Wikipedia:Wiki Ed/Massachusetts Institute of Technology /Workshop in Written Expression (Fall 2018)

This course is designed to improve your grammatical accuracy at the sentence level while teaching you strategies for writing clearly and concisely, covering some of the forms you will need to write in your MIT career and beyond. We will focus on mastering clear sentences and paragraphs by increasing grammatical accuracy and improving organization. Attention will also be given to audience, purpose, genre, punctuation, and making better vocabulary choices.

Through regular writing practice in and outside of class, students will learn to express themselves clearly when defining terms, presenting problems and solutions, explaining processes, and giving commentary on data. Equally importantly, students will learn to revise their own work (“self-edit”) through incorporating corrections and suggestions from peers and the instructor.

The purpose of the Wikipedia project in our class is to allow students to evaluate sources and write an objective summary of a topic within the student’s field of interest while contributing to and enhancing knowledge of that topic, both the student’s own and that of Wikipedia’s readers. Through creating or adding to an existing Wikipedia page, students in 21G.219/220 take into account the purpose and audience of their writing while exposing their work to a broader readership.

Week 5
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.

Exercise
Evaluate an article

Thinking about sources and plagiarism

Exercise
Choose a topic

Resource: Editing Wikipedia, page 6

What's a content gap?

Exercise
Add a citation

Finalize your topic / Find your sources

Week 9
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

Books

Chemistry

Cultural Anthropology

Ecology

Environmental Sciences

Films

Genes and Proteins

History

LGBT+ Studies

Linguistics

Medicine

Political Science

Psychology

Science Communication

Sociology

Species

Women's Studies

Everyone has begun writing their article drafts.

Week 10
Guiding framework

Thinking about Wikipedia

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

Week 11
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 12
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

Nominating your article for Did You Know

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.

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 14
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!

Guiding questions

Guiding questions

Week 15
Everyone should have finished all of the work they'll do on Wikipedia, and be ready for grading.