Thursday, February 14, 2019

Wikipedia as a Spring-board for Your Topic




When conducting research for yourself or others (such as in an article or essay), you can use Wikipedia to spring-board your ideas on the topic.  However, since Wikipedia is not always reliable—meaning that the content is not always properly verified or accurate—it is best to not use any content from Wikipedia to construct your opinions or arguments on a matter. Instead, peruse the content on Wikipedia, gather ideas, write down some notes about keywords, people, or issues, and then get ready to search the library for scholarly sources to learn as much accurate content as possible. 


See the helpful links below to understand how to use Wikipedia successfully, or even to create your own Wikipedia page, but remember, DO NOT USE WIKIPEDIA AS A SOURCE.

[Check with your instructor for a final 'say,' but in my classes, NEVER use Wikipedia sourced content.] 


About Wikipedia
  • How to Use Wikipedia Successfully: Wikipedia is one of the most useful multilingual sites on the web. It is free and written by collaborators around the world. Find out how to use Wikipedia more effectively.
  • How to Write a Wikipedia Page: Wikipedia grows by 800 new articles each day. If you are an expert on a topic not covered sufficiently in Wikipedia, you can write your own Wikipedia page by following Wikipedia's instructions. 



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Essay 3 Cause/Effect Argument

Design and Development Handouts

· Know the Guidelines: Cause/Effect Argument Essay Writing—view the planning, outlining, and development handouts for the cause/effect essay.

· Sample thesis for a causal argument: this handout shows a sample cause/effect THESIS, the break-down of that THESIS, and how the essay would be structured to develop and argue the THESIS.

· Flow, Length, and Content of a Typical Body-paragraph: a specific break-down of what is expected in a well-developed body-paragraph of an argument paper.

· Need Ideas for Cause/Effect Essay??: this handout provides 'spring-board' articles and images to help you think through how you feel about the topic and possible cause/effect relationships. These are not scholarly sources. They are simply readings to help you understand different ideas surrounding the issue.