This is the link to my Wikipedia post:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breast_cancer#Epidemiology_and_etiology
18. ^ Braddock, Suzanne W., Jane M. Kercher, John J. Edney, and Melanie M. Clark. Straight talk about breast cancer from diagnosis to recovery: a guide for the whole family. Omaha, Neb: Addicus Books, 1994.
When I first read this assignment I thought it would be super easy. I had an idea of what type of information I could add to the Wikipedia site but once I got looking—it wasn’t so easy. The argumentative essay I am writing is about breast cancer and focusing mainly on the BRCA genes found in women. If the woman has the BRCA2 gene, she is 86% more likely to develop breast cancer in her lifetime, than a woman who doesn’t have the gene. The point I am arguing is whether or not to have the genetic testing done, and what testing positive for the BRCA gene means to the woman. I searched for articles through the Academic Search Premier Database. I found a lot of great articles but couldn’t seem to pinpoint one that I felt would add substance to the Wikipedia site. I had several books from the library that I used for my last paper so I decided to take a gander at the table of contents. Bingo! I found a few small sections about the BRCA genes. I felt as though the statistical information would give the site, which was about breast cancer in general, more data about the BRCA genes.
On the technical side of things, adding a citation to Wikipedia was really easy and virtually painless. However, as I had mentioned before, pinpointing which information was slightly more difficult. The reason I felt it was tricky was because initially I wanted to add to the BRCA gene page. There was so much detailed information, and the other articles I thought would help—would only have been redundant. I was stumped for a little bit, and caught myself not thinking outside the box! I stepped away from my computer and thought about all the ways that one would seek information about the BRCA genes. That’s when it struck me that I could add to the general breast cancer page! The help pages were very thorough, made the process of adding the citation very simple. I honestly never knew that I would be just that easy.
As far as comparing the differences in citing sources in Wikipedia or in an essay, it was somewhat similar but the challenge arose with something that would add high value to the Wikipedia site seemed to be a bit more challenging to me. Perhaps it’s because I have never edited a Wikipedia page before, but it just felt a little foreign to me. I also felt this overwhelming responsibility to add something that people will actually find interesting. When writing an essay, you form the idea about what the focus will be and go from there, so all your sources added together create the whole informative picture. With the Wikipedia site, I felt like I had to have a hard hitting bit of information. This assignment helped me to see how important citing sources are, and also helped me to understand exactly how Wikipedia works.
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