Editing Wikipedia articles about

Editing Wikipedia can be daunting for Engage with editors newbies, especially as a student editor contributing to Wikipedia for the first Part of the Wikipedia experience is receiving time as a class assignment. This guide and responding to feedback from other is designed to assist students assigned editors. Don’t wait until the last day to make to add cultural anthropology content to a contribution, or you may miss out on articles on Wikipedia. important comments, advice, and ideas that could improve your work. Volunteers from the Wikipedia will likely read, respond, wikipedia globe vector [no layers] or ask questions about your article. If you get Be accurate a comment, make sure you acknowledge it. You’re editing a resource that Discussion is a crucial part of the Wikipedia millions of use to inform process. themselves about the world, to draw conclusions about human behavior, Avoid close paraphrasing guide policy decisions, and make sense of their and those of Wikipedia articles must be written in your own others. Anthropologists understand words. Plagiarizing by copy-and-pasting or close the of responsible writing and paraphrasing — when most of the words are the neutral presentation of facts — changed, but the structure and meaning of the Wikipedia is your chance to put original text remains — is against the rules. theory into practice! For a Wikipedia assignment, such plagiarism is a violation of your university’s academic honor Understand the code. Plagiarism on Wikipedia will be caught by guidelines other editors, there will be a permanent record Wikipedia editors in the social of plagiarism tied to your account, and your sciences have developed these instructor will be notified. Even with standard guidelines for writing about resources like textbooks, you cannot directly anthropology-related topics. Take copy descriptions of social concepts, studies, or the time to read and understand the theories into Wikipedia. suggestions here to make sure you meet expectations when you edit The best way to avoid plagiarism is to make sure Wikipedia. When articles don’t meet you really understand your material, draw from these guidelines, fixing mistakes a number of different sources, and write about it costs valuable volunteer time that in your own words. You may use direct quotation could have been spent improving when it is important to keep the original content. wording, but be sure to explicitly mark what is being quoted, and cite the source. If you aren’t comfortable working within these guidelines, talk to your Don’t be scared. Be bold! instructor about an alternative off- Everybody on Wikipedia wants to make it the wiki assignment. best it can be. Take the time to understand these guidelines, and soon you’ll be contributing important knowledge to a resources millions of people use every day! Getting started

Choosing an article Avoid these sources: Consider looking for interesting and plentiful • Primary sources sources before you choose a topic, and then • Blog posts or other sources that aren’t peer- develop an article based on what you find. Also reviewed look for topics on Wikipedia that are missing, poorly developed, or incomplete. For example: Sometimes, however, it makes sense to cite a primary source like an ethnography, especially • A biography of an important scholar that if it’s the main source of information about lacks coverage of their work; your topic. If this is the case, you can use the source to back up basic details, but do not cite • An article about an anthropological theory it as your only source for major claims. Don’t that doesn’t explain its impact or implications; generalize findings, either: you can’t apply a or, research study about a single group of people to • An article about a culture or people that a larger group of people. doesn’t include, for example, sections about their systems of belief, customs, or knowledge. Remember your audience is global. Try to find sources from other parts of the world Not all anthropological topics and theories (they do not need to be in English!), and merit their own article. Consider adding reflect any significant differences in content or an anthropological perspective to an terminology. existing article, like an article about a social phenomenon or cultural belief. Evaluating sources For ideas, check out WikiProject Anthropology, For Wikipedia’s guidelines on finding good and see the Finding Your Article training: sources, see| shortcut WP:RS . wikiedu.org/finding-articles

Primary vs. secondary sources What’s a shortcut? The text WP:RS is what’s known on Unlike many academic papers you’ve written, Wikipedia as a shortcut. You can type a Wikipedia article prioritizes secondary shortcuts like this into Wikipedia’s search sources over primary sources. Avoid citing bar to pull up specific pages that might sources where authors participated directly otherwise be hard to find. in the research or documented their personal experiences. Look instead for sources that put their findings in context. Consider the content of a source. Weigh conclusions of a book or journal article against Cite these sources: other sources in your field. It’s a good idea to draw from a number of sources when making a • Peer-reviewed articles and books found in claim. Always try to use sources that are subject databases like JSTOR and EBSCOhost. to a peer-review process. Reputable journals include Current Anthropology and Cultural Anthropology. Consider the publisher of a source. Work • Reputable press articles synthesizing a topic. cited should come from a reliable publisher of anthropological literature, such as Oxford University Press, Bloomsbury Publishing, or University of Chicago Press. Structuring your article

Depicting information accurately Organizing your article Creating a well-balanced article requires an Every article will be unique, but there are some overview of all major viewpoints about a topic. general sections that readers and other editors Scholars frequently disagree, and sometimes will expect to see. Add, remove, or reorder these their methods or perspectives result in suggested sections as needed. Keep in mind competing narratives or interpretations of an that most research and theories don’t deserve a anthropological phenomenon. Give appropriate stand-alone article, but may form an important weight to aspects of the topic as reliable part of an article about a broader topic. literature covers it. Writing about a theorist You’re not just writing about a topic; you’re To learn more about writing biographies, writing about how scholars have written about consult the Biographies handout, available at it. Resist the urge to add your own analysis or wikiedu.org/biographies to connect multiple sources together to form an argument. See | shortcut WP:NOR . Writing about a people Understanding tone • Lead section A concept that you may consider to be obvious, • History may not be to others. Take, for example, • Ethnic identity the concept of “common sense”, which is • (religion, government, class structure, defined differently in differing . Write family structure, economy) for a general audience, explain terms where necessary, and wikilink to other articles where • Culture (language, arts, dress, cuisine, sports) readers can learn more. For a good example, see the article for the Wikipedia is committed to presenting facts. Toraja. You may discuss in your anthropology courses Also see Wikipedia’s suggested Outline of culture if ‘objective’ writing is really possible. But or Outline of anthropology. on Wikipedia, there are expectations about what encyclopedic writing looks like. Think of Wikipedia’s guidelines as a set of its own Writing about a cultural phenomenon cultural practices. Read more: | shortcut • Lead section WP:NPOV . • History of the phenomenon, including prominent figures and/or influential works What is the Lead section? • Public reaction At the top of every article is a • Impact or cultural influence lead section, which summarizes the article’s content. It may be a For a good example, see the article for 2012 good idea to save writing the lead phenomenon. section until the end, so you can be sure it properly summarizes what you’ve covered. It should cover all of the most important ideas from the article, and shouldn’t include information that doesn’t appear elsewhere in the article. Wrapping up

Key points Final thoughts As you start writing, keep these guidelines in • Don’t procrastinate! Writing good, reliable mind: Wikipedia articles takes time. If you get stuck, • Resist the urge to add your own analysis. always ask your instructor for extra time Writing for Wikipedia is an opportunity rather than adding content to Wikipedia that to examine your relationship to facts, doesn’t meet these guidelines. interpretations, and biases. A Wikipedia article • Check back on your page. It can be should cover what the literature says, not your interesting to see how your article grows, but interpretation. you may also have comments and suggestions • Give appropriate weight to aspects of the from other editors, and want to get involved topic as the literature covers it. in new developments. • When mentioning technical terms for the • If you have additional questions about first time, provide a short plain-English contributing to Wikipedia, you can ask the explanation in parentheses if possible. Wikipedia Expert listed on your course page. • Write in your own words. To avoid close- • Take pride in your contributions! You’re paraphrasing and copyright issues, thoroughly contributing to public knowledge about understand your material and cross reference anthropological topics and perspectives. your understanding with a variety of sources. You’re bringing depth to the public coverage of those topics and sharing that knowledge with the millions of people who use Wikipedia every day.

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Thanks to Daniel Ginsberg of the American Anthropological Association and Wikipedia User:Ninafundisha for their valuable help with this guide.