Wikipedia:Wiki Ed/Hunter College, CUNY/Critical and feminist methodologies - Editing Wikipedia (Fall 2019)

This course will cover critical and feminist approaches to research and epistemology. We will begin by asking what makes research feminist and ethical (or not), how to apply theoretical concerns to field research, and what a feminist citation practice is. And scholars of Women and Gender Studies, students have much to offer Wikipedia, both by filling information gaps and by engaging in debates about what makes something a NPOV. Students will also gain experience doing literature reviews, understanding plagiarism, conducting collaborative work, and creating new media content.

Week 1
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.)

Begin a blog about your experiences (post to Commons site under 'Wikipedia blog entries' and under your name). You can use discussion questions to frame your entries, or reflect on the research and writing process. They don't need to be long, 150-250 words (less than 1 double-spaced page). Create at least one blog entry each week during the Wikipedia assignment.

And as with any assignment,  please complete your assignment in Word or Google docs and then post. Don't write directly into the post editor unless you know you'll remember to save frequently.

This week, everyone should have a Wikipedia account.

Exercise
Evaluate an article

Thinking about sources and plagiarism

After completing the plagiarism exercise, what have you learned? How will you avoid plagiarism on Wikipedia? How might you recognize plagiarism if you come across it?

Week 3
Choose your topic / Find your sources

What's a content gap?

Art History

Biographies

Books

Films

History

LGBT+ Studies

Political Science

Sociology

Women's Studies

What articles did you find? Post links to five different articles you would like to contribute to or create. Explain why for each article. What's missing? How could it be improved? What can you bring to the entry? Include one 'high stakes' page (i.e. one that is locked or on a controversial topic). Who are the editors? Look through the Talk page and see what the conversations have been. Sum up what you find in your blog post.

Wikipedia blog entries (link to the Commons)

Exercise
Add a citation

Copyedit an article

Wikipedia blog entries (link to the Commons)

Week 5
Uma Narayan, The Project of Feminist Epistemology (1989)

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



Made with Padlet

Everyone has begun writing their article drafts.

Week 6
[https://criticalfeministmethodologies.commons.gc.cuny.edu/files/2019/09/wagner-et-al_2015_its-a-mans-wikipedia.pdf Wagner et al, It's a man's Wikipedia? Assessing gender inequality in an online encyclopedia (2015)]

Thinking about Wikipedia

Post to the Commons site and to Blackboard. Do not forget to use your name to categorize all of your Commons posts!

 Wikipedia has several important style, source and tone requirements: sources must generally be secondary sources; no original research, analysis or opinion of your own can be included; articles (and contributors) must maintain a neutral point of view (NPOV); tone should not be argumentative; and a range of information and, when relevant, perspectives must be included. Relatedly, Wikipedia has a notability requirement. For an article to be worthy of inclusion on the site, whom or whatever it is about must be considered notable. For a topic to be deemed notable, there need to be sources from which to draw information. Given the requirement to use secondary sources (overreliance on news articles, for example, in not a good practice and may raise a red flag), what limitations might this policy impose on historical events, individuals, movements or concepts/ideas that have not been given much attention and therefore are not included in any secondary sources from which to draw information? The NPOV policy imposes creates similar questions or challenges. Consider what 'neutral point of view' means - what counts as neutral? And what does that mean in the context of feminist epistemology (Narayan)?

What has it been like writing for Wikipedia? How is it different from or similar to other types of writing you've done? Discuss some of the unique challenges that make writing for Wikipedia using a 'neutral point of view' different from other types of writing.

Wikipedia blog entries (link to the Commons)

Week 7
Please leave your peer reviews on the User Talk Page for your colleagues who you were assigned to review. Be sure to contact the person you're reviewing for if you are unsure where they have been doing their editing. Check the article history and/or talk page, and also their sandbox to see what they've been working on.

Guiding framework

Ignoring all rules: A beginner's guide

Wikipedia blog entries (link to the Commons)

Week 9
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.

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. You can continue working in your Sandbox to create any additional content, or you can work live.

Consider media you can create or seek out that could improve your articles (or any others you were interested in).

Nominating your article for Did You Know



Made with Padlet

Wikipedia blog entries (link to the Commons)

Week 10
Every student has finished reviewing their assigned articles, making sure that every article has been reviewed.

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!

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 11
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!

Post at least three ideas for original media content or of things you have found that could be added to Wikipedia. Include any reservations you have re: licensing or public domain.

Week 12
Add your images, tables, etc to Wikipedia.

Guiding questions

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