Week13 -- the edits I have made -- GUAN YUE

 

1. Summary
This week, I edited the lead section of the English Wikipedia article on Fuqing (edit link). The original lead was quite short and didn’t give readers a full picture of the city—its location, population, economic development, and overseas Chinese background were barely mentioned. So I rewrote and expanded the lead to better summarize these key aspects, using information from the Chinese Wikipedia and official sources.

2. New Things I Learned
Even though it was just a lead edit, I realized it’s not easy to write a good one. A strong lead has to summarize the article clearly and neutrally, without sounding like a full paragraph of data or an opinion piece. I also learned that English Wikipedia expects a specific tone and structure: you shouldn’t overwhelm readers with stats or too much detail, and cultural concepts (like “hometown of overseas Chinese”) need to be explained in a globally understandable way. This edit helped me see how even a short paragraph can reflect a lot of cultural and linguistic choices.

3. Question for Discussion
This experience made me realize that lead sections often get overlooked. Even when the full article is well-developed, the lead sometimes stays too basic. It got me thinking: should Wikipedia offer a “lead checklist” for place-based articles? For example, prompts to include geography, demographics, economy, and cultural background could help editors—especially beginners—know what to focus on. That way, more leads could actually reflect the richness of the article that follows.

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