User:CapitalCapybara/Response paper

Response Paper

The article I chose to edit is Water Splash, Inc. v. Menon. The article began as a stub with some basic factual information so I used web sources to create a background to the case and include some further reading on cases that were also related to interpretation of the same treaty. I used a mixture of official documents related to the case, and blogs that follow the supreme court to find out about the circumstances that led to the case and a brief overview of the journey it took to reach the Supreme Court. I also created some links to other wiki pages inside the text. This article will be further expanded once the Supreme Court actually decides the case and it is integrated into the record of past cases.

In terms of review and feedback, a Wikipedia editor commented on the article talk page about a blog called Letters Blogatory. This site had done an extensive series of posts following the case and I ended up citing it in my article. For my own review, I looked at Kniereitvers and Winston Sterzel. In the first instance I helped to add text indents and wiki links to improve the overall look and feel of the page. In the second case I recommended looking for a picture of the article subject since it was a biographical page.

This project taught me a lot about the article evaluation process and the behind the scenes workings of Wikipedia in general. We often use Wikipedia for research but don't think about the amount of work by editors and administrators that goes into creating and maintaining those articles. Creating an article was difficult compared to other research projects I have done in the past mainly because things that people know about often have very extensive Wikipedia articles and articles that are lacking information are often on obscure subjects. Luckily I was able to find something I was interested in and create a niche article on a specific aspect. The most exciting part of this project is the fact that our work has the chance to actually help someone else. Often our essays and research are graded and never seen again but this time it is possible, even probable depending on the article, that the information we have synthesized will assist in some else's research. Overall I am glad to have a better understanding of Wikipedia and what it takes to maintain it.