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- Course name
- English 2
- Institution
- Butte College
- Instructor
- Heather Springer
- Wikipedia Expert
- Shalor (Wiki Ed)
- Subject
- English
- Course dates
- 2018-08-20 00:00:00 UTC – 2018-12-08 23:59:59 UTC
- Approximate number of student editors
- 55
Topics covered in "Being Wrong" and others of student interest with a focus on critical reading and writing.
Timeline
Week 3
- Course meetings
-
- Sunday, 9 September 2018
- In class - Introduction to the Wikipedia assignment
Welcome to your Wikipedia assignment's course timeline. This page guides you through the steps you'll need to complete for your Wikipedia assignment, with links to training modules and your classmates' work spaces.
Your course has been assigned a Wikipedia Expert. You can reach them through the Get Help button at the top of this page.
Resources:
- 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. (Because of Wikipedia's technical restraints, you may receive a message that you cannot create an account. To resolve this, please try again off campus or the next day.)
- Milestones
This week, everyone should have a Wikipedia account.
Week 4
- Course meetings
-
- Sunday, 16 September 2018
- Assignment - Evaluate Wikipedia
Exercise
It's time to think critically about Wikipedia articles.
- FIRST: Complete the "Evaluating Articles and Sources" training.
- THEN: Complete the 250-word evaluation below. Submit on Canvas NOT in Sandbox.
- Look at this Wikipedia article on Bible Errata. (Errata are printing errors.) 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- Is any information out of date?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?
- Write a 250-word evaluation of the article in "Evaluate Wikipedia Article" assignment in Canvas.
- 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 — Zollila (talk) 22:48, 22 September 2019 (UTC).
Week 5
- Course meetings
-
- Sunday, 23 September 2018
- Assignment - Choose your topic
Exercise
Choose your topic / Find your sources
For this exercise, you will browse the articles I have selected for our class. See "Available Articles" on the Articles tab on this course page. Most articles are rated by Wikipedia as low quality and high importance. In other words; your contributions to these articles will make a big difference. I've pulled from topics related to error, misunderstandings, and hoaxes, but also topics related to your Community Based Learning projects (animals, the environment, scarcity, social justice) and also to California geography and history.
I'd like for you to visit at least three of the articles that seem interesting to you and:
- Skim the article evaluating its thoroughness, tone, viewpoint, and citations, just as you did last week.
- Look at the "Talk" section.
- Does it seem like you would have somewhere to start in improving this article? If so, click "Select" in the "Articles" list to assign it to yourself.
As the exercise suggests, in your sandbox, write a few sentences about what you noticed about the article and what you plan to contribute to it. In your Sandbox, you should also begin to compile a list of relevant (minimum 3) reliable books, journal articles, or other sources.
- Use Gale Virtual Reference Library and Biography in Context through the Butte College Library to find entries that will help you add to the article.
- Post that bibliography (complete citation, including author, title, and date for each) 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.
If your topic is related to medicine, human health, and psychology, take the "Editing Medical Topics" training, linked above.
If your topic is a biography of a person, please read the guide below.
- Guide(s) for writing articles in your topic area.
These are optional, but you may find them helpful if your chosen article is in one of these categories:
Week 6
- Course meetings
-
- Sunday, 30 September 2018
- Assignment - Start drafting your contributions
- Read any feedback that I or Wikipedia Experts have left you in your sandbox.
- Copy and paste what you plan to update from your Wikipedia article to your sandbox
- Identify what's missing from the current form of the article. Think back to the skills you learned while critiquing an article. Make notes for improvement in another clearly labeled part of your sandbox.
- Read this valuable short guide to Editing Wikipedia.
- Create a log, with the date, in your sandbox.
To get full credit (10 pts), please post a log of your work in your sandbox. Date it! Note what you'll continue working on next week and any problems or questions that are arising.
Here's an example of your sandbox work log:
- September 9th- I copied and pasted partof my article into my sandbox. For now, I'm just focusing on the lead section and the first heading. (2 hours)
- September 12th-I re-read those articles I found last week and saw that I needed another one. I spent about 90 minutes searching ProQuest, and found one more article. It's Robinson, Janice "The tale of two mice" published in Japanese Magna Quarterly.(1.5 hours)
- Sept 14th-I noticed there were some issues with the lead section and posted my suggestions for revision to the talk page. Depending on what feedback I get next, I'll post my revisions of the lead section to the mainspace. (2 hours)
- Sept 19th- I updated link #15, which took you to an old site. And spent some time combing through the other links. Most of them work and take you somewhere relevant.... so far. I'll continue this next week. (3 hours)
Reach out to your Wikipedia Expert if you have questions using the Get Help button at the top of this page.
- Milestones
Everyone has begun writing their article drafts.
Week 7
- Course meetings
-
- Sunday, 7 October 2018
Week 8
- Course meetings
-
- Sunday, 14 October 2018
- Assignment - Expand your draft
- Read any feedback that I or Wikipedia techs have left you in your sandbox.
- Search Wikipedia Commons for any images you might be able to add. The "Contributing Images and Media Files" training here will help you.
- Consider new Wikilinks you could add to your article. Complete the exercise below for more.
- If you'd like a Wikipedia Expert to review your draft, now is the time! Click the "Get Help" button in your sandbox to request notes.
- Add to the log of work planned and done in your sandbox. Include the date.
Exercise
Week 9
- Course meetings
-
- Sunday, 21 October 2018
- Assignment - Continue improving your article
Exercise
Now's the time to revisit your text and refine your work. You may do more research and find missing information; rewrite the lead section to represent all major points; reorganize the text to communicate the information better; or add images and other media.
- Assignment - Polish your work
Continue to expand and improve your work, and format your article to match Wikipedia's tone and standards. Remember to contact your Wikipedia Expert at any time if you need further help!
Week 10
- Course meetings
-
- Sunday, 28 October 2018
- Assignment - Final article
It's the final week to make changes to your article. Make sure all your contributions have been moved to the mainspace ("real" Wikipedia article and not your sandbox.)
- 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!
- Milestones
Everyone should have finished all of the work they'll do on Wikipedia, and be ready for grading.