Wikipedia:Wiki Ed/Louisiana State University/ENGL2000 (Spring 2018)

This course improves students' writing and communication skills. Students will learn about different genres of writing and their conventions, pay attention to the different steps of the writing process, engage in the collaborative aspect of writing, and develop their research skills.

On Wikipedia, students will complete three assignments: 1. correct a few errors in an article that needs copyediting; 2. add reliable sources to an article lacking citations; 3. and write a lead for an article that needs one.

Week 1
Create an account and complete the two online training modules. During this training, you will make edits in a sandbox and learn the basic rules of Wikipedia. Be prepared to take a quiz in class. You won't have access to the training modules during the quiz, so take notes. Deadline: Wednesday, February 7, at 11:30am.


 * 1) Choose an article that needs improvements in style and grammar. You can find a list of suitable articles here. Take some time finding a good article to work on, as this will save you time in the long run. For example, some articles have been written by non-native speakers and contain obvious grammatical errors, which should be easy to fix.
 * 2) Add the article next to your name in the course page. Make sure no one else in the class has already claimed the same article.
 * 3) Edit the article, improving at least two sentences. You do not need to change the article's content. In this assignment, you're only focusing on style and grammar. Don't forget to briefly explain the changes in the edit summary. Deadline: Thursday, February 15, at 8:00pm.

Additional advice on copyediting Wikipedia articles is available here.

Week 2

 * 1) Find an article in need of better or additional sources and citations. Use this link to look up suitable articles: Articles needing additional references. Again, taking some time to choose a good article will make for easier work later on. The article should be well developed so that you have plenty of opportunities to add sources without having to add new content.
 * 2) Add the article next to your name in the course page. Make sure no one else in the class has already claimed the same article. Deadline for steps 1 and 2: Thursday, February 15, at 8:00pm.
 * 3) Complete the two training modules below.
 * 4) Find two sources using electronic databases or other LSU library resources. Post a list of citations in your sandbox. These must be properly formatted citations, not links. Keep in mind that links to database articles will not work for everyone.
 * 5) Copy the excerpts from the WP article that you intend to supports with sources and paste the excerpts into your sandbox. Then, find the exact passages in your sources that support the uncited information in the WP article and copy those passages to your sandbox, below the corresponding excerpts from the WP article. Use headings to keep your sandbox organized. Deadline for steps 3-5: Monday, February 19, at 8:00pm.
 * 6) Once your suggested edits are approved by the instructor, integrate the sources in the article. Be sure to follow the citation conventions established by the previous editors of your article. Deadline: Monday, February 26, at 8:00pm.

Here's a good help page for your questions: References for beginners.

Week 3

 * 1) Find an article with a missing or insufficient lead. Use this link to look up suitable articles: Pages missing lede sections. As usual, taking the time to find a suitable article is essential. Choose well-developed articles with plenty of information that can be summarized in your lead.
 * 2) Add the article next to your name in the course page. Deadline for steps 1 and 2: Thursday, February 22, at 8:00pm.
 * 3) Once your article is approved, draft a new lead and post it in your sandbox for review. Deadline: Tuesday, February 27, at 8:00pm.
 * 4) I will leave comments in your sandbox talk page, and you may be asked to revise your lead. Once your lead is approved, add it to the article. Deadline: Tuesday, March 6, at 8:00pm.

More information about the lead section can be found here. A one or two-paragraph lead is typically sufficient.