GASP 55B / History 55: Arts of the Islamic World

Welcome!

This page includes resources you can use as you do research for your Wikipedia project. Library databases can help you find scholarly materials that might not be available on the open web. You may want to come back to this page for more ideas and links as you move through the semester.

Guide url: https://libguides.ucmerced.edu/gasp55b-chandra-fall2025 

Writing for Wikipedia vs Writing a Research Paper

When you write or edit an article in Wikipedia, you are writing in a very specific format that calls for you to use reliable sources and present information as objectively and fairly as possible.

Writing for Wikipedia

These tips may help as you write and edit in Wikipedia. Wikipedia writing is different from the writing you will do in most classes, so it's important to have a good sense of what it should look like.

• Make sure everything you write can be traced to a reliable source and link to the source.
• You are not making an argument, you are presenting verifiable facts about a topic.
• When you find opposing opinions from reliable sources on a topic, you should include them -- you are presenting information, not choosing a side. There are many fields where researchers may disagree about a topic that they study and this should be included if you find it in your research.
• Remember that Wikipedia does not publish original research, which includes opinions about a topic.
• You may end up writing something that is fairly short. Because everything needs to be cited and factual, the actual writing may go slowly. That's ok! It's more important to share good information from trusted sources than to write something that is a particular length.

Note: writing for Wikipedia is its own particular skill, and you will draw on what you have learned in class and in using the Wiki Edu tutorials to create your additions. Because Wikipedia is a community of editors that has particular rules and standards, don't be offended if someone changes what you have added or removes what you have written. For the most part, Wikipedia editors are trying to operate in good faith to make a good, accurate encyclopedia that is based on good sources.