This page has information on planning and resources for the Freshmen Seminar: In the City online writing project.
The goal of the assignment is for each group of students to chose an underdeveloped or missing article on Wikipedia, related to Pittsburgh, and improve it during the second half of the semester. This multi-step project counts as two essay assignments.
Introduction for students edit
Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, is an encyclopedia that can be edited by anyone. It has many millions (!) of editors (Wikipedians), many of whom are students like you. The majority of them are volunteers who find editing this site to be an enjoyable experience, even a hobby. I hope you might enjoy this exercise while gaining valuable skills. Writing and editing experience on Wikipedia might lead to future opportunities, and it looks great on a resumé! Three years ago, Technorati's chief technologist stated that in five years "knowledge of wikis will be a required job skill."[1]
Please carefully review the Wikipedia:Tutorial. Please familiarize yourself with instructions for students and if you have any questions, check the Help:Contents first, and if you cannot find what you are looking for ask the friendly people at Wikipedia:Help desk - or, as a last resort, <contact me>. I'm always at your disposal for help; however, know that you might get an answer sooner if you ask an expert who has more experience than I do (I'm still in the learning phases as well).
Before making any major edits, you must create an account. After you create an account, add your group name (you can make it creative and related to your neighborhood, such as "Shadyside Soldiers," etc.) to the group name section of this page.
Remember that Wikipedia is not a project limited only to <University of Pittsburgh>. We are guests here and we should all behave accordingly. Please make sure you read Wikipedia:Wikiquette. Please try to think what impression you want other Wikipedians to have of our university — and of yourselves.
You should expect that the course lecturer, other students, your friends, and even (or especially) other Wikipedia editors (not affiliated with our course) will leave you various messages on your talk pages. When working on the assignment, you should log in to Wikipedia and check your messages as often as you check your email (daily). If you have a new message and are logged onto Wikipedia, you will see a large orange message, 'You have new messages', on every Wikipedia page you access. To make this message disappear, you should click on it and read the message. Note that it is customary to leave new messages at the bottom of the talk/discussion pages, and to reply to somebody's messages on their talk pages. If you want to leave somebody a message, make sure you are editing their talk page, not their user page. Remember to sign your talk and discussion messages.
Some other useful tips: when you are done with an edit and want to save a page, fill out the edit summary box and view a preview of the page after your edit to make sure it looks as you actually want it to look. Only then click the "Save Page" button. You may find the page history tool and watchlist tools to be very useful when you want to check what changes by other editors have been made to the article(s) you are working on.
Stages and deadlines edit
- Welcome to Wikipedia. By 10/27, complete the Wikipedia:Tutorial and create a Wikipedia:User pages. Browse through Pittsburgh-related stubs and start thinking about topic ideas you might discuss with your group. (Feel free to consider any research you may have already done for prior essays on Pittsburgh.) It could be something to do with the history of the place, a building, a landmark, an event that takes place there, etc.
Some possible Pittsburgh-related stubs ready for expansion, from stubs listed here Pittsburgh Stubs:
If you find another stub related to your neighborhood, go for it!
If you want to be brave a start a brand-new Wiki page, you may. You must have approval from the Wiki community, mostly to ensure your topic is encyclopedic. If you do this and get approved, I’ll give you extra credit.
- Familiarize. By 11/1, make some trial edits, however minor. Demystify the process. Leave behind any sense of intimidation. As Wikipedia puts it, learn to be bold. Learn basic editing skllls. Discuss ideas for topic with your group. We will have a guest speaker visit our class and give pointers on getting started. (Note: we will also briefly discuss your reading assignment and how it relates to our course and Wikipedia.)
- Getting Started. By 11/3, FOUR VERY IMPORTANT TASKS: 1) make one constructive edit to Wikipedia (subject doesn't matter, please do more than simply fix a grammar/spelling error); 2) join your group, 3) decide what topic your group will write about; and 4) tell me your account name, what edit(s) you made as practice, your group name, and your group article idea (add the information at the bottom of this page).
- Plan. Consider: What sections are required? What will be the article structure? What information is needed? What's on existing pages related to your subject/neighborhood (consider for linking)? Finally: Who in your group will write what? By 11/10, (10:00 AM) create and write preliminary "to-do" list on article talk pages, explaining who will do what, and inform the instructor that you have done so with a diff to her talk page. If the article does not exist, you should stub it (see what makes a good stub).
Now, it's time to really get started!
- Research. This is vital. A wikipedia article is worth nothing unless it comprises verified research, appropriately referenced. This will entail going to the library, as well as surfing the internet. Everything must be cited!
- Assemble and copy-edit. As the referenced research is added to an article, we need to ensure that it does not become baggy and disorganized, though there will be moments when it is obviously in a transitional stage. Also, consider images you might use, including personal. Review copyright guidelines and Wikipedia's Image Use Policy. Note: EACH GROUP MEMBER MUST WRITE AT LEAST 3 PARAGRAPHS OR COMPLETE AT LEAST 3 PARAGRAPHS' WORTH OF EDITS. As you know, it's hard to quantify effort for writing/editing, but this should give you an idea of the amount of work you should do. Remember this counts for two essays.
- Your article should be as ready as you can get it by 11/22. Submit it to me so I can can comment on it and give you further advice. You can try the Wikipedia peer review to get additional input. **Note: this doesn't necessarily mean your work is done. Keep checking in daily to track comments by reviewers (which will include the me), answering them and addressing them (if they are reasonable, when in doubt, ask me). The revision for this assignment is different than for our other essays. It will happen continuously over the course of weeks, as I and other outside editors will review your article contributions. We will also be peer-reviewing each others' articles.
What makes a good Wikipedia article? Here are some sample Good Article reviews and related discussions: example1, example2, exampe3.
Important tips edit
- Create an account and sign in every time you edit
When you edit, make sure that you are signed in (if in the top right corner of the screen you see "log in" button, you are not signed in!). If you are not signed in, I won't be able to verify that you were the person who made the edit and give you credit for it.
- Talk pages
When editing a talk page, add four tildes ~~~~ to the end of all comments you make on talk pages. This will let people know who is talking. You can also just press the signature button.
- Important tip: try to chose a subject that you are interested in. It's much easier to write about something interesting than it is to write about something boring!
- What kind of an article are we writing?
We are not doing any original research. You will not be collecting data, analyzing it, or writing about your experiences. We will not be writing an essay with personal opinions or experiences this time. Instead, we will be writing an encyclopedic article, summarizing an existing, verifiable knowledge. See Wikipedia in brief for a short list of what an encyclopedic article is.
- We don't own the articles
Wikipedia is a project with millions of editors, who collaborate on all articles. We don't own the articles we work on. Don't be surprised if you receive comments from editors who are not part of the course, or if they do edit your article. All editors are here to help; don't hesitate to get extra help - Wikipedia has ton of places you can do so.
- Expect to interact (politely) with others
It is likely that over the course of the project, you will receive messages from editors outside our course, and that they will make edits to your article. Be polite in replying, and don't hesitate to ask them to explain something.
- Work on Wikipedia
A. Don't work on a draft in Microsoft Word. Work on a draft in the article on Wikipedia. This way your colleagues (and instructor) will be aware of what you are doing the instant you do so, and can comment on it sooner.
B. Don't exchange comments by email. Exchange comments by using article's talk pages, for the same reasons as above (unless you are certain that your discussion has to stay private).
- Getting extra help
You can always ask me for help. You should not hesitate to ask your fellow students from other groups for help, for example if you see they have mastered some editing trick you have yet to learn. We are here to collaborate, not compete. If you can lobby and get help/assistance/advice from other editors to improve your work (for example by using Wikipedia:Peer review, Wikipedia:Help desk or Wikipedia:Reference desk), I am perfectly fine with it. Be bold and show initiative, it usually helps.
Style guides edit
To get past the stumbling blocks of Good Article status, articles will have to conform to the Wikipedia style guides. The three largest barriers are:
- Wikipedia:Layout – this guide describes heading and sub-headings.
- Wikipedia:Lead section – the all important abstract at the head of an article.
- Wikipedia:Manual of Style – the collection of rules
- See what Wikipedia has to say about article development.
The simplest way to understand the various style guides is to examine articles that have passed GA or FA. You can see Wikipedia Good Articles from the section <"Social science and society" here. Good sociology related ones include Social class in the United States, Anti-nuclear movement in Australia, African American culture, On the Internet, nobody knows you're a dog. Other good examples include Featured articles from the section "Culture and society", for example: Society of the Song Dynasty, Max Weber, Fairy tale.>
Resources edit
- Getting started
- The perfect article
- Assessment
- Article development
- Good article criteria
- Guide for nominating good articles
- Good article review cheatsheet
- Good article nominations
- Feature article criteria
- The differences between good and featured articles
- How to satisfy Criterion 1a
- Picture tutorial
Editors in course edit
Course instructor: LHultberg (llh19 (talk · contribs))
Students (you DON'T have to give your real name, but if you don't, do email me with your name and account so I know whose account is whose):
Group 1 - Shady Girls
- MorganPaige (talk · contribs) --MorganPaige (talk) 19:17, 2 November 2010 (UTC)
- sdl27 (talk · contribs)
- spector.a (talk · contribs) Spector.a (talk) 04:28, 3 November 2010 (UTC)
Group 2 - Squirrel Hill
- Mschug (talk) 22:52, 1 November 2010 (UTC)
- Skg30 (talk · contribs) --Skg30 (talk)00:50, 3 November 2010 (UTC)
- Cmm179 (talk · contribs) -- Cmm179 (talk) 00:40, 3 November 2010
- Cwl18 (talk · contribs) -- Cwl18 (talk)
Group 3 - Dance Alloy
- Jdk2010 (talk · contribs) -- Jdk2010 (talk)
- ealangan (talk · contribs) -- ealangan (talk)
- Agutman (talk · contribs) -- Agutman (talk)
Group 4 - South Side
- Battlefield1181 (talk · contribs) --Battlefield1181 (talk) 04:02, 28 October 2010 (UTC)
- bknass48 (talk · contribs)130.49.30.135 (talk) 17:51, 2 November 2010 (UTC)
- Minkoff610 (talk · contribs)
- Mnp8 (talk · contribs) --Mnp8 10:30 3 November 2010
Group 5 -Hill District Heroes
Articles edited edit
Group projects edit
List here the article your group is editing:
Group 1: Shadyside (Pittsburgh) which links to Mellon Park
Group 2: Children's Institute of Pittsburgh
Group 3: Dance Alloy
Group 4: South Side which may layover into Southside Flats and Southside Slopes
Group 5: Sala Udin
Instructor and TA group: healcrest urban community farm (new page)
Questions? edit
Post them at the discussion page of this article and/or email your course instructor!
- ^ Tapscott, Don; Williams, Anthony (2008). Wikinomics: how mass collaboration changes everything. New York, New York: Penguin Group. ISBN 978-1-59184-193-7. Retrieved 2011-01-01.
Note: This page design is based on a template created by P. Konieczny, for the support of Wikipedia's educational use.