User:Jdenbow/human traditions

This page has information on the Wikipedia assignment for Professor Denbow's Human Traditions Course for the Fall of 2011 at the University of New England.

The goal of this assignment is for several groups of students to choose an underdeveloped or missing article on Wikipedia that is related to the course theme of Gender and Politics in the pre-modern world.

Introduction for students
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 vast majority of them are volunteers who find editing this site to be an enjoyable experience, even a hobby. Therefore I hope you will enjoy this exercise and the course! After all, there are not many exercises that tell you to do something that over a million people think is 'fun'.

Tutorial is the best place to start your adventure with this wiki. Please familiarize yourself with instructions for students and if you have any questions, check the FAQ/Editing or Help:Contents and if you cannot find what you are looking for, ask the friendly people at Help desk.

Before making any major edits, it is recommended that you create an account. You definitely need to have an account before attempting to do any wiki-related coursework (otherwise we will be unable to confirm if you have completed the exercise). After you create an account, if you know your group already, add your name to the relevant section of this page.

Remember that Wikipedia is not a project limited only to our university. We are guests here and we should all behave accordingly. Please make sure you read Wikiquette. Please try to think what impression you want other Wikipedians to have of our university — and of yourselves.

You should expect that the instructor, 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 exercises below, you should log in to Wikipedia and check your messages often. Whenever you have a new message and are logged in to 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: whenever 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.

Please try to find answers to questions you have on Help:Contents. If you cannot find an answer, ask in class, at office hours, or direct questions to: my talk page.

Assignment
Now that you are familiar with the Wikipedia environment, it is time to jump into your assignment.

Project overview:

Your assignment is to choose an underdeveloped or nonexistent article on a subject related to this course to research and write about on Wikipedia. You will perform a literature search on that topic, and work with an assigned group to create a new article or expand an existing one, following any and all Wikipedia standards first and foremost. During the active project phase, you will monitor and respond to feedback on your article, and assist other groups by reading and commenting on their work.

Project details:

This assignment is worth 30% of your grade for the course.

During class you will be assigned to a group and given a group number. This is your Wikipedia assignment group, and it is composed of the people you work with for the duration of the semester. You will be given time during lecture to meet with your group and discuss options and schedules. You and your group will choose an article and create or expand it. Once you have chosen your article, you will write up a one page proposal, outlining important information about it, what points you will cover in your article, and a short list of resources. You will then meet with me as a group to discuss your proposal. The deadlines for this assignment are listed below, as well as on the course syllabus.

Once you have gotten my approval, work together to create an interesting, in depth article about your chosen subject. Make sure you familiarize yourself with encyclopedia-type writing before you begin. We will discuss the appropriate type of writing in class, but note that writing for Wikipedia is very different from writing an essay, although not that far from writing a descriptive scientific paper. Please read the following guidelines to get a handle on how you should write your article BEFORE you start writing:
 * 1) What Wikipedia is not, which summarizes what Wikipedia is, and what it is not;
 * 2) Neutral point of view, which describes Wikipedia's core approach to neutral, unbiased article-writing;
 * 3) No original research, which explains what is, and is not, valid encyclopedic information;
 * 4) Verifiability, which explains what counts as a verifiable source and how a source can be verified;
 * 5) Citing sources, which describes what kinds of sources should be cited and the manner of doing so; and
 * 6) Manual of Style, which offers a style guide.

Wikipedia maintains a high standard of writing, and has taken great pains to improve these standards. You need to follow their directions to the letter, since deviating from these standards will invite article deletion.

Regarding the length of the article, quality of sources used, and such, see the articles other students have written for similar projects: here, here or here.

Feel free to include photos, but remember that not all pictures on the web are free for the taking. Familiarize yourself with Wikipedia's Copyright Policy to ensure you are not doing anything wrong (copyright violation, in the real world, means what plagiarism means in academia). Remember that any violation will be caught and dealt with by the plethora of editors on the site (and you do not want your group article to suddenly sprout a copyvio template like [http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Food_power&oldid=327364463 this 2009 group did...).

Your article must include at least one academic book or journal source per group member. However, keep in mind that this is a minimum requirement. You should also include a list of external links giving the reader more information on your subject, and link to your page from other Wikipedia pages, so your page is not an orphan. To answer that question in your head: yes, you can go on someone else's article and link to your own. That's the beauty of Wiki!

You are welcome to use Peer Review and related tools (see tips section below) and seek creative comments on your article. In other words, if you can get other Wikipedia editors to help you, I am totally fine with that.

Once you begin writing your article, you are required to respond to any comments on your paper and act accordingly (make proper changes, defend your choices, etc). These comments will give you substantial feedback on your work, and allow you to make your final product better. (Besides, I'm going to spend the semester reading your work and commenting on it--if you listen to my feedback, you'll end up with a much better grade.)

Finally, you will read and evaluate/comment on your classmates' articles. Please make your comments constructive and useful. You will not get credit for such comments as "good article!" or "I liked it!" Suggest something that can be realistically improved, compare their article to yours and see if your group has learned any tricks that can help them. Also refrain from any abusive or inappropriate language. Remember, you are the face of our University for the semester--make us proud.

At the end of the semester, you will turn into me the following items in a print-out version:


 * 1) A print out of constructive comments you made when reviewing the work of another group, so I can give you the points for reviewing other articles. Please highlight your user name for clarity. Label that page(s) as: Review of other group work.
 * 2) A print out of constructive comments you made on your own group article's talk page, and on the talk pages of other editors (if relevant). Label that page(s) as: Communication during our group work. Note that only on-wiki communication is accepted, off-wiki communication like emails and such will not be graded.
 * 3) Each member of the groups will fill out a form to grade the other members of the group.

Stages and deadlines
Finishing the above three assignments on time is worth 2% of the Wikipedia assignment grade.
 * On Tuesday, Sept. 2, I will give a brief introduction to Wikipedia and this assignment in class.
 * Start. Get familiar with Wikipedia. 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.
 * By Thursday, Sept. 15, everyone should have created a Wikipedia account, created a user page, finished the Wikipedia Tutorial (including making an edit in the Wikipeida Tutorial Sandbox),
 * By Thursday, Sept. 22, you should have made at least one constructive edit to a Wikipedia article (outside the sandbox - subject doesn't matter), made a constructive comment to a Wikipedia's article discussion page (make sure to add a constructive edit summary), and informed the course instructor (Jennifer Denbow - User:Jdenbow (User_talk:Jdenbow) about your account name and the edits you've made.
 * By Thursday, Oct. 6, you should have made at least 3 constructive edits to Wikipedia articles that are related to this course and informed the instructor of your edits on her talk page.

Completing the above two assignments on time and satisfactorily is worth 2% of your Wikipedia assignment grade.
 * Plan. On Oct. 25, we will discuss how to choose an article and develop a plan for the article. You will be assigned to a group on that day and will have a chance to discuss possible topics with your group. After class, you must join a group (that includes adding yourself to the linked section below)
 * By Nov. 3, you should have researched and listed 3–5 articles on your Wikipedia user page that you think would make good articles for your group main assignment. Link them (so they are blue links like this one). Share them with your other group members and instructor by posting the link to your userpage on their talk pages. (Don't forget to sign and link your userpage).

Finishing the above assignment on time and satisfactorily is worth 2% of the Wikipedia assignment grade.
 * By Tuesday, Nov. 22, each group should give me a one page article proposal that includes the title of the proposed article, a summary of the kind of material you anticipate covering in the article, and a list of at least 5 possible outside (meaning things we didn't read as a class) references. Each member of the group will ultimately be responsible for one outside, scholarly source. Scholarly references come from peer reviewed journals or books. (As supplementary sources, you may rely on reliable websites. If you have questions about whether a website is reliable, ask me.)


 * Before class on Nov. 29, you should start gathering and reading sources. Also, if the article doesn't exist, start a stub. You should stub (start) it (see what makes a good stub and you may want to watch this "article creation" tutorial)


 * Over the holiday weekend and before class on Tues., Nov. 29, begin sharing the information you've found from your sources and start discussing the format of your article and its content in the discussion page associated with your new article page. Remember to sign in before you contribute to the discussion.
 * In class on Nov. 29, you will formulate a more concrete plan, develop a to-do list, and assign member specific tasks and responsibilities. You should post a "to-do" list on the article's discussion page after you create a plan. The "to do" list should consist of a list of what points you will cover in your article, how it will be structured, who will work on what sections, and a list of references. This list should be about one page in length if you need a yardstick. Each group member should participate in creation of that list, describing their own tasks. The to do list should be in place by Wednesday, Nov. 30.


 * 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!
 * 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.
 * Informal Reviews. Before Thurs, Dec. 1, each of you should look at an article being developed by another group, review it on that article's talk page, and write a summary for your own group (on your own article's talk page) saying whether anything that group has done is valuable for you. You should try to review different articles if possible. Finishing this assignment on time is worth 1% of the Wikipedia assignment grade.
 * You should read and comment on the feedback your article received. Incorporate constructive suggestions into your article.


 * Your group will give a presentation of your Wikipedia article, which should include a reflection on the Wikipedia assignment, in class the week of Dec. 5th. Your article should be mostly done for your presentation, but you should continue to work on it and respond to comments throughout the week. I will grade the version of the article that is up at 5 p.m. on Friday, Dec. 9. The presentation is worth 3% of the Wikipedia project grade.

Important tips
FAQ/Editing will give you all the information you need to edit pages and start your own. Read it! Help:Contents and Tutorial are very useful, too.
 * Read the fine manual :)

I suggest doing some practice edits on various pages, just to get a feel for how things work. You can start by adding material to your user page, but try to edit real articles, too.
 * Practice

If you are drawing a blank as to what you should edit for practice, there are many places you may want to check if you want to improve your Wikipedia-editing skills by editing Wikipedia. Feel free to check the following pages:


 * Cleanup
 * Pages needing attention
 * Peer review
 * Translation into English
 * Pages needing translation into English
 * WikiProject Countering systemic bias

Whenever 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 will not be able to verify that you were the person who made the edit and give you points for it.
 * Create an account and sign in every time you edit

Whenever 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.
 * Talk pages

You can choose to create an entirely new article, if the topic you'd like to write about is missing. You can also expand an existing Wikipedia article, if there is ample room for expansion (rule of thumb: if the article has only a few sentences, it is a good choice for expansion, if it has a few long sections, probably not). Most articles assessed as a "stub" qualify for this assignment.
 * Selecting an article


 * Important tip: try to choose a subject that you are interested in. It's much easier to write about something interesting than it is to write about something boring!

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 judgments. Instead, we will be writing an encyclopedic article. See Wikipedia in brief for a short list of what an encyclopedic article we will be writing here is.
 * What kind of an article are we writing?

The simplest way to understand the style you are supposed to follow is to examine good articles. You can find some of Wikipedia's best articles here - Featured_articles
 * Style

The technical details are explained in the Manual of Style, but I find just looking at already-written articles much more helpful than studying the collection of the rules.

If you want to learn how to write nicely, check this guide:
 * How to satisfy Criterion 1a - despite the weird name, it is a very useful set of suggestions

Useful links:
 * Good article criteria
 * Good article review cheatsheet

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.
 * We don't own the articles

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.
 * Expect to interact (politely) with others

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.
 * Work on Wikipedia

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 have to stay private). If you like to receive email notifications, you can monitor the article's talk pages (and your own userpage talk page) by subscribing to that page RSS feed (see Syndication).

Remember: gaining experience with wiki software may be more important to your future career than detailed knowledge of gender and politics in pre-modern times. Three years ago, Technorati's chief technologist states that in five years "knowledge of wikis will be a required job skill".

Plagiarism is not only against university and course policies, it is also against Wikipedia policies (see WP:PLAGIARISM). And attributing somebody doesn't mean cut and paste jobs are allowed (WP:COPYVIO). Violations of plagiarism/copyvio policies will result in severe sanctions (per the university's policy). Please note that the course instructor is not the only person checking constantly for plagiarism and copyright violations; Wikipedia has a specialized group of volunteers specializing in checking new contributions for those very problems (you don't want your work to appear here or here!). In particular, note that extensive quoting is not allowed, and changing just a few words is still a copyvio (it doesn't matter if you attribute the source). Bottom line, you are expected to read, digest information, and summarize it in your own words (but with a source). For more info see: this plagiarism handout, Copy-paste, Quotations, Close paraphrasing, a guide from Purdue University.
 * Plagiarism and copyvio warning

You can always ask the course instructor 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 New contributors' help page, Requests for feedback, Peer review, Help desk or Reference desk), I am perfectly fine with it. Be bold and show initiative. It usually helps.
 * Getting extra help

Based on other instructors' past experiences, here are common mistakes that tend to lower grades:
 * Advice from past assignments
 * read the "getting extra help" tip above
 * complete WP:TUTORIAL and edit some Wikipedia articles "for fun" early on; experience gained will be very helpful
 * work on a draft on Wikipedia, in the article; don't work in Microsoft Word or such
 * keep an eye on your userpage discussion page, and on article's discussion page, where other group members and other Wikipedia editors - and the instructor - may leave you tips, advice and other comments
 * remember it's a collaborative assignment. Work with your colleagues from the first day on a single wiki-draft. Groups whose members work alone and try to combine their parts a day or so before the final submission don't do very well.
 * don't focus solely on your own sections. Help your teammates by proofreading their section, see if they have trouble with things you've figured out.
 * image questions? See this image uploading handout, this uploading image video tutorial, Images, and in particular, the Finding images tutorial and the Picture tutorial. Try to avoid looking for images on "the web", focus on the Wikipedia's sister project, Wikimedia Commons, which has millions of images that can be used on Wikipedia without any restrictions.
 * reference questions? Revisit the Tutorial/Citing sources and watch a video tutorial on how to add footnotes and proper references to your article.

Grading
To avoid getting your grade weighted down, read the tips above, and in particular, follow those simple steps:
 * log in and make edits to the article regularly
 * discuss the article with other group members on article's discussion page, where the instructor can see that you are actively engaged in planning and developing the article

It is therefore NOT recommended that some group members specialize in tasks such as library research or off-wiki writing, which the instructor cannot verify.

Here is a checklist for article quality.
 * The topic was approved by the instructor
 * Paper includes intro summary (lead in the Wikipedia terminology), at least 3 body paragraphs per group member, conclusion, and bibliography
 * There are no grammatical/spelling errors throughout the paper
 * Introduction summarizes the subject properly and does not include unique information not present in the main body of the article
 * Conclusion sums up the paper without ending abruptly
 * Paper is structured logically, and there are no weird gaps (Note: "weird gaps" occur for example when you chose to write about a historical trend, but your group "forgets" to research few centuries in the middle; or when you are presenting an overview by country, but decide that few random countries are enough, because you use an arbitrary "two countries per group" member rule instead of thinking which countries are important to cover for the subject discussed)
 * Sources used are reliable
 * In-paper citations are present and used correctly according to Wikipedia format see Citing sources
 * In-paper citations are done in a consistent format, and provide all the necessary information (in brief: author's name, publication title, publisher information, page number if source has pages, URL if source is online, see ASA style for details)
 * Body of the paper explores the chosen subject in adequate detail. (Note: “adequate detail” means I shouldn’t be able to do a quick literature search and find information not included in the paper. I want you to search current and past literature, books, newspapers, websites, etc. and summarize all the information you find into an easy-to-read and understand paper. If you are missing major bits of information, or have included incorrect information without citations to back up your findings, you will lose major points here).
 * Paper should conform to Wikipedia writing standards (Neutral point of view, No original research)

To get full points for your group's article you must do your share of the work.
 * I will grade your activity based on these factors:
 * Whether you contributed to your paper on a regular basis
 * Whether you were active on the article's talk page. This means that I see that you attempted to address and fix any and all comments/suggestions given by me, your colleagues, the reviewer and the Wikipedia community. If the change was not made, adequate explanation was given (which did not include "this is for a research assignment, so leave us alone)
 * Whether your group members report that you shared adequately in the work

How to fail the assignment:
 * plagiarism, or extensive quotations
 * letting others do all the work and hoping you can still get some points
 * missing deadlines
 * logging in and editing only at the very end of the course, where you discover you are not sure how to edit Wikipedia, and that your contribution does not really fit the article your group members were working on
 * not participating in the talk page discussions

Editors in Human Traditions
 Course instructor: User:Jdenbow (Jennifer Denbow)

You DON'T have to give your real name below, but if you don't, do email the instructor with your name and account so I know whose account is whose. I recommend using your first name and initial.

Please add your username and name below by adding your username and first name to :User: (talk · contribs) (name) so that it looks in the edit mode like this (Name). Once you do so, it will look much nicer, like this:

Group 1


 * 1)  (Emily Amodeo),  (Lea Beaulieu),  (Ally Bisson),  (Kelsea Beisaw), (Kathleen Collins)

Group 2


 * 1)  (Allison Hardman),  (Kerri Grant),  (Ashley Harrison),  ,

Group 3


 * 1)  (Lauren Nickerson),  (Kailee Ireland),  (Kathleen Labbe),  (Shelby Peterson),  (Nick Opolski)

Group 4



Group projects
List here the article your group is editing, Once you do so, it will look much nicer, like

Group 1: (improved to )

Group 2: (improved to )

Group 3: (improve to) ) **Our section begins After Muhammad**

Group 4: (improved to )