Many students assume that the online, free encyclopedia, Wikipedia (Links to an external site.) is a valid, authoritative and useful reference source for their scholarly work as a student at NVCC. Many teachers say that Wikipedia is garbage and should never be used. Which is it?
In this assignment, we will be examining just how authoritative (and stable) Wikipedia (aka Wiki) is
Examine a specific entry from Wikipedia and check for changes that have occurred over a period of six months, and compare the information from the Wikipedia entry with the information from the Encyclopedia Britannica Academic (BA), an established reference source.
Chose a term to analyze
Your term must be in both Wiki and and BA.
Your term must fit the chronology of your course. (before 1500 CE for HIS 101 and HIS 111; after 1500 CE for HIS 102 and HIS 112)
You have a textbook with hundreds of pages of history that you can use to help you decide on a term–check the book’s index.
You should choose a research term that is clear, focused and doable. For example, “World War II” or “The Roman Empire” will be too difficult and too large to analyze in this assignment. You simply are not going to be able to expertly compare 12 pages of material on, for example, World War II, with the twelve pages of material in BA. So, instead of picking “the Roman Empire,” you should pick “Trajan.”
Instead of picking “Zhou dynasty,” you might pick “King Nan of Zhou.” Instead of “World War I,” you might pick the “Chemin des Dames.” Here are some sample suggestions (Links to an external site.) for research terms.
You must email your term choice to your instructor for approval at least two days before the assignment is due.
We do not accept terms that are primarily U.S. history, nor do we accept any World War II terms, national socialism related entries, or Hitler, Stalin, Napoleon. Your professor has final say on whether an entry is appropriate.
With the permission of your instructor, instead of using BA, you may compare your English-language entry with the equivalent Wikipedia entry in a foreign language, for example, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beslan_school_hostage_crisis (Links to an external site.) and ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Террористический_акт_в_Беслане (Links to an external site.).
Your analysis paper should be no more than two pages
double-spaced, one-inch margins, font size 10 or 12
brief introduction and conclusion paragraphs (each not to exceed three lines)
name, and only your name, at the top left of the paper
Consider such questions as these to help you organize your paper:
Is the specific information contained in both the Wikipedia and BA entries the same or different? How different?
How much have the Wikipedia and BA entries changed (or not changed) over a period of at least six months?
Do we have any idea of the credentials/authority of the authors who created the Wikipedia and BA entries?
Do the entries footnote sources of reference information and provide suggested reading and websites?
Last Completed Projects
| topic title | academic level | Writer | delivered |
|---|
