Students often ask, "How do I pick a term for the Wikipedia analysis assignment?"
As we've said, it is important to pick a short, focused term, for example, not the Byzantine Empire but maybe Theodora or John of Damascus.
You might start with a large topic, like the Tang dynasty in China, and when you look at that entry, you’ll see that it is very large, but scanning through it, you find the An Lushan rebellion or the capital city of Chang'an.
You might start with a large topic, like the Russian revolution, and then you can narrow that to a much better selection like Sergo Ordzhonikidze.
Don't pick the Vietnam War, pick the Tet Offensive.
Don't pick the Mexican revolution, pick Francisco Madero.
We've found that it is always much easier to pick a person for this assignment. Off the top of my head, here are some suggestions to consider.
- Roman emperors (Galba)
- Chinese emperors (Emperor Wu of Han)
- African kings (Mansa Musa)
- French, English or other kings like Ivan III of Russia
- revolutionaries like Jomo Kenyatta
- dictators like Muammar Qaddafi
- artists (Wang Wei), painters (El Greco), writers (Vladimir Voinovich), poets (Charles Baudelaire), dramatists (Aristophanes), architects (Frank Gehry), actors (Charlie Chaplin), singers (Enrico Caruso), composers (Modest Mussorgskii), rock bands (Styx)
- inventors like Thomas Newcomen or John Bardeen
- treaties like the Peace of Paris (1783)
- buildings like Hagia Sophia or the Buddhas of Bamiyan
- battles like the Battle of the Kalka River
- activists like Emmeline Pankhurst