Wikipedia:Wiki Ed/Auburn University Montgomery/English Comp II - Wikipedia - 4037 - ENGL 1020 - S (Spring 2021)

Students will do an introduction to editing Wikipedia, improve article by copy editing and adding references to reliable secondary sources, and write an article on a topic pertaining to African culture and literature.

Week 1
Do all this before class.

Create an account and join this course page, using the enrollment link your instructor sent you. (If you don't do this before class, you may receive a message that you cannot create an account.)

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.

Note that all &quot;training modules&quot; have to be completed before class; &quot;exercises&quot; are done in class, unless otherwise indicated.

Resources:


 * Editing Wikipedia
 * Evaluating Wikipedia

This week, everyone should have a Wikipedia account.

Exercise
Evaluate an article

Thinking about sources and plagiarism

Do the training module before class, and read this essay, which we will discuss in class:

*Read  James Purdy, &quot;Wikipedia is Good For You?&quot;

Find your sources
There is nothing more important to get you started (besides an idea) as a set of good sources. We'll practice that this week, and we'll go well beyond Googling something.

Two helpful, if not essential, links for you:


 * The Wikipedia Library


 * AUM library, where you will find yourself at &quot;Databases &amp; Articles&quot; very soon

Exercise
This is to be done before class time: do the training module (&quot;Add to an article&quot;), and add a citation to a reliable source to a Wikipedia article. We'll do another one in class.

It does not really matter which article--well it does. It will be hard to find a lot of reliable sources for Bubble Guppies, and easier to find them for Galvanization or 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami (go ahead, try).

For examples, see such categories as these: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Malian_writers, Category:Kenyan novelists, Category:Zimbabwean novelists. Look at a couple of articles, look for &quot;citation needed&quot; tags and templates, or for unverified statements in the article.


 * Read Randall McClure, Googlepedia, and we'll talk about it in class.

So, it should be clear what the content gap is that we are dealing with here. In preparation for class, follow the training module and come to class with three possible reasons for why we would experience a content gap in our particular area--African literature and culture.

Read this:


 * Towards a study of information geographies (pictures only)


 * The Geography of Wikipedia Edits


 * There are More Wikipedia Editors from the Netherlands than All of Africa

Week 4
Pick an interesting article from Wikipedia before class and give it a good read. You'll review it in class.

Guiding framework

What you are doing in this section is straightforward: write an article on one of the writers on our list. Get to work by a. finding the reliable sources, b. look at what such an article needs to look like, and c. start writing it up in your sandbox.

For examples, look at Flora Nwapa, Bilkisu Funtuwa, or Aïcha Fofana. Note that many of the current articles are not very good, and these are some of the things that you can work on.

Reach out to your Wikipedia Expert if you have questions using the Get Help button at the top of this page.

Finally, we'll need to talk about notability standards (type in &quot;WP:N&quot; in the Wikipedia search box, and then &quot;WP:GNG&quot;), and about sourcing (type in &quot;WP:RS&quot;).

Resource: Editing Wikipedia, pages 7–9

Week 5
Today the first article is due: we'll move it into main space today. Each of you will evaluate one of those articles, on the talk page.

Resource: Editing Wikipedia, page 13

Read How to Write Meaningful Peer Response Praise. Write a detailed, meaningful critique of two articles by your classmates.

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. Respond to that review and improve your article: I will not start grading until after this.

Resources:


 * Editing Wikipedia, pages 12 and 14
 * Reach out to your Wikipedia Expert if you have any questions.

Week 6
Thinking about Wikipedia

Bring an article to class (printed out on paper) on Wikipedia's reliability OR on some Wikipedia &quot;scandal&quot;. This is in preparation for the big argumentative paper.

More on the same topic: reliability of Wikipedia, including your own research experience.

Week 7
Nominating your article for Did You Know

You can pick what you like, on any topic in African literature and culture--but if I were you I'd pick something easy, like a well-known work by the author you already wrote up.

Week 8
Be prepared to peer-review someone else's article in class. PLEASE make sure to have a presentable draft by class time.

We will meet in the library for class, to learn how to work the library's catalog and other databases.

Week 9
Today we are going over the assignment for the third article, which is on what I call a &quot;local topic&quot;. This is a topic of your choosing--but you must choose carefully. My suggestion is you write about something from your world, like (for me) Freedom Rides_Museum, Redoshi, and Evangelical Lutheran Church (Enkhuizen).

Biographies

Books

History

LGBT+ Studies

Women's Studies

Week 10
Today, you must have a draft of your &quot;local&quot; article, in a sandbox. Make sure that your sources are listed/referenced in the draft; if you have paper/book sources, bring them to class plz.

Exercise
Add links to your article

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.

Read Rebecca Jones, &quot;Finding the Good Argument&quot;. Expect a reading quiz.

Week 12
It's the final week to develop your &quot;local&quot; 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!
 * For in-class discussion, read Irvin, &quot;What is Academic Writing?&quot;

Bring a rough draft of your argumentative paper. Bring another article to class (printed out on paper) on Wikipedia's reliability OR on some Wikipedia &quot;scandal&quot;. By now you should have at least two; remember that you need at least three.

Week 13
Bring a draft--as clean and complete as possible--of your argumentative paper. We will do peer review in class. In addition, we'll look over the portfolio guidelines.

Submit this on Blackboard.

Week 14
Read Dasbender, &quot;Critical Thinking in College Writing&quot;.

Bring your finished portfolio: the in-class essay is the last thing you'll stick in there.