Wikipedia:Wiki Ed/Cornell University/The Ethics and Politics of Linguistics (Spring)

This graduate topics course addresses the ethics and politics of linguistics, in the sense of how we as a community of scholars and students understand our discipline in terms of not only the languages and subfields we study but the communities that we engage with. We will explore these questions in the content of the recent call for linguistics and related fields to consider issues of social justice and efforts to “decolonize the academy”. These issues come to the fore in different facets of linguistics, including how we define what a “language” is, how we approach language documentation of understudied and endangered students, how language and education policy encode social judgements about language, and the role of advocacy in linguistics.

Wikipedia assignment: Wikipedia is widely used as a resource in linguistics. Addressing the issues of bias and fostering greater diversity and inclusion in linguistics can be achieved by assessing these issue in Wikipedia entries and working to improve specific entries. Including a Wikipedia assignment to improve or create a new entry will be a great way to provide the students a hands-on practical experience in addressing the central concerns of the course and will provide an outlet for the students to have a broader impact.

Week 3
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.

Resources:


 * Editing Wikipedia, pages 1–5
 * Evaluating 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.)

This week, everyone should have a Wikipedia account.

Week 5
Resource: Editing Wikipedia, page 6

Week 6
Reach out to your Wikipedia Expert if you have questions using the Get Help button at the top of this page.

Resource: Editing Wikipedia, pages 7–9

Biographies

Linguistics

Everyone has begun writing their article drafts.

Week 7
Guiding framework

Every student has finished reviewing their assigned articles, making sure that every article has been reviewed.

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.

Week 8
Now that you've improved your draft based on others' feedback, it's time to move your work live - to the &quot;mainspace.&quot;

Resource: Editing Wikipedia, page 13

Week 9
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.

Continue to expand and improve your work, and format your article to match Wikipedia's tone and standards. Remember to contact your Wikipedia Expert at any time if you need further help!

Week 10
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!

Everyone should have finished all of the work they'll do on Wikipedia, and be ready for grading.