Wikipedia is an online, open access encyclopedia, although some may refer to it as their academic hero. This website is brimming with information on nearly any topic one can think of. The only downfall, depending on how you look at it, is the fact that anyone can edit it as they please. As a result of this, there is a popular anecdote circulating on the internet, explaining how an entire high school history class wrote papers about how Hitler was secretly in a relationship with Stalin, a ploy devised by their teacher to weed out the hard workers from the plagiarizers. Regardless of this problematic facet, myself, along with the rest of the world will most likely never grow tired of good ol’ Wikipedia.
I, myself, had never edited a Wikipedia page until a few weeks ago. I’d always assumed there was some criteria or certification that one needed to edit a page. But it turns out that all you need to do is create an account! And let me tell you, it’s a rush knowing so many people’s sources of information lay in the palm of your hand. I could alter history… At least until someone corrects my edits and probably has me banned from the website.
I decided to edit a page about a plant that has always interested me; carnivorous plants. The concept of a plant having the capacity to eat meat is nothing short of baffling. Upon analysing the table of contents on this page, I realised that a major section was missing. It was none of than a conservation sub-heading. I took it upon myself to integrate a paragraph describing conservation threats and research implemented to potentially solve these issues or mitigate the problems already in action. I did so by reading articles published in science journals, and made sure to cite my sources. I truly hope that my work will help some poor soul out there, writing a last minute essay on plant conservation.
Don’t forget to cite me! 😀
(I created https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carnivorous_plant#Conservation_Threats and added a few sentences here and there throughout the page. Be sure to check it out!)
Applied Plant Ecology Winter 2020 