Week 15 What I Learned from Editing Wikipedia - Ho Ryuyeong

 Editing Wikipedia turned out to be one of the most unique assignments I have done as a student. For this course, I worked on translating and creating an English Wikipedia article about Ikseon-dong (익선동), a historic neighborhood in Seoul known for its preserved hanok villages and growing reputation as a cultural district. The process taught me things that no traditional assignment ever could.

The biggest challenge I encountered was specific to Ikseon-dong: the name refers to two different administrative districts — one in Jongno-gu, Seoul, and another in a different region. This created confusion when researching sources and deciding which one to focus on, and how to clearly distinguish between them for an international reader who has no prior knowledge of Korean administrative geography. Simply translating the Korean article was not enough; I had to make editorial decisions about structure and clarity that the original article never needed to address.

More broadly, there is a significant gap between Korean and English Wikipedia coverage of Korean cultural places. Detailed Korean articles exist, but English versions are often missing entirely. As an editor, that means you are not just translating words — you are introducing a topic to a completely new audience. I had to think about what background context to include, what to assume readers already know, and how to present Korean cultural concepts in a way that makes sense globally.

The technical side was also a learning curve. Wikipedia uses its own formatting language — wikitext — with strict rules about citations, categories, and internal linking. Converting Korean citation formats into proper English Wikipedia templates took more time than I expected. Studying the Manual of Style this week made me realize how much consistency matters across millions of articles. Rules about date formatting, bold text in opening sentences, and category placement all exist for good reasons.

What makes this assignment fundamentally different from a traditional one is the audience. A class essay is read by one professor. A Wikipedia article is read by anyone in the world. That awareness made me check facts more carefully than usual, because mistakes are public. There is also a real sense of responsibility — I am representing Korean cultural history to a global audience.

Is it more fun? Yes. Traditional assignments disappear after you submit them. The Ikseon-dong article will remain accessible long after this course ends. That sense of contributing something lasting made even the frustrating parts feel worthwhile.