User:Apdamegriff/WMST 250: Women, Art, and Culture

WMST 250 is an introduction to the interdisciplinary field of women’s studies with special focus on the arts and humanities. The course aims to develop your skills in analysing and critiquing cultural texts, particularly their representations of women and their assumptions about gender, race, class, sexuality, and other categories of identity. It also introduces you to the cultural production of a range of women artists from different backgrounds, working in many different mediums and genres. It explores some of the differences among women, as well as connections and affiliations among them as creative workers in the arts.

This assignment in particular will familiarize students with knowledge production and sharing online, placed in context with the historical erasure of women cultural producers. For this assignment, broken into 4 parts, students will be asked to 1) familiarize themselves with Wikipedia, 2) select and research more information on a woman creative worker (artist, poet, author, musician, etc.), 3) contribute edits to an existing stub on their chosen creative worker, and 4) look over fellow classmates' edits.

Week 1-3: Wikipedia essentials and Wiki Assignment #1 (Due Feb 20 @ 11:59 p.m. on ELMS)

 * To read and complete
 * Handout: Welcome to Wikipedia (available in print or online from the Wikimedia Foundation)
 * Handouts: Using talk pages, Evaluating Wikipedia article quality, Wikimarkup cheatsheet


 * Start and complete the online student orientation. During this training, you will create an account, make edits in a sandbox, and learn the basic rules of Wikipedia.
 * Complete the quiz on Wikipedia's basic functions on ELMS.
 * Create a mockup for a Wikipedia page in your sandbox. Practice all of the skills you'll need when making your article. Format your article Wiki-style, with a bolded first sentence, a section header, a reference section, and at least one cited "source". Include at least one edit summary. If at any point, you forget any of the code or want tools to help make compiling citations easier, you can refer to WP:CHEAT, Help:Citation tools, and “Uploading images.” (YOUR USER PAGE SHOULD LOOK LIKE THIS but without an image.)
 * Select an individual from one of these two lists: Category:Stub-Class Women writers articles and Category:Stub-Class Women artists articles who A) primarily works in one of the mediums we will cover this semester (writer, visual artist, musician, photographer, etc.) and B) has a Wikipedia page that consists of two paragraphs or less of information. (Antonia Eiriz is a good example of an article that would qualify.) Add your selection next to your username below. Before settling on one individual, do some research via Google, Google Scholar, and the UMD Libraries Website. Make sure there is enough information available to you to make multiple additions.
 * Lastly, to practice editing and communicating on Wikipedia, leave a message for a classmate on their user talk page.

Week 6: Wiki Assignment #2 (Due Mar 6 @ 11:59 p.m. on ELMS)
SAMPLE ANNOTATION PAGE.
 * Compile a list of 3-5 sources, annotated, and post them to your User sandbox. Your annotation should describe the source’s content, its relevance to your Wikipedia page, and why it meets Wikipedia’s standards for a reliable source.

From this assignment onward, you will be using the VisualEditor. You can turn the VisualEditor on by:
 * Go to your preferences (when you're logged in)
 * Click on the Beta features tab
 * Check the box next to VisualEditor
 * Save your settings

Example annotation: For a theoretical Wikipedia article on Joan Semmel.

Schwendener, Martha. 2013. “A Review of Joan Semmel’s Work at the Bronx Museum of the Arts.” The New York Times, February 1, sec. N.Y. / Region. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/03/nyregion/a-review-of-joan-semmels-work-at-the-bronx-museum-of-the-arts.html.

This newspaper article reviews the "Joan Semmel: The Lucid Eye" exhibit, held at the Bronx Museum in 2013. The author positions Semmel as a feminist artist, positioning her depiction of nudity in historical context. Schwendener describes a variety of Semmel's works on display and and how they play on both traditional painting styles and formats and normative gender expectations. This piece is a relevant source for my Wikipedia article because it provides information about Semmel's later works, as well as description and expert analysis of her art style. It also meets Wikipedia's standards for a reliable source because it is a secondary source, published in an established news outlet.

A link to your sandbox (which should have your completed list) should be submitted to the accompanying Assignment on ELMS.

Week 10: Wiki Assignment #3 (Due Apr 3 @ 11:59 p.m. on ELMS)
(NOTE: This assignment has two parts. Make sure to complete and turn in both on time.)


 * Part 1 (Worth 15 possible pts): Make your edits to the Wikipedia stub for your creative worker. You must add at least 4 NEW citations to the Wikipedia page, all of which must be attached to new content written by you. Citations added to existing content, or additions that amount to copy-editing or minor changes to the page will not be counted.

Possible Additions:
 * One long or several shorter sentences of new information.
 * Adding a number of items to an existing list (or making a new list of items, such as exhibitions, that doesn't currently exist)
 * Including comments on an author's or artist's work from critics and reviewers.

If you are adding a new section (such as "Critical Reception" for reviewer comments or a list of items like exhibitions), it will be counted as multiple additions (based on amount of information added and citations used.) You may re-use sources or use multiple sources to cite an addition - the key thing is that the information added is new. Your edits will be graded on writing style and use of proper citation. See Janise Yntema for an example article that models proper Wikipedia citation and writing style.

When making your edits, make sure you utilize Manual of Style/Biographies and Biographies of living persons (specifically, the "Writing Style" section) for the biographical information. Just as with any other class paper, make sure your edits does not include any possible plagiarism;. '''A link to your edited article should be submitted to the accompanying Wiki Assignment #3 on ELMS. All article edits must be completed and turned in on time, or they will not be accepted.'''


 * Part 2 (Worth 35 possible pts): You will complete and turn in a 3-5 page reflective paper, double-spaced, outlining in detail:
 * Your research process:
 * How did you go about looking for information? What resources did you use?
 * Did you get help from other individuals? If so, who were they and how did they help you? What resources did they provide?
 * What information were you able to find on your topic? What did you learn from it?
 * What difficulties did you face in your research? How did you try to overcome them?
 * What would you do differently next time?

Useful Links:
 * Starting an article
 * Moving out of your sandbox
 * | Editing Wikipedia Brochure
 * FAQ/Editing
 * WP:CHEAT
 * | Citing sources
 * Help:Citation tools

Week 13: Wiki Assignment #4 (Due Apr 24 @ 11:59 p.m. on ELMS)

 * Peer review two of your classmates' articles. Edit the two reviewed articles. Things you can when editing:
 * Copy-edit for grammar and spelling issues
 * Add wikilinks (to town, other authors, books, etc)
 * Add Categories
 * Add Images (see this brochure for complete instructions.)