How I Became a Wikipedian?

Wikipedia is normally seen as an unreliable source of citation in reference to gaining knowledge due it being a tertiary form of literature. However, professor Bazely introduced an opportunity in which the ecology class was able to gain knowledge through creating and editing Wikipedia pages.

Professor Bazely’s “Wikipedia Editathon Chronicles Part 1” further explained how “wikipedia editathons” can help us gain an in-depth understanding of why Wikipedia should not be used as a source in academic writing.

I truly noticed this as I completed my Wikipedia editing since some information was not cited and several pages had tertiary sources as citations.

Additionally, the modules allowed me to understand proper academic writing and citations which would be beneficial even beyond Wikipedia. For instance, I learned to avoid controversial topics in writing and always maintain an un-biased/neutral writing tone. Additionally, notability is particularly important when writing about any topic or finding articles as it would consist of at least 3-5 reliable sources. Additionally, it was important to note that the Wikipedia’s training modules indicate that Wikipedia itself and blog posts are not reliable sources. Reliable sources include: textbooks, literature reviews, peer-reviewed academic articles and books by reliable publishers.

Using all the training modules, the techniques from professor Bazely and research methods from the librarian, I was better able to contribute reliable information to Wikipedia. I was more excited and better able to contribute to the Wikipedia page after learning to cite and compile sources from my final essay and the Wikipedia workshops. For instance, I contributed to the “deforestation and climate change” page by adding several peer reviewed sources on “notable” information which was missing from the article. For instance, I added a heading for “palm oil production” as it is one of the four major contributors to deforestation in the world. This was a source which was highly notable and included several peer reviewed articles with a non-biased tone.

I guess I am proud to say that: