Wikipedia:Wiki Ed/MIT/21G 219 Workshop in Written Expression Spr2018 (Spring)

Designed for high intermediate ELS students to review and practice accurate grammar, effective sentence and paragraph structure, punctuation, and word choice. Short weekly writing assignments with extensive revision required.

Week 5
This week, everyone should have a Wikipedia account.


 * 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.

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.

This page breaks down writing a Wikipedia article into a series of steps, or milestones. These steps include online trainings to help you get started on Wikipedia.

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


 * What do you think of Wikipedia's definition of &quot;neutrality&quot;?
 * What are the impacts and limits of Wikipedia as a source of information?
 * On Wikipedia, all material must be attributable to reliable, published sources. What kinds of sources does this exclude? Can you think of any problems that might create?
 * If Wikipedia was written 100 years ago, how might its content (and contributors) be different? What about 100 years from now?

Week 6
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.

Homework:


 * 1) Complete the &quot;Evaluating Articles and Sources&quot; training (linked below).
 * 2) Find the Wikipedia article for MIT and do the following, explaining your answers in a new section on your personal Talk page:


 * Determine what quality rating it has been given: Go to the Talk page and look in the yellow boxes until you find the Wikiprojects this article is a part of. To the right of the &quot;Class&quot; ratings, click Show, and when you see the class, click &quot;quality scale&quot; to figure out what that rating means.
 * Read the introductory summary. What do you think of it? Is it complete enough? What is missing, if anything? Could anything be clearer?
 * Read the table of contents and the rest of the article. What do you think makes it a good article? Do you see any areas that you think could be improved?

3. Find an article to critique using these methods (steps 1-6; we'll do the rest in class) and come to class with your computer and the instructions document. It will need to be an article in which you see some obvious problems (more than one).

In class:


 * 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 always sign your feedback on a Talk page with four tildes (WritingMan (talk) 19:44, 18 June 2018 (UTC)).

Familiarize yourself with editing Wikipedia by adding a citation to an article. 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.

Week 7
Now that you're thinking about what makes a &quot;good&quot; Wikipedia article, consider some additional questions.


 * Wikipedians often talk about &quot;content gaps.&quot; What do you think a content gap is, and what are some possible ways to identify them?
 * What are some reasons a content gap might arise? What are some ways to remedy them?
 * Does it matter who writes Wikipedia?
 * What does it mean to be &quot;unbiased&quot; on Wikipedia? How is that different, or similar, to your own definition of &quot;bias&quot;?


 * Blog posts and press releases are considered poor sources of reliable information. Why?
 * What are some reasons you might not want to use a company's website as the main source of information about that company?
 * What is the difference between a copyright violation and plagiarism?
 * What are some good techniques to avoid close paraphrasing and plagiarism?


 * For your main Wikipedia project, you will make a substantial contribution to Wikipedia, either creating a new article, expanding a &quot;Stub&quot; into a full article, or adding significantly to an existing article. There is no minimum word count, but rather a minimum number of new, reliable sources: 3-5.

If you are considering a medical topic, review Wikipedia's rules for topics related to medicine, human health, and psychology.


 * Review page 6 of your Editing Wikipedia guidebook.
 * Find 3 potential articles that you can tackle.
 * For each potential topic, you may want to go to scholar.google.com and do a quick search and see what kind of sources come up. You can also go to libraries.mit.edu and do a search; we'll do more with the MIT databases on Monday in class.

To find articles that have been &quot;Requested&quot;:


 * Click on “All Portals” (from the Wikipedia main page) and look for a “Things you can do” or “Open tasks” box. Then look for an &quot;Articles requested&quot; or “Requested articles” list. If you click on the words &quot;Articles requested,&quot; you should arrive at a huge list, with the open requests in red.
 * Or: Search on a topic that interests you, and if the article exists, go to the Talk page and see if it’s part of a WikiProject. Then go to that Project page and look for “requested articles.”

To find Stubs or Start(ed) articles:


 * Remember: For articles that already exist, check the Talk page and the Article History page to see what other Wikipedians might be doing on that page already.
 * You may find an existing list of stubs on Wikipedia that are related to your here.
 * Or:  Go to the multicolored chart on  (most) any WikiProject page (found by looking at the Talk page of most articles; look up any article in your field and then look at its Talk page) and choose a Stub or Start of any priority (the lower the priority, the greater the chance that the article hasn't been updated). REMEMBER that that chart may not be completely up to date, and a given article may have been edited since it was given that classification. Check the article, its Talk page, and the Article History.
 * Or: Look for “Things you can do” on any portal or Wikiproject page and see if there is a link to stubs.
 * Whichever method you use, read the Talk page of the article to see if there are any conflicts already there or with what you are thinking of doing. If so, think about whether your plans can still be enacted.
 * When you find a possible article to work on:
 * Think back to when you did an article critique. What can you add?
 * Compile a list of relevant, reliable books, journal articles, or other sources. Post that bibliography to the talk page of the article you'll be working on, and in your sandbox. Make sure to check in on the Talk page to see if anyone has advice on your bibliography.

Proposing a new article:


 * You may also want to propose an article that doesn't already exist at all.  (I'll show you how later; just bring the topic for now after you have thoroughly determined that it doesn't exist.)
 * IMPORTANT: Make sure you can find 3-5 good sources to help substantiate the article  and defend it on the basis of &quot;notability.&quot;

Finally, post links to your 2-3 proposed projects for me on your own Talk page (not the article's) and describe briefly what you would do for each and as well as your sources. Or, if it is a new article, tell me what you you plan to do and list your sources.

Week 9

 * If you are working on a pre-existing article, it is polite to let other editors know what you're intending to do, and what sources you will use. So go to the Talk page, create a &quot;New Section,&quot;  describe what you plan to do and your sources, and sign it &quot;WritingMan (talk) 19:44, 18 June 2018 (UTC)&quot; (and Save!). Do not worry if nobody responds. Just sharing your intentions is a good idea.
 * Also put these plans at the top of your Sandbox.
 * If you are writing a new article, please put those plans in your Sandbox instead.

You should have found at least five sources for your article and enough to write your article.

Week 10
You've picked a topic and found your sources. Now it's time to start writing. Be sure to READ THIS DOCUMENT FIRST (it's the one I gave you in class), read the rest of this box, and do the quick training  modules below.

For Monday, add or change the material pertaining to at least one of your sources. Also include a citation of that source. There is a &quot;Cite&quot; tool in both the Visual Editor and the Source Editor. Please MANUALLY input (i.e., by hand) the citation info: Author (last, first), &quot;Article Title,&quot; Book or Journal, copyright year or volume/issue, page numbers.

ALSO, as you summarize and paraphrase from your sources, also put the original quotation (with author's name) at the bottom of your page/sandbox so that we can check for accidental plagiarism.

When you add changes to existing text, please put them in bold so that we can see what is yours and what was there before.

Let me know if you have any questions or difficulties!

Resources: Editing Wikipedia pages 7–9

Everyone has begun writing their article drafts.

Week 11
Do additional research and writing to make further improvements to your article, based on suggestions and your own critique.


 * Read Editing Wikipedia page 12 to see how to create links from your article to others, and from other articles to your own. Try to link to 3–5 articles, and link to your article from 2–3 other articles.
 * Consider adding an image to your article. Wikipedia has strict rules about what media can be added, so make sure to take the 'Contributing Images and Media Files' training before you upload an image.

Week 12

 * 1) First, format your Sandbox to make it easy for your classmates to review your work:
 * 2) Take out the proposals, my comments, and the original text/paraphrase section.
 * 3) You do NOT need to paste the entire original Wikipedia article to which you are adding, only the sections to which you added.
 * 4) Make sure your text is in boldface (dark and heavy, like this sentence).
 * 5) Make sure all your citations and references are in correctly.
 * 6) Citing in the Visual Editor is more pleasant than in the Source Editor, but you can still do it in the latter. Put the cursor where you want to add the citation, click Cite, and in the Templates menu that appears on the left, choose the kind of source you are adding: [Click here to see a picture.]
 * 7) If you want to switch to Visual Editor, click on the pencil icon in the upper right of the editing menu (click for picture).
 * 8) Click here to see whose articles you will be reviewing and the link to connect to them.
 * 9) For each of your classmates' drafts, do the following:
 * 10) Click &quot;Download as PDF&quot; on the left side of your classmates' Sandbox and print out the PDF.
 * 11) Read through the text once for EACH of the following grammar points. For each line that you think is correct, put a checkmark (✔) next to it. If you think a sentence is particularly nice or elegant, write &quot;nice.&quot; For each suspected error, circle the error and write the error code in the margin of the page next to the line. Leave space enough to write multiple codes, and put a line (|) between each code. Thus on the left side of a line, you might write &quot;VT | S-V | AR&quot; and on the right &quot;REF | WF,&quot; and you would be saying that there are five errors in the line. (You will not normally find that many!)


 * Subject-verb agreement (S-V)
 * verb tense (VT)
 * improper word form (WF)
 * article problem (AR)
 * cohesion (COH; i.e., needs more cohesion, or incorrect transition word was used)
 * a noun should be plural (PL) or singular (SG) or, instead, the noun used is a count noun (CT) or non-count (NC) noun.
 * If you notice another kind of error, use the error code from the editing code list (2nd page).

4. Finally, read your partners' sections OUT LOUD and see if you notice any other problems, marking them accordingly.

5. Write your name at the top and bring it to class.

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

Week 14
You probably have some feedback from other students and possibly other Wikipedians. It's time to work with that feedback to improve your article!


 * Read Editing Wikipedia pages 12 and 14.
 * Return to your draft or article and think about the suggestions. Decide which ones to start implementing. Reach out to your instructor or your Content Expert if you have any questions.

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

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

Once you've made improvements to your article based on peer review feedback, it's time to move your work to Wikipedia proper - the &quot;mainspace.&quot;

Editing an existing article?


 * NEVER copy and paste your draft of an article over the entire article. Instead, edit small sections at a time.
 * Copy your edits into the article. Make many small edits, saving each time, and leaving an edit summary. Never replace more than one to two sentences without saving!

Creating a new article?


 * Read Editing Wikipedia page 13, and follow those steps to move your article from your Sandbox to Mainspace.
 * You can also review the Sandboxes and Mainspace online training.

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 Content Expert at any time!


 * Prepare for an in-class presentation about your Wikipedia editing experience.

Present about your Wikipedia editing experience.

Consider the following questions as you reflect on your Wikipedia assignment:


 * Critiquing articles: What did you learn about Wikipedia during the article evaluation? How did you approach critiquing the article you selected for this assignment? How did you decide what to add to your chosen article?
 * Summarizing your contributions: include a summary of your edits and why you felt they were a valuable addition to the article. How does your article compare to earlier versions?
 * Peer Review: If your class did peer review, include information about the peer review process. What did you contribute in your review of your peers article? What did your peers recommend you change on your article?
 * Feedback: Did you receive feedback from other Wikipedia editors, and if so, how did you respond to and handle that feedback?
 * Wikipedia generally: What did you learn from contributing to Wikipedia? How does a Wikipedia assignment compare to other assignments you've done in the past? How can Wikipedia be used to improve public understanding of our field/your topic? Why is this important?