Wikipedia:Wiki Ed/University of Alaska Anchorage/Writing and Rhetoric in Public Life (Fall 2020)
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- Course name
- Writing and Rhetoric in Public Life
- Institution
- University of Alaska Anchorage
- Instructor
- Jackie Cason
- Wikipedia Expert
- Ian (Wiki Ed)
- Subject
- Writing and Rhetoric
- Course dates
- 2020-08-25 00:00:00 UTC – 2020-12-12 23:59:59 UTC
- Approximate number of student editors
- 15
Advanced rhetorical problem solving and writing to engage public issues.
Timeline
Week 1
- Course meetings
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- Monday, 31 August 2020
- Week One Orientation
I want to encourage you to create a Wikipedia account early in the process. But please give some thought to your username because you're not going to want to change it after you get started. You may think of this as a game or as a situation in which you construct a public identity as an editor, which may be different than you more private identity. I have used my university username, but you are free to create an identity of your own for the sole purpose of editing on Wikipedia. Have fun with it.
I have included a training module for starters to help you understand how to keep track of your work on the Wiki Dashboard.
- Overview of 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.
Please read the Wikipedia Project Overview:
Week 2
- Course meetings
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- Monday, 7 September 2020
- Week Two Focus on Rhetorical Situations
Reach out to your Wikipedia Expert if you have questions using the Get Help button at the top of this page.
- 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.
- Assignment - Wikipedia Basics
Consult the following Resource throughout the semester: Editing with Wikipedia Brochure. p. 3. I recommend you start with the "Getting Started" section.
Also note that this module offers a "Discussion." You will be responding to such discussion prompts in the Weekly Blog back on Blackboard. It may be a little confusing at first to go back and forth between two workspaces, but you'll grow accustomed to it. I will be posting an explicit prompt for the Weekly Blog in Blackboard that invites you to integrate your reading in the textbook with the work you're doing here. By reading the discussion prompts here, you simply get a preview.
Week 3
- Course meetings
-
- Monday, 14 September 2020
- Week 3 Focus on Publics
Reach out to your Wikipedia Expert if you have questions using the Get Help button at the top of this page.
Consult the following Resource throughout the semester: Editing with Wikipedia Brochure. p. 5. Click on the p. 5 link to learn the differences between writing for Wikipedia and writing for other school based assignments.
- Assignment - Understanding Plagiarism
For further explanation and discussion of plagiarism, you may consult this source:
PlagiarismHandoutAlso note once again that this module offers a "Discussion." You will be responding to a prompt in the Weekly Blog back on Blackboard. I hope you are growing more used to working in Blackboard while completing training modules here. I will post an explicit prompt for the Weekly Blog each week in Blackboard that invites you to integrate your textbook reading with your editing work here. By reflecting on the discussion prompts here, you get a chance to reinforce the tutorial you just completed.
Week 4
- Course meetings
-
- Monday, 21 September 2020
- Week 4 Focus on Public Figures in Alaska
Writing about local people, places, and things makes it slightly more challenging to demonstrate notability, so I recommend this discussion on local places of interest.
Reach out to your Wikipedia Expert if you have questions using the Get Help button at the top of this page.
- Assignment - Discussion about Rhetorical Opportunities
- What do you imagine as your editorial identity?
Many types of people edit Wikipedia and tend to play particular roles or identities. Explore the essay on WikiFauna, and identify the type of wiki editor you imagine yourself to be, or the type of editor you aspire to be.
Week 5
- Course meetings
-
- Monday, 28 September 2020
- Assignment - Week 5 Focus on Working as a Team and Evaluating Articles
After completing the trainings and exercises, you can use the Article Evaluation Template to evaluate an article.
- Assignment - View Demonstration on Good Article Criteria
View the instructional video on Good Article Criteria, created by Mackenzie Lindemann
Please keep in mind that you will be the primary author on one of three articles--on a person, a place, or a thing--and a contributing editor on the other two articles in your group. The goal will be to help each team member do the best they can and to cross link among the articles when you see opportunities. By seizing these opportunities early, your work at the end of term will be more meaningful and easier to do when it comes time to tie the three articles into a story.
Week 6
- Course meetings
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- Monday, 5 October 2020
- Assignment - Week 6 Focus on Assigning Articles
Consult the following Resource throughout the semester: Editing with Wikipedia Brochure. p. 6. Click on the p. 6 link for guidance on choosing your topic.
- Reviewing Sandboxes
You have already completed trainings about drafting in sandboxes. You will be doing your work in your sandbox, and it's possible to create as many sandboxes as you want. If you need a refresher on how sandboxes work, you can review these brief trainings.
- Guide(s) for writing articles in your topic area
In the spirit of developing genre awareness, I call your attention to Editing with Wikipedia Brochure. p. 9. Click on the p. 9 link for guidance on organizing a Wikipedia article.
- Biographies
- A Simple Guide to Creating a Wikipedia Biography
- Writing articles about Books
- Milestones
Week 7
- Course meetings
-
- Monday, 12 October 2020
- Assignment - Demonstration on Applying Good Article Criteria
For a demonstration of what it means to apply good article criteria, please watch the instructional video created by Mackenzie Lindemann.
- Assignment - Week 7 Focus on Editing Articles
This week we will focus on good article criteria as a strategy for editing articles, and we will also begin to apply style principles from The Well-Crafted Sentence in order to make minor edits in Wikipedia.
- Please note that the training on editing health topics is optional. I just wanted you to see that the checks and standards for health topics is higher than for other topic areas.
- Consult the following Resource throughout the semester: Editing with Wikipedia Brochure. p. 8. Click on the p. 8 link for guidance on writing style.
Finally, I will say that visual editor is the way to go, But if you are comfortable and like to work with code, there's a wiki markup cheat sheet at the end of Editing with Wikipedia Brochure. p. 16.
Editing Wikipedia brochure (Wiki Education Foundation) (2016)
Week 8
- Course meetings
-
- Monday, 19 October 2020
- Assignment - Week 8 Focus on Conducting Research and Citing Sources
- Assignment - Demonstration
- Improving an Article
For a demonstration of what it looks like to improve an article by adding citations, view the video on the Richard Nelson page, created by Mackenzie Lindemann
- Optional
- Use the Citation Hunt Tool
If you want to practice adding citations to articles, explore the Citation Hunt tool. Before you add a citation, first evaluate whether the statement in question is true. An uncited statement could just be lacking a reference or it could be inaccurate or misleading. Reliable sources on the subject will help you choose whether to add it or correct the statement.
Week 9
- Course meetings
-
- Monday, 26 October 2020
- Assignment - Week 9 Focus on Composing Tools
FYI: As group members assign themselves an article and set about working in groups, contributing editors can assign themselves to the articles their teammates are working on. The sandbox will be owned by the first person who signs up, but then the teammates can later assign themselves to the articles in order to have ready access for peer review and commentary.
For these reasons, I have assigned the training on drafting as a group or as a contributing editor to someone else's article.
- Milestones
Everyone has begun working in their Sandboxes on their assigned article, the one they assigned to themselves.
Backtrack to Week 8: Before going further (I should have emphasized this last week), add items to your bibliography in the Dashboard. You can add to your bibliography page by selecting the Students tab, then selecting yourself. You'll see a link for a bibliography page. Go ahead and transfer the sources and citations you have accumulated so far to this page, and continue to contribute as you go. I'll try to assist, as time allows. This is another important composing tool.
Consult the following Resource throughout the semester: Editing with Wikipedia Brochure. p. 7-8. Click on the p. 7 link for guidance on writing a first draft.
Week 10
- Course meetings
-
- Monday, 2 November 2020
- Week 10 Focus on Enhancing your Writing
I have introduced a new guide on illustrating Wikipedia to this week's module, but I want you to know that there is guidance on pp. 10-11 of the Editing with Wikipedia Brochure as well.
- 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.
For an additional resource, consult the guide to Illustrating Wikipedia.
Illustrating Wikipedia brochure (Wiki Education Foundation)
It may also be a good time to spruce up your article with links to your teammates articles or to other articles on Wikipedia. See Editing with Wikipedia Brochure. p. 12 for guidance.
Week 11
- Course meetings
-
- Monday, 9 November 2020
- Week 11 Focus on Peer Reviewing
Review the Good Article Criteria on Wikipedia. You may want to nominate your article for Good Article consideration. If so, this presentation below will be very helpful:
- Assignment - Peer review teammates' articles
After completing trainings and exercises, you can use the Peer Review Template to review your peers' writing.
- Assignment - Respond to your peer review
You probably have some feedback from other students and possibly other Wikipedians. Consider their suggestions, decide whether it makes your work more accurate and complete, and edit your draft to make those changes.
Resources:
- Editing Wikipedia, pages 12 and 14
- Reach out to your Wikipedia Expert if you have any questions.
- Milestones
Every student has finished reviewing their assigned articles, making sure that every article has been reviewed.
Week 12
- Course meetings
-
- Monday, 16 November 2020
- Week 12 Focus on Revising and Publishing
Consult the following Resource Editing with Wikipedia Brochure. p. 13-15 for quick tips on going live with your article and revising based on feedback. Page 15 offers a valuable final review checklist, so be sure to take a look at that.
Editing Wikipedia brochure (Wiki Education Foundation) (2016)
- Assignment - Polish your work
Continue to expand and improve your work, and format your article to match Wikipedia's tone and standards. This is a repeated module for copy-editing an article. You can now copy-edit your own article.
Remember to contact your Wikipedia Expert at any time if you need further help!
- Assignment - Final article
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!
- Assignment - Begin moving your work to Wikipedia
Now that you've improved your draft based on others' feedback, it's time to move your work live - to the "mainspace."
Resource: Editing Wikipedia, page 13
Review for plagiarism one last time:
- Milestones
Everyone should have finished all of the work they'll do on Wikipedia, and be ready for grading.
- Assignment - Reflective essay
Week 13
- Course meetings
-
- Monday, 23 November 2020
- Assignment - Week 13
- Reflective Essay
- Complete the reflective essay using the prompts provided. Submit as you Weekly Blog for Week 13.
- Continue improving your article this week as well.
- Sign up for a session with Dr. Cason, to help you move your work into the mainspace.
Week 14
- Course meetings
-
- Monday, 30 November 2020
- Assignment - Week 14
- Mapping Connections
You should be collaborating this final week to prepare your final presentation as a team.
The Mapping Connections Template is provided. Just copy it and share among each group. You can prepare slides individually, but it would be good for a team leader to do final editing. More instructions are available in Blackboard.