Wikipedia:Wiki Ed/Ohio State University/Geography 8100, Foundations of Geographical Thought (Spring 2017)

Week 1
Welcome to our Wikipedia project timeline. This page will guide you through the Wikipedia project for our 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. Make sure you take all the assigned trainings.

Our 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

Week 2

 * Create an account and join this course page, using the enrollment link your instructor sent you.


 * Take the trainings linked below.


 * Read &amp; evaluate the following articles on Wikipedia
 * Political Geography
 * Philosophy of Geography
 * History of Geography
 * In your sandbox, take notes from your evaluation.


 * While you read, consider the following 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 * Is any information out of date?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?
 * Check the &quot;talk&quot; page - what conversation is the Wikipedia community having behind the scenes about how to represent these topics?
 * Is the article locked? What is the article rated?


 * Choose at least 1 questions relevant to one of the articles you're evaluating. Leave your evaluation on the article's Talk page. Be sure to sign your feedback with four tildes — Ian (Wiki Ed) (talk) 02:57, 2 June 2017 (UTC).

This week, everyone should have a Wikipedia account.

Week 3

 * Review page 6 of your Editing Wikipedia guidebook.
 * Choose 3–5 potential articles that you can tackle, and post links to them on your Wikipedia user page. For articles that already exist, check the Talk page to see what other Wikipedians might be doing. Finally, present your choices to your instructor for feedback.
 * Consider browsing the following article lists on Wikipedia for ideas of what to work on
 * Category:History of Geography
 * Category:Geography stubs
 * or other article lists in the general Category:Geography section.
 * The best option will be an article that is short or underdeveloped, and that you can find an additional 2-5 references for (feel free also to think about starting a new article if one doesn't already exist.)
 * For one of your chosen articles, read through it, thinking about ways to improve the language, such as fixing grammatical mistakes. Then, make the appropriate changes. You don’t need to contribute new information to the article.

Week 4

 * Finalize your topic. On the Students tab, assign your chosen topic to yourself.
 * In your sandbox, start by writing a few sentences about what you plan to contribute to the selected article (as an outline) and then begin your draft.
 * Think back to when you did an article critique. What can you add? Post some of your ideas to the article's talk page, too.
 * 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.

Tips for drafting your article:

'''Creating a new article? '''


 * Write an outline of that topic in the form of a standard Wikipedia article's &quot;lead section.&quot; Write it in your sandbox.
 * A &quot;lead&quot; section is not a traditional introduction. It should summarize, very briefly, what the rest of the article will say in detail. The first paragraph should include important, broad facts about the subject. A good example is Ada Lovelace. See Editing Wikipedia page 9 for more ideas.

'''Improving an existing article? '''


 * Identify what's missing from the current form of the article. Think back to the skills you learned while critiquing an article. Make notes for improvement in your sandbox.

Resources: Editing Wikipedia pages 7–9

Everyone has begun writing their article drafts.

Week 5

 * Before 3/5 you need to have a complete first draft in your sandbox.
 * Before you begin peer reviewing, take the &quot;Peer Review&quot; online training.
 * Select two classmates’ articles that you will peer review and copyedit. On the Articles tab, find the articles that you want to review, and then assign them to yourself in the Review column.
 * Peer review your classmates' drafts. Leave suggestions on on the Talk page of the article, or sandbox, that your fellow student is working on. Other editors may be reviewing your work, so look for their comments! Be sure to acknowledge feedback from other Wikipedians.
 * As you review, make spelling, grammar, and other adjustments. Pay attention to the tone of the article. Is it encyclopedic?

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

Week 7
Over break, keep working on transforming your article into a complete first draft.


 * Read Editing Wikipedia pages 12 and 14.
 * Return to your draft or article and think about the suggestions. Decide which ones to start implementing.
 * If you'd like a Content Expert to review your draft, now is the time! Click the &quot;Get Help&quot; button in your sandbox to request notes.

Week 8
Do additional research and writing to make further improvements to your article, based on suggestions and your own critique.

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.

'''After your article is live: '''


 * 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.
 * Remember to contact your Content Expert at any time if you need further help!

Week 9
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!
 * To review your semester-long changes, head to the Articles tab above, find your article, click and select &quot;show cumulative changes.&quot;

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