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- Course name
- ENGL 101
- Institution
- IUP
- Instructor
- Jialei Jiang
- Wikipedia Expert
- Shalor (Wiki Ed)
- Subject
- English
- Course dates
- 2018-02-05 00:00:00 UTC – 2018-05-14 23:59:59 UTC
- Approximate number of student editors
- 45
This course introduces you to college composition and academic writing. For this Wikipedia-editing assignment, you will collaboratively expand a Wikipedia stub on a topic of your choice, evaluating and documenting sources to enhance the credibility and richness of the stub. You will include at least 3 external sources for the edit. The purpose of this assignment is to help you gain awareness of the informative style of writing.
Timeline
Week 1
- Course meetings
-
- Monday, 5 February 2018 | Wednesday, 7 February 2018 | Friday, 9 February 2018
- In class - Introduction to the Wikipedia project
Welcome to your Wikipedia project's course timeline. This page will guide you through the Wikipedia project for your course. Be sure to check with your instructor to see if there are other pages you should be following as well.
This page breaks down writing a Wikipedia article into a series of steps, or milestones. These steps include online trainings to help you get started on Wikipedia.
Your course has also been assigned a Wikipedia Expert. Check your Talk page for notes from them. You can also reach them through the "Get Help" button on this page.
To get started, please review the following handouts:
- Editing Wikipedia pages 1–5
- Evaluating Wikipedia
- Assignment - Get started on Wikipedia
- Create an account and join this course page, using the enrollment link your instructor sent you. (To avoid hitting Wikipedia's account creation limits, this is best done outside of class. Only 6 new accounts may be created per day from the same IP address.)
- It's time to dive into Wikipedia. Below, you'll find the first set of online trainings you'll need to take. New modules will appear on this timeline as you get to new milestones. Be sure to check back and complete them! Incomplete trainings will be reflected in your grade.
- When you finish the trainings, practice by introducing yourself to a classmate on that classmate’s Talk page.
- In class - Discussion
- What do you think of Wikipedia's definition of "neutrality"?
- What are the impacts and limits of Wikipedia as a source of information?
- On Wikipedia, all material must be attributable to reliable, published sources. What kinds of sources does this exclude? Can you think of any problems that might create?
- If Wikipedia was written 100 years ago, how might its content (and contributors) be different? What about 100 years from now?
- Milestones
This week, everyone should have a Wikipedia account.
Week 2
- Course meetings
-
- Monday, 12 February 2018 | Wednesday, 14 February 2018 | Friday, 16 February 2018
- Assignment - Evaluate Wikipedia
It's time to think critically about Wikipedia articles. You'll evaluate a Wikipedia article related to the course and leave suggestions for improving it on the article's Talk page.
- Complete the "Evaluating Articles and Sources" training (linked below).
- Create a section in your sandbox titled "Article evaluation" where you'll leave notes about your observations and learnings.
- Choose an article on Wikipedia related to your course to read and evaluate. As you read, consider the following questions (but don't feel limited to these):
- Is everything in the article relevant to the article topic? Is there anything that distracted you?
- Is the article neutral? Are there any claims, or frames, that appear heavily biased toward a particular position?
- Are there viewpoints that are overrepresented, or underrepresented?
- Check a few citations. Do the links work? Does the source support the claims in the article?
- Is each fact referenced with an appropriate, reliable reference? Where does the information come from? Are these neutral sources? If biased, is that bias noted?
- Is any information out of date? Is anything missing that could be added?
- Check out the Talk page of the article. What kinds of conversations, if any, are going on behind the scenes about how to represent this topic?
- How is the article rated? Is it a part of any WikiProjects?
- How does the way Wikipedia discusses this topic differ from the way we've talked about it in class?
- Optional: Choose at least 1 question relevant to the article you're evaluating and leave your evaluation on the article's Talk page. Be sure to sign your feedback with four tildes — Jialeijiang (talk) 18:17, 14 August 2018 (UTC).
- In class - Discussion
- What's a content gap?
Now that you're thinking about what makes a "good" Wikipedia article, consider some additional questions.
- Wikipedians often talk about "content gaps." What do you think a content gap is, and what are some possible ways to identify them?
- What are some reasons a content gap might arise? What are some ways to remedy them?
- Does it matter who writes Wikipedia?
- What does it mean to be "unbiased" on Wikipedia? How is that different, or similar, to your own definition of "bias"?
- Assignment - Choose an article/find sources
It's time to choose an article and assign it to yourself.
- Review page 6 of your Editing Wikipedia guidebook.
- Find an article from the list of "Available Articles" on the Articles tab on this course page. When you find the one you want to work on, click Select to assign it to yourself.
- In your sandbox, write a few sentences about what you plan to contribute to the selected article.
- Think back to when you did an article critique. What can you add? Post some of your ideas to the article's talk page.
- Compile a list of relevant, reliable books, journal articles, or other sources. Post that bibliography to the talk page of the article you'll be working on, and in your sandbox. Make sure to check in on the Talk page to see if anyone has advice on your bibliography.
Week 3
- Course meetings
-
- Monday, 19 February 2018 | Wednesday, 21 February 2018 | Friday, 23 February 2018
- In class - Drafting contributions to your article
Familiarize yourself with editing Wikipedia by adding a citation to your article. Try to add 1-2 sentences to your course-related article, and cite that statement to a reliable source, as you learned in the online training.
You can also start identifying what's missing from the current form of the article. Think back to the skills you learned while critiquing an article. Make notes for longer improvements in your sandbox.
Resources: Editing Wikipedia pages 7–9
- Milestones
Everyone has begun writing their article drafts.
- In class - Discussion
- thinking about sources and plagiarism
- Blog posts and press releases are considered poor sources of reliable information. Why?
- What are some reasons you might not want to use a company's website as the main source of information about that company?
- What is the difference between a copyright violation and plagiarism?
- What are some good techniques to avoid close paraphrasing and plagiarism?
Week 4
- Course meetings
-
- Monday, 26 February 2018 | Wednesday, 28 February 2018 | Friday, 2 March 2018
- Assignment - Begin moving your work to Wikipedia
Keep working on transforming your article into a complete first draft. Once you have a few more sources compiled and sentences written, it's time to move your work to Wikipedia proper - the "mainspace."
Tips for editing an existing article:
- NEVER copy and paste your draft of an article over the entire article. Instead, edit small sections at a time.
- Copy your edits into the article. Make many small edits, saving each time, and leaving an edit summary. Never replace more than one to two sentences without saving!
- Be sure to copy text from your sandbox while the sandbox page is in 'Edit' mode. This ensures that the formatting is transferred correctly.
Week 5
- Course meetings
-
- Monday, 5 March 2018 | Wednesday, 7 March 2018 | Friday, 9 March 2018
- Assignment - Continue improving your article
Do additional research and writing to make further improvements to your article, based on suggestions and your own critique.
- Read Editing Wikipedia page 12 to see how to create links from your article to others, and from other articles to your own. Try to link to 3–5 articles, and link to your article from 2–3 other articles.
- Consider adding an image to your article. Wikipedia has strict rules about what media can be added, so make sure to take Contributing Images and Media Files training before you upload an image.
- Assignment - Final article changes
It's the final week to develop your article.
- Read Editing Wikipedia page 15 to review a final check-list before completing your assignment.
- Don't forget that you can ask for help from your Wikipedia Expert at any time!