Wikipedia Education Program/Classroom (Educators)/26b

Week 3: Tips for selecting articles

Not such a good choice
Articles that are "not such a good choice" usually involve factors such as a lack of appropriate research material, highly controversial topics that may be well developed, broad subjects or topics with little notability.

• Trying to improve articles on very broad topics (e.g., Law).
• Trying to improve articles on topics that are highly controversial (e.g., Global Warming, Abortion, Scientology, etc.). Your students may be more successful starting a sub-article on the topic instead.
• Working on articles that are already of high quality on Wikipedia.
• Working on something only sparsely covered by literature. Wikipedia articles cite secondary literature sources, so it is important that students have enough sources to provide a neutral point of view and be verifiable.
• Starting articles with titles that imply an essay-like approach (e.g., The Effects That The Recent Sub-Prime Mortgage Crisis has had on the US and Global Economics). These type of titles, and most likely the content too, may not be appropriate for an encyclopedia.