Wikipedia Education Program/Handout: Article selection (Large Wikipedia)

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What makes a good topic for a student project?[edit]

Some indicators of a potentially good topic:

  • terms that are well established in the relevant discipline, but only weakly represented on Wikipedia
  • topics that are specific and narrow enough to be manageable, but broad enough that sufficient sources exist to write a solid, sizable article
  • "Stub" and "Start" class articles, which typically have only 1-2 paragraphs of information and are in need of expansion

What kinds of topics should students avoid?[edit]

These kinds of topics should generally be avoided:

  • topics covered in related articles, either as large subtopics or as different terms for the same or very similar topics. Before creating a new article, it's a good idea to spend some time searching related topics on Wikipedia to make sure the topic isn't already covered.
  • very broad topics (e.g. Law) or articles that are already of high quality on Wikipedia
  • topics that are highly controversial, e.g. Global Warming, Abortion, Scientology, etc. (Start a sub-article instead.)
  • topics only sparsely covered by literature
  • 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" instead of "Subprime mortgage crisis"