Wikipedia:Wiki Ed/Grinnell College/Linguistic Typology (Spring 2017)

Linguistic typology is interested in ways to group languages together into “types” based on linguistic characteristics (as opposed to genetic relationships). One main goal is to find those characteristics that are universal to all human language. This course is an introduction to the field of linguistic typology, its methodology and its findings. Over the course of the semester, we will look at the diverse range of lexical categories, word order patterns, and phonological inventories and processes found within the world’s languages. We will also examine a variety of grammatical categories such as case, nominal classifiers, and negation. Our goal is to determine which categories are found in all languages and which ones are more restricted in their distribution.

Throughout the course, we will explore the core assumptions and methods of the discipline, discuss approaches to collecting linguistic data from a wide and varied sample of languages, and consider the sorts of explanations which have been put forth to account for typological patterns. Each student will review a published grammar of a language of their choosing to identify aspects of the language that are typologically interesting or unusual. Students will also choose a grammatical concept or category and research ways that this concept is realized cross-linguistically, using the methodologies outlined in the course.

Week 1
Welcome to your Wikipedia project's course timeline. This page will guide you through the Wikipedia project for your course. Be sure to check with your instructor to see if there are other pages you should be following as well.

Your course has also been assigned a Wikipedia Content Expert. Check your Talk page for notes from them. You can also reach them through the &quot;Get Help&quot; button on this page.

To get started, please review the following handouts:


 * Editing Wikipedia pages 1–5
 * Evaluating Wikipedia


 * Create an account and join this course page, using the enrollment link your instructor sent you.
 * It's time to dive into Wikipedia. Below, you'll find the first set of online trainings you'll need to take. New modules will appear on this timeline as you get to new milestones. Be sure to check back and complete them! Incomplete trainings will be reflected in your grade.
 * When you finish the trainings, practice by introducing yourself to a classmate on that classmate’s Talk page.

Week 2
It's time to think critically about Wikipedia articles. You'll evaluate a Wikipedia article, and leave suggestions for improving it on the article's Talk page.


 * Complete the &quot;Evaluating Articles and Sources&quot; training (linked below).
 * Choose an article, and consider some questions (but don't feel limited to these):
 * Is each fact referenced with an appropriate, reliable reference?
 * Is everything in the article relevant to the article topic? Is there anything that distracted you?
 * Is the article neutral? Are there any claims, or frames, that appear heavily biased toward a particular position?
 * Where does the information come from? Are these neutral sources? If biased, is that bias noted?
 * Are there viewpoints that are overrepresented, or underrepresented?
 * Check a few citations. Do the links work? Is there any close paraphrasing or plagiarism in the article?
 * Is any information out of date? Is anything missing that could be added?
 * Choose at least 2 questions relevant to the article you're evaluating. Leave your evaluation on the article's Talk page. Be sure to sign your feedback with four tildes — ~.

Week 3
Familiarize yourself with editing Wikipedia by adding a citation to an article. There are two ways you can do this:


 * Add 1-2 sentences to a course-related article, and cite that statement to a reliable source, as you learned in the online training.
 * The Citation Hunt tool shows unreferenced statements from articles. First, evaluate whether the statement in question is true! An uncited statement could just be lacking a reference or it could be inaccurate or misleading. Reliable sources on the subject will help you choose whether to add it or correct the statement.