Wikipedia:Wiki Ed/Ohio University/Writing in the Life Sciences (Fall)
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- Course name
- Writing in the Life Sciences
- Institution
- Ohio University
- Instructor
- JoeyJack
- Subject
- science writing
- Course dates
- 2015-08-27 – 2015-12-04
- Approximate number of student editors
- 24
Current research in biology, with an emphasis on plant science, will provide students with opportunities to practice and improve skills needed for successful written communication in the sciences.
Timeline
Week 1: Wikipedia essentials
- In class - Wikipedia essentials
- Overview of the course
- 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
- Assignment - Create your account and learn the basics
- 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.
Resources: Online Training for Students
Week 2: Critique an article
- Assignment - What's your article?
Bring a Wikipedia article to class that you will critique.
- Assignment - Critique an article
- Review pages 4-7 of the Evaluating Wikipedia brochure. This will give you a good, brief overview of what to look for in other articles, and what other people will look for in your own.
- Evaluate an existing Wikipedia article related to the class, and leave suggestions for improving it on the article's talk page.
- A few questions to consider (don't feel limited to these):
- Is each fact referenced with an appropriate, reliable reference?
- 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?
- Where does the information come from? Are these neutral sources? If biased, is that bias noted?
- Are there viewpoints that are overrepresented, or underrepresented?
- Check a few citations. Do the links work? Is there any close paraphrasing or plagiarism in the article?
- Is any information out of date? Is anything missing that could be added?
Resources: Evaluating Wikipedia, Using Talk Pages
Week 3: Final assignment
- Assignment - Add to an article
- Add 1–2 sentences of new information, backed up with a citation to an appropriate source, to a Wikipedia article related to the class.