Navigating Wikipedia and Wikipedia Articles
Wisely
The Unquiet Library August 2012
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DO…
Assess all information in an article.
Use the information you find to then discover/use alternate, more scholarly sources.
Use Wikipedia to learn the basic information about a new subject or to build some basic background
knowledge. It is a starting point.
Source: http://libguides.tamuk.edu/content.php?pid=164882&sid=1390945&search_terms=evaluating+Wikipedia 2
DON’T…
Fail to investigate the source list at the end of the article—this can be a “jumping off” point
for other possible sources.
Treat the information in the article as authoritative facts.
Use Wikipedia as your only or primary source of information.
Source: http://libguides.tamuk.edu/content.php?pid=164882&sid=1390945&search_terms=evaluating+Wikipedia 3
Featured Content
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Featured articles are considered to be the best articles Wikipedia has to offer as determined by Wikipedia's editors
A small bronze star icon () on the top right corner of an article's page indicates that the article is featured
Articles are evaluated for accuracy, neutrality, completeness, and style
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Anatomy of Wikipedia Articles
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See also
References
Further Reading
External Links
Date Published or Updated
Cleanup Notes
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Article Section: See Also
Provides a list additional articles in Wikipedia for reading and investigation
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Article Section: References
A list web and print resources referenced in this article
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Article Section: Further Reading
A section of suggestions for additional reading outside of Wikipedia
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Article Section: External Links
A list of suggested web links to browse outside of Wikipedia
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NOTE: all external sources and links should be evaluated for accuracy and credibility;
their inclusion does not automatically mean they are trustworthy sources of information.
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Date Published or Updated
suggested web links to browse outside of Wikipedia
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Cleanup Templates/Notes
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Talk Tab of an Article
A discussion of issues and/or history of the
article
A place to see the “grade” or evaluation
of the article from Wikipedia editors
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Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template:Grading_scheme 19
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View the History of an Article
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The revision history statistics can show us interesting editorial data
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Q&
A
Q&A
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