singular viewpoint.

2.) What are some reasons you might not want to use a company's website as the main source of information about that company? A company's website is going to try to paint the company in the best light possible to make it appealing to consumers. For example, maybe sales from a specific year where the company did well may be provided but not the latest numbers if they did not do as well as in the past. Therefore, this makes the website bias, and information must be unbiased and not swayed by a specific person or group.

3.) What is the difference between a copyright violation and plagiarism? Plagiarism is using someone's work as your own and taking credit for it. Copyright violation is using someone's work without their permission, but it is not necessarily taking credit for the work. Both are punishable legally since both violate the author or creator's rights of intellectual property.

4.) What are some good techniques to avoid close paraphrasing and plagiarism? A good technique to use would be to read a few articles about a particular topic and take notes on what you have read. Then read another related article but not one that focuses on the same exact topic. After that try to explain the topic of the first articles you read, and compare them to your notes after to make sure it is accurate and not too close to the original. Also, save the names and links of every article, website, book, or other source you used to properly cite later. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Jorte106 (talk • contribs) 01:46, 13 February 2017 (UTC)

I will be adding to the article for Marquis de Lafayette. There is inform lacking on his position on crucial topics such as slavery, which was an important issue for him considering he was the author of the "Declaration of the Rights of Man". Also, his article does not go into depth about his relations with main French characters, like King Louis XVI. Information on his critiques of the Catholic Church are basically nonexistent, which is also an important topic considering he was very much a man of the people. I have found plenty of information on certain topics, such as his proposals on how to abolish slavery and his personal opinions of the King, but information on his personal religion or how he felt on religion is not very plentiful. Regardless, I think it is an important topic to add since ideology was a major part of the French Revolution. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Jorte106 (talk • contribs) 03:24, 13 February 2017 (UTC)

Week 5 I will be specifically focusing on Lafayette's opinion on slavery since he was a vocal opponent to it. He had several ideas of how to eradicate slavery from the French economy, even trying to convince George Washington to follow his ideas to eventually eradicate slavery from the American economy. His ideas basically involved indentured servitude by paying the slaves he owned a small amount and then eventually freeing them.

Sources http://www.mountvernon.org/digital-encyclopedia/article/marquis-de-lafayettes-plan-for-slavery/ http://rmc.library.cornell.edu/lafayette/exhibition/english/abolitionist/ https://www.monticello.org/site/jefferson/marquis-de-lafayette "Lafayette and Slavery; From His Letters to Thomas Clarkson and Granville Sharp" by Melvin D. Kennedy https://rare.library.cornell.edu/collections/europe/france/lafayette

View on slavery Lafayette was a very outspoken critic on the issue of slavery, especially for his time. He composed an idea which he believed could slowly ween France's economy off its dependency on slavery. The plan included the owner of a plantation providing his slaves with a plot of land on which to grow their own crops. The slaves were paid and were to be freed eventually. Lafayette actually put his idea to the test by buying plots of land in the colony of Saint Domingue, which is today called Haiti. On this land, his slaves worked but were paid for their labor; in addition, they were also given a basic education. This form of labor reflected that of indentured servitude more than it did on slavery. He tried to convince his good friend, George Washington, to follow this model with his slaves on Mount Vernon. Until the end of his life Lafayette fought passionately to abolish slavery but did so in a realistic way understanding the effects and role slavery played in the economies of many countries. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Jorte106 (talk • contribs) 03:23, 20 February 2017 (UTC)

Week 6

View on slavery

As the author of the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, written in 1789, Lafayette was a staunch opponent to the concept of slavery. His writing was adopted as part of the French Constitution and included revolutionary ideas such as the freedom and equality of all men[1]. His work never specifically mentioned slavery; however, he made clear his position on the controversial topic through letters addressed to friends and colleagues, such as George Washington and Thomas Jefferson. Lafayette proposed that slaves not be owned but rather work as free tenants on the land of plantation owners. In 1785, Lafayette bought a plantation in the French colony of Cayenne to begin putting his experimental ideas into practice. He ordered that none of his slaves be bought or sold[2]. He spent his lifetime as an abolitionist, proposing slaves be emancipated slowly, recognizing the crucial role slavery played in many economies. He hoped his ideas would be adopted by George Washington in order to free the slaves in the United States of America and hopefully spread from there. His efforts were not in vain, as George Washington eventually began implementing Lafayette's practices in his own plantation in Mount Vernon[3]. Also, following Lafayette's death in 1834, his grandson, Gustave de Beaumont released a novel discussing the issues of racism[4].

View on government structure

Lafayette was a firm believer in a constitutional monarchy. He believed that tradition and revolutionary ideals good be mended together by having a democratic National Assembly work with a monarch, as France had always had. His close relationships to Americans such as George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, who both happened to be Founding Fathers of the United States, gave Lafayette the ability to witness the implementation of a democratic system in a country. His views on potential government structures for France were directly influenced by the American form of government, which was in turn influenced by the British form of government. For example, Lafayette believed in a bicameral legislature, as the United States had. The Jacobins, however, detested the idea of a monarchy in France; this led to it ultimately being voted against by the National Assembly. This idea only helped lead to his fall from favor, especially when Maximilien Robespierre took power[5].

Jump up ^ http://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/rightsof.asp Jump up ^ http://academicmuseum.lafayette.edu/special/specialexhibits/slaveryexhibit/onlineexhibit/gabrielle.htm Jump up ^ http://www.mountvernon.org/digital-encyclopedia/article/marquis-de-lafayettes-plan-for-slavery/ Jump up ^ http://rmc.library.cornell.edu/lafayette/exhibition/english/abolitionist/ Jump up ^ http://www.encyclopedia.com/people/history/us-history-biographies/marquis-de-lafayette

1.) What do you think of Wikipedia's definition of "neutrality"? I think the definition of neutrality provided by Wikipedia is very well explained. This discards blogs, opinion pieces, and any article with a perceived bias from being used as sources. This allows Wikipedia articles to remain uninfluenced by opinions of authors or organizations. It also allows for information to be truthful since it is unbiased.

2.) What are the impacts and limits of Wikipedia as a source of information? Wikipedia can be very useful in redirecting to useful resources and cites. This is because Wikipedia only accepts credible sources when works are cited. However, it is limited by the fact that editors are not necessarily scholars, so information can be incorrect. Also, bots and editors may not get to the article being used in time to remove any wrong information or flawed additions since each article is reviewed one by one.

3.) On Wikipedia, all material must be attributable to reliable, published sources. What kinds of sources does this exclude? Can you think of any problems that might create? This includes sources such as textbooks, encyclopedias, newspapers, and novels. This can be a problem since typically published sources tend to be dated by the time they are referred to since it is hard copied print and information is always updating. This may keep from information being completely up to date.

4.) If Wikipedia was written 100 years ago, how might its content (and contributors) be different? What about 100 years from now? If Wikipedia was written 100 years ago, I think information would be far more scare since people in 1917 did not have such an abundance of information readily available at their fingertips. That being said, I feel like Wikipedia in 2117 will be updating almost instantly, with information undoubtedly being even more available than it is today.