User:Ryan (Wiki Ed)/French to English translation

Course name: French to English translation

Institution: Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey

Instructor: Cris Silva

Subject: French

Course dates: 2015-02-19 – 2015-05-15

Approximate number of student editors: 1

A French to English translation project.

Resources for translating Wikipedia:
- WikiProject Echo is a group of users interested in translation on Wikipedia. Their project page contains a great deal of resources for translating in general, including several that are language-specific. For example, there is a list of French language resources.
- A few Wikipedia users have expressed an interest in helping others with translation tasks. You can find lists of French translators at Wikipedia:Translators available#French-to-English and Wikipedia:Translation/French/Translators.
- For help finding an existing article to improve:
  - There is a category for pages which might benefit from content at the French Wikipedia. Some of them are further categorized by subject area but the size of the list can make it difficult to navigate. Note that sometimes articles are placed in this category mistakenly, so do double check that the French version has more information.
  - Consider browsing through pages on French subjects to compare their coverage in English. On the left side of most articles you can see a list of links to the same subject on other language Wikipedias. This makes it easy to quickly switch from one language to another to compare coverage.
- For help finding an article which does not yet exist in English:
  - Not in the Other Language is a very useful tool which can help you to find articles in one language but not another. You may have noticed Wikipedia has a categorizing system. At the bottom of almost every page you can see a list of categories to which that page belongs. This tool works with those categories. It compares the articles in one category to articles in the same category in a different languages, outputting a list of articles that don't overlap. It also allows you to specify category "depth", which means the number of subcategories to search. Be sure to replace the default "de" with "fr" in the "In language" field!

Timeline

Week 1 (2015-02-16): Wikipedia essentials

In class

Overview of the assignment
Introduction to how Wikipedia will be used in the course
Understanding Wikipedia as a community, we'll discuss its expectations and etiquette
Handout: Editing Wikipedia (available in print or online from the Wiki Education Foundation)
Basics of editing
Anatomy of Wikipedia articles, what makes a good article, how to distinguish between good and bad articles

Assignment (due Week 2)

Create an account and then complete the online training for students. During this training, you will make edits in a sandbox and learn the basic rules of Wikipedia.
Create a User page, and then click the "enroll" button on the top left of this course page.

Milestones

All students have Wikipedia user accounts and are listed on the course page.

Week 2 (2015-02-23): Translation on Wikipedia, working collaboratively

In class

About collaborating and engaging with the Wiki editing community
Handouts: Using Talk Pages handout and Evaluating Wikipedia brochure
Tips for choosing articles to translate
Translating articles that do not currently exist on the English Wikipedia vs. using content from other language Wikipedias to improve articles on the English Wikipedia

Assignment (due Week 3)

Look through the help page about translating on Wikipedia, focusing on the section "How to translate"
On your user page, list 2–4 articles you could improve or create on the English Wikipedia by translating content from the French Wikipedia. You may want to use the resources at the top of this page. Describe your choices to your instructor for feedback.

For next week

Instructor evaluates student's article selections, by next week.

Week 3 (2015-03-02): Choosing topics and planning

In class

Handouts: Citing sources on Wikipedia and Avoiding plagiarism on Wikipedia.

Assignment (due Week 4)

Select an article to work on, removing the rest from your user page.
If you are improving an existing article:

Mark the article's talk page with a banner to let other editors know you're working on it. To add the banner, add this code in the top section of the talk page:

{{course assignment | course = User:Ryan (Wiki Ed)/French to English translation | term = Spring 2015 }}

Create a detailed outline reflecting your proposed changes, and post this for community feedback, along with a brief description of your plans, on the article’s talk page. Make sure to check back on the talk page often and engage with any responses.

Add a link to your selected article to the table at the bottom of this course page. If you are creating a new article, type in its English title.

Milestones

Everybody has finalized topics to translate.

Weeks 4-6 (2015-03-09 - 2015-03-23): Working in the sandbox

In class

Use weeks 4-6 to develop your translation in your sandbox.

Assignment (due Week 7)

Have a completed draft version of your translation in your sandbox.

Week 7 (2015-03-30): Moving to the main space and requesting feedback

In class

We'll discuss moving your article out of your sandboxes and into Wikipedia's main space.
Handout: Moving out of your sandbox
A general reminder: Don't panic if your contribution disappears, and don't try to force it back in.
- Check to see if there is an explanation of the edit on the article's talk page. If not, (politely) ask why it was removed.
- Contact your instructor or Wikipedia Content Expert and let them know.

Assignment (due Week 8)

Move your sandbox articles into main space.
- If you are expanding an existing article, copy your edit into the article. If you are making many small edits, save after each edit before you make the next one. Do NOT paste over the entire existing article, or large sections of the existing article.
- If you are creating a new article, do NOT copy and paste your text, or there will be no record of your work history. Follow these instructions on how to move your work.
Request feedback on the article's talk page as well as from your class's Content Expert and your professor.

Milestones

Content is moved out of sandboxes into the main space.

Weeks 8-10 (2015-04-06 - 2015-04-20): Improving articles and responding to feedback

Assignment (due Week 11)

Continue responding to feedback and developing your article.

Week 11 (2015-04-27): Finishing touches

Assignment (due Week 12)

Add final touches to your Wikipedia article. You can find a handy reference guide here.

Week 12 (2015-05-04): Due date

Milestones

Students have finished all their work on Wikipedia that will be considered for grading.

Grading

5%

Completion of Wikipedia training

10%

Milestone assignments

25%

Article quality

60%

Translation quality