User:Caher80/sandbox

Week 4 Activity 1

1. Blog posts and press releases are considered poor sources of reliable information. Why? Blog posts and press releases are considered poor sources of reliable information for several reasons. One reason is that many of these sources are not peer edited. That means that someone can just write an article and post it how they want. Another reason that these sources are not reliable is because many times they are biased depending on the writer's point of view or perspective. That means that depending on how the writer feels about a certain topic, they will approach the topic by defending it, usually only putting one point of view and ignoring other points of view. Another reason that these sources are not reliable is that many times, they are written or published just for publicity purposes. Many times they are posted to entertain the audience and not exactly portray real or true news. This means that the writers will sometimes expand the truth so the audience becomes more engaged and interested in the blog or press release.
2. What are some reasons you might not want to use a company's website as the main source of information about that company? Using a company's website can be a beneficial source of information for facts and statistics about the company. Although the company's website can be a good source, it can also be a biased source. A reason that using a company's website as the main source of information about that company is not always the best idea because the company, for the most part, will only include positive information. By using other sources to find out information about a company, you can see what others have to say about the company, and possibly understand other perspectives about that company. By using other sources, you can even find out other people's experiences with that company, whether positive or negative. Therefore, using the company's website as the main source of information can be a good source for some, but not all information about the company.
3. What is the difference between a copyright violation and plagiarism? A copyright violation is using someone else's information without asking them for it. An example of a copyright violation would be copying a name brand company's logo that has been copyrighted and selling it without the company's knowledge. Although plagiarism is almost the same thing as a copyright violation, it also means that the person using someone else's information is making it seem like that information is theirs. One way to plagiarize is to copy information word for word, or even changing some words and not giving the author of the information a proper citation, or credit. By citing the author or the owner of the information, you are giving the author or owner the credit and basically stating that the information is not yours.
4. What are some good techniques to avoid close paraphrasing and plagiarism? There are many ways to avoid plagiarism and close paraphrasing. One way to avoid this is to always give credit to whoever and wherever the information originated from. This would be the best possible way to avoid plagiarism. A good way to avoid close paraphrasing is to understand the information so well that you can write about it without having to go back to the source. Then, after this is done, re-read where the information came from, and compare both to make sure they are very different. Even though the way that the information was written is 100% different from the original source, you must still give credit to the original source, because the information did not come from you. The information was originally from someone else.

Week 4 Activity 2

Militant feminism in the French Revolution

I chose this article because the character that I portray in Reacting to the Past (Louis Ramond de Carbonnieres) believed that everyone in society, whether man or woman, had equal rights and should be given the same opportunities. This article goes into detail about how women's lives were "supposed to be" during the late 1700's. Another reason that I chose this article is because by reading this article I can understand the perspective of my character on women's rights and equal rights for all. I have researched this topic before, but I learned a lot more about this topic after reading this article. This article has been inactive for about three months. There has been no editing since the beginning of December. I checked the talk page, and there are no comments. Although this article includes a lot of information about women's lives during the French Revolution and certain objectives they tried to reach, I think there could be more information that could be added.

Feuillant (political group)

I chose this article because the character that I portray in Reacting to the Past is part of the Feuillant faction. My character was a moderate in the French revolution, believed in keeping the king in power, and wanted to maintain peace between the factions. I could better understand why my character chose to be part of the Feuillant faction and not the Jacobin faction. I learned some new things about the Feuillant faction that I did not know before reading this article. This article has been inactive since October of last year. I checked the talk page and there are three comments. The last comment was in November of 2015, therefore this article has not been very active. This article has some important information about the Feuillant faction, but in my opinion, there could be a significant amount of information added to improve this article.

Civil Constitution of the Clergy

I chose this article because Louis Ramond de Carbonnieres believed in adding the Civil Constitution of the Clergy to the actual constitution during the French Revolution. In Reacting to the Past, our class voted to keep the Civil Constitution of the Clergy and add it to the constitution. This article further helped my understanding of the Civil Constitution of the Clergy during the French Revolution. Like the other two articles that I read, I learned things about this topic that I did not know about before reading the article. This article, unlike the other two articles that I read has been a relatively active article. The article was edited just a few days ago. After checking the talk page, I noticed that the last comment was in November of 2016, therefore, people have commented recently. This article includes plenty of information, so I do not think much else could be added to improve the article.

Week 5 Activity 1

I will be adding information to the article that dealt with women roles during the French Revolution. Although the article has a good amount of information about this topic, I have researched this topic in depth and believe that more important, and relevant information could be added. I would add more information about how the women felt about the oppression that they were under during the Revolution. I will also add more information about certain events that took place due to the women's persistent desire of equal rights. I also plan to add information about how men perceived women and what their roles in society should be. Lastly, I plan to add any other relevant and important information that I find through more research that I believe could be beneficial to this article.

Week 5 Activity 2

The article is missing important aspects that could be beneficial to improving the article. The article does not talk about the way writers from that era wrote about women. The writers from that time in history defined women as people who should only stay at home, do house work, and take care of their children. The article does talk about how women were not meant to participate in politics during the French Revolution, but it does not go much into detail. I think that the article should include more information about how the men in society viewed women when referring to politics and anything besides house work. I also think that the article should go more into depth about the positive outcomes that came from the woman marches, riots, and so on. There are more topics that could be added to this article, but I believe those are the main points that are important that the article is missing.

There are three sources that I think have valuable information that could be added to the article on feminism during the French Revolution.

Week 6 Activity 1

1. What do you think of Wikipedia's definition of "neutrality"? I think that Wikipedia's definition of "neutrality" is accurate. As I have read and learned through the Wikipedia training sessions, Wikipedia does not want the writers of Wikipedia articles to state their opinions on a topic, or try to persuade their audience to believe in one thing. Wikipedia wants the articles posted to be unbiased. Wikipedia wants the writers of the articles to present information based on what they have researched, not on how they feel about something. Therefore, the definition of neutrality in my opinion is a good definition. It explains to those who are writing an article on Wikipedia how to write the article and how not to write the article. It also lets the reader of the neutrality definition understand that although they may have an opinion on a topic, it does not want them to share their own opinion with the world, since Wikipedia does not want the article writers to attempt to persuade their audiences.
2. What are the impacts and limits of Wikipedia as a source of information? Wikipedia can be a very beneficial source of information, but it can also not be the best source of information. To use Wikipedia as a source of information, you must check the sources that the author of the article used. A Wikipedia article would be a good source to use if the article references scholarly material, and not unreliable sources. The reason that using Wikipedia as a source of information can be limited is because anyone can write an article on Wikipedia, and the information being written on Wikipedia is not always based on reliable sources. Therefore, Wikipedia at times could be a very helpful tool when searching for sources of information, and at other times it could not be the best option as a source of information.
3. On Wikipedia, all material must be attributable to reliable, published sources. What kinds of sources does this exclude? Can you think of any problems that might create? Social media sites, blogs, and other forms of media that relate to those are not reliable sources. Information on those types of sources can be posted by anyone and does not exactly need to be backed up by reliable sources. Using these types of sources as researching tools can create many problems. One reason why this can be a problem is that those researching information from one of these sources will most likely get information that is not 100% true. Another reason why this may create problems is that since the information from these sources is usually biased, or opinion based, the readers or audience will not get the full picture of the topic, and only get one view point.
4. If Wikipedia was written 100 years ago, how might its content (and contributors) be different? What about 100 years from now? If Wikipedia was written 100 years ago, its content would definitely not be as detailed as it is right now since not as much information was available to people back then. There have also been many new discoveries and articles and books published in the last 100 years. There were books and academic articles, but there was no such thing as the internet or other instantaneous and easily accessible sources of information 100 years ago. The contributors would also be different 100 years ago, because presently, anyone can post information for everyone to see. 100 years ago, it was not that way. In 100 years from now, technology will be even more advanced than it is today, thus allowing even more information to be available to everyone. In 100 years, there will be more information that has not even been discovered yet. Thus, more articles and more books will be published for all to see. This will in turn allow more content to be posted.

Week 6 Activity 2

Women and the Public Sphere in the Age of the French Revolution

"Although women failed to achieve political emancipation, the Revolution bequeathed them a moral identity and a political constitution (Landes 13).

Through protests and an all around effort by most of the women in France, they gave themselves a voice, and made it known that they wanted more than to only be depended on at home.

Women and the Limits of Citizenship in the French Revolution

On October 5, over eight hundred women overtook the Hotel de Ville. They burned all the papers and files that they found because the women felt that none of those papers had any benefit towards their rights as French citizens. They also searched the hotel for arms and ammunition, but had no luck finding ammunition. Although they did not find ammunition, they found pikes, and two cannons which they took with them. After the women left the Hotel de Ville, Lafayette's national guard got involved to avoid more protests from the women.

Deviant Women of the French Revolution and the Rise of Feminism

Doctors and scientists during this era played a significant role in the way society viewed women. Many doctors hypothesized that women could not partake in politics and other aspects of the government because their physiology and anatomy was so different than the physiology and anatomy of men. "Anatomists, anthropologists, natural historians, working under the banner of scientific neutrality, declared that, by nature people with compressed crania were incapable of pursuing academic science" (Nature's Body 7). This quote from Nature's Body is referring to women. This quote was quoted in the book, Deviant Women of the French Revolution and the Rise of Feminism.

French Feminism in the 19th Century

Although most people in society believed that women should not partake in politics and should stay at home and raise the children, some women actually did play an important role in politics. This is not focusing on the protests that many women in France were a part of. Those protests did play a huge role in shaping the political scene in France during the Revolution. During the French Revolution, women were able to write and PUBLISH political journals. The Tribune des femmes and Foi nouvelle: Livre des actes were political journals that were mainly written and published by women. The companies that published these journals had to pay a stamp tax that was only needed when a political journal was being published, therefore, making these two journals political. After, the Gazette des femmes was published, the government stepped in and banned women's ability to publish daily political journals specifically.

Week 7 Activity

Women's Achievements

• Equal rights not achieved
• Voice
• Important role in significant events during French Revolution

"Although women failed to achieve political emancipation, the Revolution bequeathed them a moral identity and a political constitution (Landes 13).

The French Revolution did not provide women the equal rights they were trying to achieve. It did however, give them a voice in the community as well as the government (Landes 13). --- This is a paraphrased version of quote above.

Women in France continued to fight for equal rights and freedom of speech through protests. Through their protests, they gave themselves a voice, and made it known that they wanted to be more than just housewives.

Significant Protest (added)

• Hotel de Ville

On October 5th, 1789, over eight hundred women overtook the Hotel de Ville. They burned all the papers and files that they could find. The women felt that none of those papers had any benefit towards their rights as French citizens. The women searched the hotel for arms and ammunition, but had no luck finding ammunition. Although they did not find ammunition, they found pikes, and two cannons which they took with them. After the women left the Hotel de Ville, Lafayette's national guard got involved to avoid more protests from the women.

Women Were Considered Houseworkers (added)

Women were not considered equal (added)

• Doctors and scientists played an integral role in society's views on women
• Women's anatomy and physiology was different than men's
• Women were said to have compressed crania, therefore, they could not comprehend the sciences (according to doctors and scientists of that era)

Doctors and scientists during this era played a significant role in the way society viewed women. Many doctors hypothesized that women could not partake in politics and other aspects of the government because their physiology and anatomy was so different than the physiology and anatomy of men. Scientists, doctors, and people of related professions stated that those with compacted skulls could not practice or follow the sciences (Nature's Body 7).

Women's participation in politics was considered useless since men were supposed to keep their wive's, daughter's, sister's, and loved one's values and needs in mind.

Women were thought to have the same beliefs, ideals, and desires for France as the men.

Women's Role in Society (added)

• House workers/raise children
• No politics

Women's Importance in Politics (added)

• Published political journals
• Tribune des femmes and Foi nouvelle: Livre des actes

Although most people in society believed that women should not partake in politics and should stay at home and raise the children, some women actually did play an important role in politics. This is not focusing on the protests that many women in France were a part of. Those protests did play a huge role in shaping the political scene in France during the Revolution. During the French Revolution, women were able to write and publish political journals. The Tribune des femmes and Foi nouvelle: Livre des actes were political journals that were mainly written and published by women. The companies that published these journals had to pay a stamp tax that was only needed when a political journal was being published, therefore, making these two journals political. After, the Gazette des femmes was published, the government stepped in and banned women's ability to publish daily political journals specifically.

Everyone Did Not Think Women Were Not Fit for Politics (added)

• Condorcet (philosopher, political scientist, and mathematician)
• Advocate for equal rights (rights of women and legislators)
• Not against women in politics
• Wanted better education for women

Condorcet was a strong advocate for women's rights. He believed that by not allowing women to partake in politics, it would deny them rights that men were entitled to, and it would deny rights to the legislators who vote to fill political positions. The legislators would not be able to vote for a woman to hold a position in the government even if they believed she was fit for the position.

According to Condorcet, women were just as capable as men, except when it came to war. He believed that women were not as capable as men in war because of the differences in body structure, physique, and the need to take a leave of absence when their child is born.

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