Digital Humanities
An Undergraduate’s guide to editing Wikipedia Billy Phillips, 2022
First of all – why would you want to edit Wikipedia? Whatever your degree is, there is probably an article relevant to it on Wikipedia. Editing these articles can help to increase the accessibility of the content as well as expanding your own knowledge through additional reading around the subject. Interacting with Wikipedia should also teach you to be critical of it. When you have an account, you will be able to see the multiplicity of authors and editors – this will help you to understand how community based knowledge can be both a great resource and a site of misinformation. Editing and contributing to Wikipedia can help to prevent this incorrect information as even something as small as fixing punctuation can add clarity; there is a way for everyone to get involved in Wikipedia and contribute to resources around their subject area. How to get started First, read about how to edit and cite Wikipedia correctly, this can include on Wikipedia itself which has ‘How to’ pages aimed at helping people to begin. These pages can be extensive but try not to be intimidated; consider starting with ‘Help Editing’ on Wikipedia as it has useful tips and is easier to understand than some other resources.
This document was created as part of a Digital Humanities internship project funded by the University of Southampton. It is published under a Creative Commons 4.0 International license, exceptions are included images which are © original producers.
Figure 1 – Screengrab of 'Help: Editing’ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:Editing
If you find it easier to learn as you go, get started with this by clicking ‘Edit source’ on any page to take you into a ‘Source editing view’ (note, to prevent vandalism some pages cannot be edited by everyone, only by trusted members of the Wikipedia community). Don’t make any changes yet – just read and see how other people have done it. When you have information to add, which you can find by reading reputable sources (such as academic articles on JSTOR and similar sites), you can go off what other people have done - don’t be scared to be wrong as it can always be fixed, either by you or another editor. Another way to get started is join in the conversation on talk pages. If you have an issue with something already written in the article, or want to propose a big change, raise this on the talk page for the article first. This way you can collaborate with others and see if the issue has already been raised. Editing tips - On talk pages, you can add a signature to your comments. This makes you appear more trustworthy in the eyes of other editors which can help to keep discussions civil and productive. To do this, you can add ~~~~ at the end of your comments. Remember that if you use the reply tool or new discussion tool your signature will be added automatically. 2
- For help with citations check out the page ‘Wikipedia: Citing sources / Example edits for different methods.’
Figure 2 – Screengrab of 'Wikipedia: Citing sources/Example edits for different methods’ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Citing_sources/Example_edits_for_different_methods
- Don’t forget about formatting, i.e., if you’re entering an article that is the last in a table put |} at the end to break that section off from the next. - Figure out citations as you go, especially if you’re making a big change or are starting a new page, don’t leave them all to the end! Key things to remember One important thing to remember when editing Wikipedia is that your edits might get undone or amended. Try not to take this too personally and remember that you’re probably editing someone else’s work too. Another point is that talk pages can be intimidating, but it’s important not to be dissuaded. If in doubt, make your edit, add in your justification in the ‘Edit Summary’ and see what happens. And lastly, remember that you know more than you think! From lectures to citations on assignments, you probably already understand the basics of what you need to do, just practice more and you’ll have it down in no time.
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