WEEK3— Wikipedia editing practice—FENG YUANCHEN

 This week, I mainly focused on improving the quality of citations in Wikipedia articles, especially by adding references to sections that lacked sources or had insufficient citations. I worked on strengthening the credibility and verifiability of the content by incorporating reliable news reports, academic materials, and information published by official institutions.


During this process, I realized that far more content required citations than I had initially expected. Many statements that seem like “common knowledge” still require clear sourcing under Wikipedia’s editing standards. The most challenging part was finding sources that meet both criteria: relevance to the content and reliability. Sometimes, I could find sources that matched the meaning of the text but were not sufficiently authoritative; in other cases, there were reliable sources available, but they did not directly support the specific statements. This made the process of searching and selecting sources both time-consuming and complex.


In addition, this editing experience led me to reflect on the standards for what counts as a “reliable citation.” There is no absolute rule for choosing between news articles, academic papers, or official institutional materials. For example, news articles may be more suitable for recent developments, while official reports or academic publications are often better for historical context or statistical data. Therefore, selecting the most appropriate type of source depending on the context became an important part of the editing process.


Overall, this experience not only improved my ability to search for and evaluate sources, but also made me realize that adding citations is not just about including references. More importantly, it involves balancing different types of information to ensure neutrality and objectivity in Wikipedia articles.

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