I had dabbled in editing Wikipedia pages that I was passionate about a few years ago, so when professor Bazely mentioned that one of the assignments was going to be editing Wikipedia pages, I thought it was going to be a walk in the park. It wasn’t. Wikipedia editing isn’t about creating an account and editing stuff that I felt was inaccurate. One of the most important tenets of Wikipedia editing is that it is not a publisher of original thought or research. Nor is it a place to debate or publish one’s personal theories. For Wikipedia to be a reliable resource, us editors have to understand that it is an encyclopedia. It is a compilation (with properly referenced sources, of course) that is written objectively, with the least amount of personal bias.
When I am writing about something that I am passionate about, it is very hard to keep my personal opinion out. Thankfully, the assignment only involved editing an appropriate article that was either incomplete, had inaccuracies, or lacked proper references. The Wikipedia training modules were an excellent help in learning how to navigate, and edit Wikipedia pages. I chose to edit an article on biofuel regulations in Canada, as my class presentation was on that topic as well. My editing involved adding citations to the article, correcting obvious grammatical errors, and expanding the text a bit with updated information on the Canadian government policies regarding addition of biofuels in petroleum based fuels.
Applied Plant Ecology Winter 2020 