User:Amyfrench/Recent American History

This course is a survey of American history from 1877 to 1991. The Wikipedia project entails: choosing an historical topic, researching that topic, creating a graded, annotated bibliography of academic sources, synthesizing Wikipedia with current historical scholarship, editing Wikipedia to reflect synthesis and analysis of historical scholarship, and communicating that analysis through an oral presentation.

Week 1 (2015-01-12):  Wikipedia essentials, Editing basics

 * Overview of the course
 * Introduction to how Wikipedia will be used in the course
 * Wikipedia is a community: a brief overview of its rules, expectations, and etiquette
 * Handout: Editing Wikipedia (available in print or online from the Wiki Education Foundation)
 * Handouts: Using Talk Pages handout and Evaluating Wikipedia brochure


 * Create an account and then complete the online training for students. During this training, you will learn the basic rules of Wikipedia.


 * Create a User page, and then click the "enroll" button on the top left of this course page.


 * Choose a topic for your Wikipedia project and submit to instructor in class by January 22.


 * All students have Wikipedia user accounts and are listed on the course page.

Week 2 (2015-01-19):  Exploring the topic area

 * Begin research of historical topic.
 * Turn in topic to instructor on January 22. Topic should be typed and accompanying Wikipedia article title should also be noted.

Week 3 (2015-01-26):  Using sources and choosing articles

 * Handouts: Citing sources on Wikipedia and Avoiding plagiarism on Wikipedia.


 * Continue researching topic.
 * Start gathering and requesting (through interlibrary loan if necessary) academic secondary sources.

Week 4 (2015-02-02):  Finalizing topics and starting research

 * Continue research and source gathering.

Week 5 (2015-02-09):  Drafting starter articles

 * Start compiling a bibliography of relevant, reliable sources. Take notes on your sources to be used when creating final draft of annotated bibliography.


 * All students have started draft of bibliography.

Week 6 (2015-02-16):  Moving articles to the main space

 * Meet with Professor French to discuss your sources and get assistance on research avenues.

Week 7 (2015-02-23):  Building articles, Creating first draft

 * Finish conferences with Professor French by February 24.


 * Create first draft of bibliography.

Week 8 (2015-03-09):  Getting and giving feedback

 * Finalize annotated bibliography.

Guidelines for bibliography and source summarization
 * Must have at least three academic sources on bibliography. Academic sources are generally from academic journals (found on J-Stor or Project Muse) or from academic publishers. Delta provides access to J-Stor and Project Muse through the LLIC. For books, you will probably need to use interlibrary loan; this can take several weeks so leave yourself plenty of time.
 * Bibliographical citations must be in Chicago Manual of Style (see link and sample on eLearning under assignments)
 * After each citation, summarize the material in a paragraph or so for each citation. (See eLearning for sample)
 * Annotated bibliography due March 17 in class.

Week 9 (2015-03-16):  Responding to feedback, Continuing to improve articles

 * Annotated bibliography due March 17.


 * Create first draft of Wikipedia edit.
 * Identify what in the journal articles and/or books you researched is already found in the Wikipedia article.
 * Identify what in the journal articles and/or books you researched needs to be added to the Wikipedia article (including citations of said materials)

Week 10 (2015-03-23):  Finishing touches

 * Submit final edits to the Wikipedia website.
 * Before uploading your edit, ask yourself the following questions:Does each sentence of the proposed edit lead back to a reliable source for a reference or citation? Is any of the language the edit uses subjective or not-neutral? For example, "most popular president" is a subjective criteria that is not neutral.Does the language contain unsourced opinions and value statements, which are not neutral and should be removed? For example, instead of saying: "he was the best president," the text should say: "He served two terms with high ratings from American citizens. During his tenure as president, he passed blankety-blank laws that provided a safety net for the middle-class."

Week 11 (2015-03-30):  Due date

 * Students have finished all their work on Wikipedia that will be considered for grading by April 2. Students will start working on their presentations,which are due in class on April 28/30 (guidelines on eLearning).