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In this assignment, we will be examining just how authoritative (and stable) Wikipedia (aka Wiki) is

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In this assignment, we will be examining just how authoritative (and stable) Wikipedia (aka Wiki) is. First, you will examine a specific entry from Wikipedia and check for changes that have occurred over a period of six months, and then you will compare the information from the Wikipedia entry with the information from the Encyclopedia Britannica Academic (BA), an established reference source.

Since you may have never really looked carefully at a Wikipedia entry, I want you first to look at my Explanation of Using Wikipedia (Links to an external site.) before you start this paper assignment.

1. Chose a term to analyze
   • Your term must be in both Wiki and BA. (See How to Access Encyclopedia Britannica Academic Online (Links to an external site.). If you are unable to access Britannica, please let me know, and I will suggest an alternative reference source. If you are not a registered NVCC student, you may have trouble accessing BA, please contact your instructor. )
   • 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,
   • 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? From your writing in the course, you already note that cited evidence is extremely important!
     • Your overall conclusion should then assess how does the Wikipedia information compare with the information in BA? Which encyclopedia do you find most useful for the term that you have selected.
   • Since you are writing a comparison, you need to be fair. For example, if you examine how many times Wikipedia changed, then you should examine how many times BA changed.