Wikipedia

User:Samantha (Wiki Ed)/Portland State Lambda Pi Eta

< User:Samantha (Wiki Ed)
Course name
Portland State Lambda Pi Eta
Institution
Portland State
Instructor
Samantha Erickson
Subject
Communication
Course dates
2015-04-15 – 2015-06-30
Approximate number of student editors
15


This program page is for use by Lambda Pi Eta students at Portland State University as they work on their Wikipedia editing projects.





Welcome!

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To get started with Wikipedia!

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  • If you haven't already, create a user account: Take a moment to look at Wikipedia's username policy and consider how anonymous you would like to be on Wikipedia. You need not use your real name, although many Wikipedians choose to do so. Try to pick a fun username—at least one you'll remember. When you've chosen a username, click "Create account" at the top right and follow the instructions.
    • Adding an email address to your account is strongly recommended; this allows you to send and receive emails with other editors. (Your email address is not revealed when other users contact you.) You can also receive email notifications whenever pages you are interested in get changed, if you wish. And if you forget your Wikipedia password, you can have it emailed to you — but only if you add your email address to your account!
  • Complete the online training for students. This will introduce you to the basics of Wiki markup and the Wikipedia community.
  • Create a User page. Tell the Wikipedia community a little about yourself and what editing topics most interest you.
  • Enroll in our course page by clicking "enroll" at the top left corner of this page!
  • By the start of our workshop, find an article you want to work on and 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:Samantha (Wiki Ed)/Portland State Lambda Pi Eta | term = Spring 2015 }}
  • Add a link to your selected article to the table at the bottom of this course page.
  • Compile a bibliography of relevant, reliable sources and post it to the talk page of the article you are working on. Begin reading the sources. Make sure to check in on the talk page (or watchlist) to see if anyone has advice on your bibliography.

Workshop

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  • Overview of Wikipedia
  • Introduction to how Wikipedia will be used in your projects & the basics of editing
  • Understanding Wikipedia as a community, we'll discuss its expectations and etiquette
  • Anatomy of Wikipedia articles, what makes a good article, how to distinguish between good and bad articles
  • Discussion of close paraphrasing, plagiarism, and copyright violations on Wikipedia.
  • Demo uploading images and adding images to articles.
 
Portland State's Lambda Pi Eta student group hosts their first Wikipedia student learning workshop.
 
A student edits Wikipedia using their tablet during Portland State's Lambda Pi Eta student learning workshop.

Copyedit Wikipedia

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Assignment
  • Choose one article, identify ways in which you can improve and correct its language and grammar, and make the appropriate changes. (You do not need to alter the article's content.)

Illustrating Wikipedia

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Assignment
  • Identify an article that would benefit from illustration, create or find an appropriate photo, illustration, or audio/video, and add it to the article.
    • All media uploaded to Wikipedia must fall under a "free license," which means they can be used or shared by anyone. Examples of media you can use are photos that you take yourself, images and text in the public domain, and works created by someone else who has given permission for their work to be used by others. For more information about which types of media can be uploaded to Wikipedia, see Commons:Help desk.
    • To add a media file to an article, you must first upload it to Wikimedia Commons. For instructions on how to upload files to Commons, refer to Illustrating Wikipedia. This brochure will also provide you with detailed information about which files are acceptable to upload to Wikipedia and the value of contributing media to Wikipedia articles.

Editing Ideas

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Wiki Project Oregon
Visual Communication
Workshop editing pages


Wikipedia Resources

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Selecting your article

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Before selecting the topic you will research, remember to review this guideline for selecting an article. Most important points:

  • To begin, check the available literature in your course work, class readings, or academic journals. Are there important people, things, theories, or events that aren't developed very well on Wikipedia? Search Wikipedia with a few different search terms to be sure.
  • Try to choose a "stub" or "start-class" article to expand.
  • Verify your topic's notability.
  • Search Wikipedia to see if this content already exists.
  • Make sure you have enough reliable sources to cite your contributions.
  • Work with a relevant WikiProject whenever possible.
  • If you're still stuck, check out our Choosing an Article handout for more ideas.

Tips for Wikipedia editing

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To prepare: Critically evaluate an existing Wikipedia article related to the club, and leave suggestions for improving it on the article's talk page. Don't forget to add your article to the class’s course page. Reach out to Samantha for questions.

  1. Start small!
    1. Add 1–2 sentences of new information, backed up with a citation to an appropriate source, to a Wikipedia topic of your choosing.
    2. If you are starting a new article, write a 3–4 paragraph summary version of your article—with citations—in your Wikipedia sandbox before moving it to the live page.
    3. If you are improving an existing article, write a summary version reflecting the content the article will have after it's been improved, and post this along with a brief description of your plans on the article’s talk page. Once you've interacted with any common editors, and made any suggested changes, you're ready to move your edits live!
  2. Using your Sandboxes
    1. How to use a sandbox for existing articles: When you start to revise larger chunks of an existing article, it's a good idea to draft your first significant edits into a sandbox. Don't copy the whole article, just choose the small piece you want to work with. Trying to rewrite an entire article in a sandbox can be annoying to editors who work on that article. Other editors will keep making good edits or expansions to that article while it's in your sandbox, which you'll kick out if you just copy and paste! Focus on small chunks of the text you want to edit instead. It's polite to use the talk page of the article to link to your sandbox when you copy things over. That way editors can see what you're up to, and post suggestions to the talk page before you start. Once you are happy with your sandbox draft, you can place another notice on the talk page of the article with a link to the sandbox, explaining what you've done and asking for comments on it once you've added it to the main page.
    2. In general, the sooner you move out of a sandbox, the better. Then, watch the Talk page for your article. You may receive more feedback on your edit once it "goes live" compared to when it is in your sandbox.
  3. Using your Watchlist
    1. When you add an article to your watchlist, you also watch the corresponding Talk page, so if someone responds to your article edits on the Talk page, it will show up on your watchlist.
  4. Finding & Contributing Sources
    1. Compile a bibliography of relevant research and post it to the talk page of the article you are working on to help keep track.
    2. Look for news clipping, journal articles, and more.
  5. Help eachother!
    1. Begin working with classmates and other editors to polish your short starter article and fix any major issues.
    2. Select two articles that you will peer review and copy-edit.
    3. Follow through!

Handouts

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