Improve Wikipedia Article

Each student must improve one Wikipedia article that addresses a work, author, character, or setting from our assigned reading. Each student will analyze the current Wikipedia article and then rewrite the article to preserve its strengths and to correct its weaknesses. Students should select an article that needs improvement. For instance, compare the excellent (and very long) Wikipedia article about Shakespeare’s Hamlet with the weaker article about Gilgamesh or the very weak article about Vikatanitamba. Avoid the “Hamlet” article as it has little room for you to make a contribution; however, the article is a good model for you to follow as you improve some other article. Begin your article by using the opening paragraph of the Wikipedia article. For instance, if you choose to develop the article about Homer’s epic The Odyssey, then start this way: According to Wikipedia, The Odyssey (/??d?si/; Greek: ???????? Odýsseia, pronounced [o.dýs.sej.ja] in Classical Attic) is one of two major ancient Greek epic poems attributed to Homer. It is, in part, a sequel to the Iliad, the other work ascribed to Homer. The poem is fundamental to the modern Western canon, and is the second oldest extant work of Western literature, the Iliad being the oldest. Scholars believe it was composed near the end of the 8th century BC, somewhere in Ionia, the Greek coastal region of Anatolia. If you copy and paste the material from Wikipedia, then you must be careful to change the font and style to match your MLA document and to remove the hyperlinks, which MLA does not use. Remember, MLA and Wikipedia do not use the same format, so be mindful. Part of the purpose for this assignment is to teach you how to format a document in MLA style. You should also add authoritative resources to support the facts in any material you add to your document. For instance, add a reference for the date of composition mentioned in the sample paragraph above. You should add at least 1,000 words of new material to the Wikipedia article and no more than 2,000 words. Doc1 focuses on research of a given work. It also assesses if you can analyze an existing critical article for strengths and weaknesses. Thus, this assignment helps you sharpen your ability to analyze and research an assigned topic or issue, a skill that will work well for you in college and in your careers. Your purpose is to provide interested readers with reliable information about your topic. Your voice should be academic, educated, and authoritative—slightly stuffy. You should verify everything you write with authoritative sources. There is no room in this article for your opinion, so avoid using first and second person (I and you). You should assume an educated audience in search of useful, reliable information about your work. You want to convince them that they have gotten the best information, so you must base your information on authoritative resources. The library can help you find those resources. Follow the MLA guidelines. You must cite everything in your article. Citations have two parts: the in-text citation which points to a reference on the Works Cited page. For instance, when you quote a work such as The Odyssey by Homer, put the title of the epic in italics, put the quote itself in quotation marks if shorter than 4 lines: “’Let me tell you,’ said I, ‘whichever of the goddesses you may happen to be, that I am not staying here of my own accord, but must have offended the gods that live in heaven’” (156), with the page number/s in parentheses inside the end punctuation. If you quote 4 lines or more, set off the quote on separate lines, indented one-half inch from the left margin, without quotation marks, with the page number/s in parentheses outside the end punctuation. For instance, in her introduction to Homer’s epic poems, Laura Getty says:  We know almost nothing about Homer; scholars debate whether one or more authors composed the epic poems attributed to him. It is possible that he was a Greek who lived on the coast of what is now Turkey, not far from the location of Troy. If so, his balanced depiction of the Greeks and the Trojans in the Iliad is noteworthy, since he would be a descendant of those Greeks who invaded the area approximately 400 years earlier, when the historical Troy was attacked and burned in around 1200 B.C.E. (105) Using the author’s name (Homer or Laura Getty) in your citation points the reader to a reference on the Works Cited page at the end of the document. Remember: a citation has two parts: in-text citation and end of document reference. You must use both, and the two are linked usually by the author’s last name. MUST USE ONE OF THESE WORKS OF LITERATURE: 1. Genesis 2. Ovid’s Metamorphoses 3. Canterbury Tales 4. The Decameron 5. Gilgamesh 6. Oedipus 7. Sermon on the Mount & The Quran 8. The Iliad 9. Art of War & Bhagavad Gita 10. The Apology & The Analects 11. The Prince 12. Hamlet