User:Sidneysmiith/sandbox

Reflective Essay

During the article evaluation process, I learned many new things about Wikipedia. For example, I learned about the strict guidelines that Wikipedia withholds in regard to the information being presented. There should be no bias and a very neutral tone in the writing so only the facts are offered to the public. I used these guidelines when improving my own article, making sure to write consistently with a clear structure, to result in balanced content. My article, Canadian Prairies, needed many citations to back up the information so I began with finding trusted sources. I noticed it has been rated as Start-Class on the project quality scale, so I knew I had to add to the quality of writing as well as adding in more citations.

After reading through my article, I noticed many warnings that there was little to no citations for many of the sub-sections. Wikipedia prides itself on only relaying accurate and non-plagiarized information, so I started with finding academic journals and other trusted sources to add in as references. As I was working on improving one of the sections, Main climates, it came to my attention that the existing paragraph was completely plagiarized from a website. This strongly violates Wikipedia’s policies, so my edits for this section will result in a completely new section with many references. This is a large improvement compared to the existing article as it will be more accurate, reliable, and consistent with the copyright policies Wikipedia has.

During the process, I learned that each student has their own sandbox where they can draft their improvements and add in all of the work one has done. Other students can also leave comments on the “Talk” page associated with ones’ sandbox. This proves to be very useful as all of the work someone did is in one, convenient place. When the peer review process was due, I left two reviews for my peers on their Talk pages and signed it with my name, so they knew who left a comment. In my peer reviews, I made sure to voice my opinion on the quality of their own improvements and left constructive criticism on their writing. For example, I suggested different ways that they could re-construct specific sentences to make the writing flow better, as well as edited their grammar. Although no one peer reviewed my edits, a Wikipedia user did review my User page.

In conclusion, I learned many things from participating in this Wikipedia assignment. I learned useful skills on how to keep my writing unbiased and neutral toned, I learned the importance of referencing every idea one takes from a primary source, and I learned that everyone has different opinions when it comes to scientific writing and that each individual’s opinion is valid. This assignment is much like other assignments I have done for other science courses, because it relates to writing scientific reports—stating the facts. Although I have a lot of experience writing opinion pieces, this assignment does compare to what I have done in the past. I have much more respect for Wikipedia and believe it is a very important website. Articles that are rated high-quality on the Talk page have a lot of potential to improve the public’s understanding on the topic. Not everyone has the knowledge on how to search for academic articles, and Wikipedia is often one of the first search results when looking for information on a topic, so it is very useful for Wikipedia to continue offering reliable information.

Article Evaluation

Aquatic Ecosystems

-Everything in the article seemed to be relevant to the topic of aquatic ecosystems, discussed all the different kinds of water-related systems in depth, the functions of these ecosystems as well as abiotic characteristics

-I got distracted reading the section Ponds to the section describing Biotic characteristics because there were no photos to split it up, just heavy text which distracted me, led me to have a hard time reading and staying focussed

-Many of the notes the author used were dated back to the 1980's-1990's, references from early 2000's. However this is not information which can be very outdated (aquatic ecosystems, what they are, etc.) so information is still accurate/relevant

-Only content missing would be more photos depicting the different types of environments, necessary text content deemed to be present

-Tone of writing could be improved, to be more formal, i.e. under "Functions" the sentence: There are many examples of excessive stresses with negative consequences. Consider three. could rather be one sentence and worded better

-Article is very neutral in tone

-More information on freshwater ecosystems than marine ecosystems, but not because of any bias with author. Just more information to present with freshwater ecosystems

-Wouldn't say marine ecosystems is a section that is underrepresented, the author stated the facts and important information

-The authors sources come from scholarly/academic articles or books which have also undergone extensive editing, therefore trusted and reliable sources

-Most facts are backed up with a source and reference, sentence in Marine Ecosystem section is not: "Approximately 85% of the dissolved materials in seawater are sodium and chlorine"

-Neutral sources, no bias

-Some action in the articles Talk Page

-Users rated the article as a C-Class and Start-Class on the quality scale, as well as High importance and Mid importance, respectively

-Article is part of the Wikiproject Limnology and Oceanography to "improve Wikipedia's coverage of the inland waters and marine environments"

-Some concerns by other Wiki Users in the Talk Page, one that the main photo should be changed, one asking a question further about life in aquatic systems, and one user who edited an external link on the page, because the past one was not found anymore

-Have not discussed this topic in class yet, so I cannot yet comment on how this Wikipedia article compares

Article Selection

Environmental degradation

-First off I see there could be more references

-No text added in the "Biodiversity loss" section, just links to acquire the information from other sources

-Facts without any references (i.e. "Approximately only 2.5g% of all of the water on Earth is fresh water, with the rest being salt water")

-Run-on sentences

-References not entirely reliable (some non-scholarly articles)

-Main photo is of an abandoned mine site in Australia, however entirety of article describes water degradation, should be more focus on land degradation too from activities like Mines (and others so it is not biased or overrepresented)

-Talk page rates it as C-Class, with top importance, people discussing merging it with other topics, issues with paragraphs not belonging

Resources that may be useful about land degradation[edit]

https://www.jstor.org/stable/24095947?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents

https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-1-4612-3322-0_4

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0013935115301572

Terrestrial ecosystem

-At beginning of article, large notice that says the article "relies largely or entirely on a single source", definitely can be improved here, needs many more references!

-Only contents are size & plants, organisms, and types

-The "Types" section mentions there are several types of natural terrestrial ecosystems but doesn't explain it, can go more in depth here

-Biggest problem here is not enough research

-A beginner article, rated as Start-class in the Talk page, no other comments by other Wiki users

-Section of productivity in terrestrial ecosystems?

Some resources that could be of use for terrestrial ecosystems[edit]

https://www.nature.com/articles/341142a0

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1034/j.1600-0706.2003.12378.x

Grassland

-Notice about the organization of the article, appears to not meet Wikipedia's layout guidelines

-Very factual, however no outside references in first paragraph

-Section "Biodiversity and conservation" does not cite any sources, this needs to be improved

-"Human impact and economic importance" does also not use any sources, reliable sources are needed, layout of this section needs to be changed

-"Other" types of grasslands section does not cite any sources

-Some eco-regions in the chart are red, pages do not exist for them

-On Talk page the article is rated C-Class on the quality scale as well as Top importance

-Many previous edits and comments, problems with dates mentioned in the article

-Wiki users suggest this articles needs a lot of work, and should go back to stub-class

Citation

-Added the reference number 5 in the Environmental degradation article to the first sentence in the Water degradation subheading

Warner, K., Hamza, M., Oliver-Smith, A., Renaud, F. and Julca, A. (2009). Climate change, environmental degradation and migration. Natural Hazards, 55(3), pp.689-715.

Copy Edits

Copy edits are done to the article Environmental degradation.

Bibliography

Finalized topic: Canadian Prairies

Potential Sources for terrestrial ecosystems:

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1034/j.1600-0706.2003.12378.x

https://www.nature.com/articles/35102500

https://www.annualreviews.org/doi/abs/10.1146/annurev.ecolsys.36.112904.151932

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/j.1461-0248.2007.01139.x

Peer Review

I have peer-reviewed two articles, Mangrove restoration and Paleoendemism. They are in the users' Talk Pages.

Adding Links

Added wikilinks to my article to the Manitoba and Prairie Dog articles. Wikilinks will be inserted to my article Canadian Prairies as well.

Editing the Article

Canadian Prairies, partner: schneidl12

• NOTE: reference numbers for each section do not correspond with reference number in article, but all are there.*

Intro Paragraph #1

Going to reword this section and add in references, as it has none. This is the new section after my edits:

The Canadian Prairies is a region geographically located in Western Canada. The area includes the Canadian portion of the Great Plains and the Prairie provinces such as Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba . These provinces are partially covered by grasslands, plains, and lowlands, mostly in the southern regions. Known to a lesser extent, is the northern-most section of the Canadian prairies which is marked by forests and more variable topology . To define the region in a physiographic sense, to strictly include areas only covered by prairie land, the corresponding region is known as the Interior Plains . Geographically, the Canadian prairies extend to northeastern British Columbia, however this province is not included in a political manner To add to references:

Intro Paragraph #2 - Lily

This section will be removed and merged with the introduction to allow for a thorough introduction paragraph since it doesn’t make sense by itself. It will also have citations added and be restructured to allow for zero plagiarism and clarity. New section is as follows:

The prairies in Canada are temperate grasslands and shrublands biome within the prairie ecoregion of Canada, that consists of northern mixed grasslands in Alberta, Saskatchewan, and southern Manitoba. Plus, northern short grasslands in southeastern Alberta and southwestern Saskatchewan . As well, the northern tall grasslands in southern Manitoba, and Aspen parkland, which covers central Alberta, central Saskatchewan, and southern Manitoba . The Prairie starts from north of Edmonton and it covers the three provinces in a southward-slanting line east to the Manitoba-Minnesota border . The prairie is the most dominant land cover in Alberta and the least in Manitoba since it has the Boreal Forest covering a large area of land mass. Alberta has the most land classified as Prairie, while Manitoba has the least, as the Boreal Forest begins at a lower latitude in Manitoba than in Alberta .

References added:

Main climates section

Adding in new content, as this section was heavily plagiarized with no references. This is the new section:

The core climate of the Canadian prairie region is defined as a semi-arid climate and is often based upon the Köppen climate classification system . This type of classification encompasses five main climate types, with several categoric subtypes based on the precipitation pattern of the region . The majority of the prairie provinces experience snowy, fully humid continental climates with cool summers, also known as class Dfc on the Köppen climate scale . The southern-most regions of the prairies tend to experience fully humid continental climates with warm summers, Dfb . A trifling section surrounding the Alberta-Saskatchewan border has been classified as Bsk, semi-cold and arid climate .

Precipitation events in the Canadian prairies are very important to study as these locations make up 80% of the countries agricultural production . On average, 454mm of precipitation falls on the prairies each year . Out of the three prairie provinces, Saskatchewan obtains the least amount of precipitation annually (395mm), with Manitoba receiving the most at 486mm. Most rainfall typically happens in the summer months such as June and July . With the high humidity of the prairies, tornadoes are likely to occur—marking central Saskatchewan and southern Manitoba as high probability areas . Approximately 72% of tornadoes in Canada are seen across the prairies due to the capability of summer thunderstorm precipitation to mechanically mix with the air adjacent to the relatively flat surface of the region .

References to be added:

Physical geography section - Lily

This paragraph will stay in the original article, but there are citations needed which will be added below. Some of the paragraphs may be reworked to improve clarity and allow for a better flow of information.

References to be added:

Demographics section

This will stay the same in the article. No edits were done.

Economy section - Lily

Going to remove the section under the economy and replace it with this paragraph:

In the mid 20th century, the economy of the prairies exploded due to the oil boom and introduced a growth of jobs. The primary industries are agriculture and services . Agriculture consisting of livestock (cattle and sheep), cultivating crops (oats, canola, wheat, barley), and production of oil . Due to the production of oil, the service industry expanded in order to provide for the employees of the oil companies extracting the oil. In the 1950s-1970s, the explosion of oil production increased the worth of Alberta and allowing it to become the “nations richest province” and Canada one of the top petroleum exporters in the world . Edmonton and Calgary drew in a larger population with the increase in jobs in the energy field, which causes the jobs supporting this field to grow as well. It was through the steady economic growth that followed this explosion that the prairies region began to switch from an agriculture-based job sector to one with services included . In 2014, the global market for oil fell and led to a recession, impacting the economy dramatically. Alberta still has an oil dominant economy even as the traditional oil wells dry up, there are oil sands further north (ie. Fort McMurray) that continue to provide jobs to extract, drill and refine the oil . Saskatchewan, in particular, in the early 20th century grew economically due to the Canadian agricultural boom and produce large crops of wheat . It is said to have a “one-crop economy” due to such dependency on this crop alone, but after 1945 the economy took another turn with technological advancements that allowed for the discovery of uranium, oil, and potash . This lead to the economy diversifying.

References to be added:

Culture and politics section

Some of the section will be reworded for better fluency and references will be added, as there are none for this section.

References that will be added in: