User:Madeline860

I have never done a lot of looking around on Wikipedia due to my past teachers hating it so much, but it looks like this year will be different. This is my first time taking any classes at a college and so far, this is the most surprising part of it. My goal, and reason for going back to school is to become a nurse. My mother, grandmother, and great grandmother have all been a part of the medical field at one point in their lives and I want to continue helping the world just like they have. I found my passion for medical science on my own and later discovered that it ran in my family. I never intended to try and follow any traditions, but it just happened to work out that way. Aside from school, I have few hobbies. Finding new books to read, archery, and art to name a few. My high school goal was to graduate with all A’s, even while taking an extra class. I succeeded and plan to do the same in my prerequisites before being excepted into the nursing program.

Now that I have the chance to actually use Wikipedia as it was intended, I am excited to stumble across new interesting things. I would love to look into some medical history pages. I think knowing what it was like in the past can help you understand the present even better. Finding an archery page to gain some tips and tricks would be awesome as well, I am always looking to improve the things I know how to do. Cooking is something I have always wanted to get better at as well, so hopefully I can find an area on Wikipedia that can help with that. The chat areas are another part that I am looking forward to. It is always nice to meet people that are interested in the same things as you. I’m sure there is plenty more I will get excited about, so I’ll just have to wait and see.

Article Critique

Archery has been and still is a highly respected sport all over the world, with groups of people still using the weapon for hunting and sport today. I have been an archer for over 8 years, so I decided to take a look at the information on archery in Wikipedia. What I found was well structured, but lacking in areas that could easily be improved. I visited the Archery page one Wikipedia, and found three aspects worth commenting on: historical and scientific accuracy, lack of citations, and volume of information.

Historical and Scientific accuracy

While looking over the page, I noticed that there were few actual dates when referencing the bow and arrow’s creation and function. Multiple time periods are lumped together to give an approximation of when the weapon was created, but none are focused on in depth to give a better understanding of origin. I did not find any sited work on the science behind trajectory or propulsion, both extremely important in understanding the function of the bow and understanding the scientific communities progress at the time of creation. The focus was more on how the bow and arrow affected the outcome of wars and advancement of the military bodies that decided to embrace it. This is a very big part of the history of archery, but the origin and creation should be looked into with the same amount of care.

Lack of Citation

There are multiple sections within the archery page that have little to no citation for their historical and technical references. Warnings sit before 3 different sections, telling of the lack of citation and risk of information being removed due to lack of credibility. Plenty of research has been done and is available in different parts of the web. Reference to these would help greatly in proving the information they have posted as credible. Some of these warnings have been up since as late as 2011 and no changes have been made, as if the page has been forgotten and left behind.

Volume of Information

I was able to read everything within the archery page on Wikipedia within 5 minutes, showing just how little is actually there compared to the great timeline that archery actually has. There is so much more that could be added and things that could be referenced to give a better understanding of the significance of the art. If more information where to be added, besides the topic of ancient war, I believe people could get a better understanding of how important archery has been for many cultures and societies through its long and vast history.

Summery

Overall the page has much information to give the basic idea of the history of archery and its continuing use, but it could be better. Much time and effort has obviously gone into what is available. It is unfortunate the page has slowed down so much since its creation, but it may pick back up easily with work put into what is there.

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