{"id":443,"date":"2024-12-18T20:30:21","date_gmt":"2024-12-18T20:30:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/textbook.mediasmarts.ca\/exploringstudent\/chapter\/improving-wikipedia\/"},"modified":"2025-07-23T20:35:04","modified_gmt":"2025-07-23T20:35:04","slug":"improving-wikipedia","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/textbook.mediasmarts.ca\/exploringstudent\/chapter\/improving-wikipedia\/","title":{"raw":"Improving Wikipedia","rendered":"Improving Wikipedia"},"content":{"raw":"You can be part of improving Wikipedia! (Or another [pb_glossary id=\"822\"]Wiki[\/pb_glossary].)\r\n\r\nTake a look at the list of <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Category:Stub-Class_articles\">Stub-Class<\/a> articles, <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Category:Start-Class_articles\">Start-Class<\/a> articles or <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Category:C-Class_articles\">C-Class<\/a> articles and find one about a topic that you already know a lot about or are interested in researching.\r\n\r\nStart with the Talk page to see if there are any suggestions for improvements or if anyone has identified missing content.\r\n\r\nNext, read through the article. Is there anything that looks inaccurate to you? Are there any obvious gaps you can fill?\r\n\r\nNow it\u2019s time to do some research! Look for reliable sources on the topic to correct any inaccurate information or add new content. (Visit the Wikipedia site to find out <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Wikipedia:Reliable_sources\">what Wikipedia considers to be a reliable source<\/a>.)\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li>Keep track of your sources so you can use them as references.<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\nWhen you\u2019re done, you can make your changes by clicking the article\u2019s Edit tab.\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li>To make it easier to read,\u00a0 click the pencil icon at the right side of the page and choose \u201cVisual editing\u201d: That will make it look like a regular article without all the markup text.<\/li>\r\n \t<li>You can make edits without a Wikipedia user ID, but if you want to make a user ID you can visit the <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/w\/index.php?title=Special:CreateAccount\">Create an Account<\/a> page.<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\nWhen you\u2019ve finished making your edits, click Preview to make sure they look the way you want them to.\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<div class=\"textbox shaded\">\r\n\r\nImportant: <strong>Only<\/strong> publish edits if you really believe they will improve the article. Bad edits make\u00a0 Wikipedia worse for everyone (and also quickly get reverted by bots.)\r\n\r\n<strong>If<\/strong> you decide to publish your edits, put the reasons why you made them in Edit Summary at the bottom of the page.\r\n\r\nThen click Publish Changes and check out the new version of the article!\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\nWhether you decide to publish your edits or not, you will need to hand in:\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li>a link to the original article<\/li>\r\n \t<li>your research on the topic and sources<\/li>\r\n \t<li>the new article with your revisions<\/li>\r\n \t<li>the Edit Summary that explains how the edits improved the article.<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>","rendered":"<p>You can be part of improving Wikipedia! (Or another <a class=\"glossary-term\" aria-haspopup=\"dialog\" aria-describedby=\"definition\" href=\"#term_443_822\">Wiki<\/a>.)<\/p>\n<p>Take a look at the list of <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Category:Stub-Class_articles\">Stub-Class<\/a> articles, <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Category:Start-Class_articles\">Start-Class<\/a> articles or <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Category:C-Class_articles\">C-Class<\/a> articles and find one about a topic that you already know a lot about or are interested in researching.<\/p>\n<p>Start with the Talk page to see if there are any suggestions for improvements or if anyone has identified missing content.<\/p>\n<p>Next, read through the article. Is there anything that looks inaccurate to you? Are there any obvious gaps you can fill?<\/p>\n<p>Now it\u2019s time to do some research! Look for reliable sources on the topic to correct any inaccurate information or add new content. (Visit the Wikipedia site to find out <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Wikipedia:Reliable_sources\">what Wikipedia considers to be a reliable source<\/a>.)<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Keep track of your sources so you can use them as references.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>When you\u2019re done, you can make your changes by clicking the article\u2019s Edit tab.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>To make it easier to read,\u00a0 click the pencil icon at the right side of the page and choose \u201cVisual editing\u201d: That will make it look like a regular article without all the markup text.<\/li>\n<li>You can make edits without a Wikipedia user ID, but if you want to make a user ID you can visit the <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/w\/index.php?title=Special:CreateAccount\">Create an Account<\/a> page.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>When you\u2019ve finished making your edits, click Preview to make sure they look the way you want them to.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div class=\"textbox shaded\">\n<p>Important: <strong>Only<\/strong> publish edits if you really believe they will improve the article. Bad edits make\u00a0 Wikipedia worse for everyone (and also quickly get reverted by bots.)<\/p>\n<p><strong>If<\/strong> you decide to publish your edits, put the reasons why you made them in Edit Summary at the bottom of the page.<\/p>\n<p>Then click Publish Changes and check out the new version of the article!<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Whether you decide to publish your edits or not, you will need to hand in:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>a link to the original article<\/li>\n<li>your research on the topic and sources<\/li>\n<li>the new article with your revisions<\/li>\n<li>the Edit Summary that explains how the edits improved the article.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div class=\"glossary\"><span class=\"screen-reader-text\" id=\"definition\">definition<\/span><template id=\"term_443_822\"><div class=\"glossary__definition\" role=\"dialog\" data-id=\"term_443_822\"><div tabindex=\"-1\"><p>An online information source that is created, edited and maintained by its users.<\/p>\n<\/div><button><span aria-hidden=\"true\">&times;<\/span><span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Close definition<\/span><\/button><\/div><\/template><\/div>","protected":false},"author":2,"menu_order":4,"template":"","meta":{"pb_show_title":"on","pb_short_title":"","pb_subtitle":"","pb_authors":[],"pb_section_license":""},"chapter-type":[],"contributor":[],"license":[],"class_list":["post-443","chapter","type-chapter","status-publish","hentry"],"part":436,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/textbook.mediasmarts.ca\/exploringstudent\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/443","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/textbook.mediasmarts.ca\/exploringstudent\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/textbook.mediasmarts.ca\/exploringstudent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/chapter"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/textbook.mediasmarts.ca\/exploringstudent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/textbook.mediasmarts.ca\/exploringstudent\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/443\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":951,"href":"https:\/\/textbook.mediasmarts.ca\/exploringstudent\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/443\/revisions\/951"}],"part":[{"href":"https:\/\/textbook.mediasmarts.ca\/exploringstudent\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/parts\/436"}],"metadata":[{"href":"https:\/\/textbook.mediasmarts.ca\/exploringstudent\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/443\/metadata\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/textbook.mediasmarts.ca\/exploringstudent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=443"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"chapter-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/textbook.mediasmarts.ca\/exploringstudent\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapter-type?post=443"},{"taxonomy":"contributor","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/textbook.mediasmarts.ca\/exploringstudent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/contributor?post=443"},{"taxonomy":"license","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/textbook.mediasmarts.ca\/exploringstudent\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/license?post=443"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}