Wikipedia:Wiki Ed/Southern Illinois University Edwardsville/ENG 102 Summer 2021 (Summer 2021)

Welcome to ENG 102, Summer Term 1, 2021! English 102 is a continuation of English 101. Assignments in this course will be designed to help you focus upon a theme, develop a thesis, organize ideas, control tone, and express ideas in clearly communicated language. Students will learn formal argumentation techniques and terminology. In addition, you will learn how to conduct research on selected topics, incorporate researched material into your papers, and properly cite and document your ideas. In this class, we will take a special focus on &quot;identifying, evaluating, and integrating secondary source reference materials into your academic writing.&quot; We will focus on a critical examination of the Internet (and specifically: Wikipedia) in academic research and writing. You will have several smaller writing assignments throughout the semester, and your final essay will be a substantive discussion and argument, including citation of external sources, about whether or not online sources like Wikipedia are in fact appropriate for research in higher education.

This is a short (5 week) summer session, and this course is entirely online. You will see the entire Wikipedia-related calendar laid out before you, but I will cover related materials in one-week increments. This Wikipedia assignment will begin actively in Week 2 of this term (the week of June 7), and will end at the end of Week 4 (the end of the week of June 21). The fifth and final week will be devoted to your argument-with-evidence essay, but you can still access this page for materials. Please keep in mind that some Wikipedia assignments will be completed on this site, and some things you will submit to me through SIUE Blackboard.

Week 1
This week, all materials are found in your textbook and on Blackboard. We will start working with Wikipedia in Week 2.

Week 2
Welcome to your Wikipedia assignment's course timeline! Obviously, since this is an online course, the &quot;in class&quot; pieces will be reading, discussion and presentation activities that I will frequently accompany with a Zoom presentation. So you should look to Blackboard for guidance on this. Here are some important first steps:

1.  Assignment #10: This is due Sunday, June 13 at 11pm Central time


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



2. This course page breaks down writing a Wikipedia article into a series of steps (&quot;milestones&quot;). These steps include in-class discussion and activities, and also assigned online trainings to help you get started on Wikipedia. You will also complete two SWA's related to this training (SWA #6 and SWA #7)



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.

This project is designed to jumpstart your thinking and discussion for the final graded essay of the summer term (worth 70 points/30% of your grade for the class as a whole, and which we will begin working on in a couple of weeks), which asks the question:

"Are online websites like Wikipedia acceptable, and recomendable as sources of information? " 

3. All of the work and thinking that you do in these next couple of weeks will provide the foundation for your stance on that essential question. The following items will earn points (a grand total of 36 points), which will count towards the category of &quot;Assignments&quot; for ENG 102:


 * Online/Wikipedia-focused assignments


 * Several small assignments (worth 4 points each, just like you've been doing already, but some of these will not go to Blackboard, so read the directions carefully in each case)
 * Important note:  You cannot get credit for any of these things if you don't have a username
 * Your username must be enrolled on this course page. Check the Students tab to find your name (in fact, your first assignment for this part of the course is to get your account set up!)
 * You also will write SWA #6 due Sunday June 20 at 11pm Central Time (to Blackboard)


 * This SWA will require a summary of a Wikipedia article
 * And, towards the end of this unit, you also will write SWA #7: Wikipedia Reflection due Sunday June 27 at 11pm Central Time:
 * This SWA will be a brief essay that reflects on your experience with critiquing and editing Wikipedia

You must do two things to get full credit on both Assignments #10 and #11:

1. Create an account and join this course page, using the enrollment link your instructor sent you (Assignment #10)

2. Complete the training module  &quot;Wikipedia Policies&quot; (which includes some quick reading and then a brief quiz that you must pass). You can see the link to this training right here in this box. (Assignment #11)

By the start of Week 3 of the summer semester, everyone should have a Wikipedia account.

Week 3
My Zoom presentation will cover these issues, and prepare you for Assignments 12-15:


 * Editing Wikipedia pages 1–5
 * Evaluating Wikipedia
 * Christensen, Tyler Booth. (2015) &quot;Wikipedia as a Tool for 21st Century Teaching and Learning.&quot; International Journal for Digital Society, 6 (2), pp. 1055–1060.

Read ONE of these  Wikipedia articles:

Credibility

Advocacy

Privilege

Respond in writing, in short essay format (about 1/2-1 page total in length) and upload your completed response to Blackboard (Assignments &gt;&gt; Assignment #12) by the due date of 11pm Central Time, Thursday June 17.

Summarize your chosen Wikipedia article, in about 1 paragraph of writing.

Is each fact referenced with an appropriate, reliable reference? Where does the information come from? Are these neutral sources? If biased, is that bias noted?

Check out the Talk page of the article. What kinds of conversations, if any, are going on behind the scenes about how to represent this topic?

<span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; padding: 0in; border: 1pt none windowtext;">And: How is the article rated? Is it a part of any WikiProjects?

My Zoom presentation will cover the topics of learning about different types of pages in Wikipedia, and also discussing this very specific Wikipedia policy:

No Original Research

This will also prepare you for Assignment #13

You must complete these three training modules by 11pm Central Time, Thursday June 17.

Please complete this training by 11pm Central time on Sunday 6/20.

This assignment asks you to briefly engage in some closer inspection of Wikipedia pages. Here are four Wikipedia articles:

1. COVID-19 Pandemic

2. Johnson &amp; Johnson COVID-19 Vaccine

3. Dr. Anthony Fauci

4. Medial Marijuana/Medical Cannabis

Choose an article (only one!) and construct a 1-2 page response that discusses the following questions.


 * 1) <span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #2c2c2c; background: white; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;">Is each fact referenced with an appropriate, reliable reference?
 * 2) <span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #2c2c2c; background: white; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;">Is everything in the article relevant to the article topic? Is there anything that distracted you?
 * 3) <span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #2c2c2c; background: white; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;">Is the article neutral? Are there any claims, or frames, that appear heavily biased toward a particular position?
 * 4) <span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #2c2c2c; background: white; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;">Where does the information come from? Are these neutral sources? If biased, is that bias noted?
 * 5) <span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #2c2c2c; background: white; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;">Are there viewpoints that are overrepresented, or underrepresented?
 * 6) <span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #2c2c2c; background: white; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;">Check a few citations. Do the links work? Is there any close paraphrasing or suspected plagiarism in the article?
 * 7) <span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #2c2c2c; background: white; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;">Is any information out of date? Is anything missing that could be added?
 * 8) <span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #2c2c2c; background: white; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;">Check the &quot;talk&quot; page of the article. What is the Wikipedia community saying about your topic?
 * 9) <span style="font-size: 11.5pt; font-family: 'Arial',sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; color: #2c2c2c; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;">What is the article rated? For your final project, you'll be asked to make improvements to an article. We'd like to focus your improvements on articles that are rated stub, start or c-class according to Wikipedia's article assessment rating.

You will submit your response to Blackboard &gt;&gt; About this course &gt;&gt; Assignments

Choose any One of these (other website) articles about Wikipedia

Why Wikipedia matters for women in science

Female scientists' pages keep disappearing from Wikipedia: What's going on?

[http://www.npr.org/sections/ed/2017/03/20/520845007/the-earth-is-flat-check-wikipedia The Earth is flat? Check Wikipedia]

How Wikipedia is hostile to women

[https://wikiedu.org/blog/2016/04/05/medical-students-wikipedia/ For Wikipedia, the doctor is in... class]

Black history matters, so why is Wikipedia missing so much of it?

You will construct your own brief essay response to the article. Your response should be between 1-2 typed pages (double-spaced, 1&quot; margins, 12-pt. font)

Make sure your essay has an introduction, and that your introduction includes a brief preview of what you will include in the rest of your essay.

First, summarize the article

Also, identify the primary argument or arguments being made in the article

In addition, identify and discuss the support strategies the author employs to make this article. Please use inline citation in your writing to cite the location/source of at least one of the support strategies. If you identify a quote, include the page number.

Also: Identify and discuss in a couple of sentences one thing that you learned about Wikipedia from this article that you didn't already know. You can work this into a separate paragraph, or else incorporate it into a condluding paragraph of your essay response.

Please include a bibliographic reference of your chosen article at the end of your essay. You can use any of the following styles: MLA, APA, Chicago/Turabian.

You will submit your SWA #6 response to Blackboard by 11pm Central Time on Sunday June 20.

Blackboard &gt;&gt; ENG 102 &gt;&gt; About this Course &gt;&gt; SWA's

Week 4
Please follow along with Zoom Discussion #1 for Week 4. We are now going to start diving into the heart of Wikipedia articles. Here are information pages for discovering articles in your topic area that you can edit and improve. I will go through a couple of these with you so you get an idea about the advice and guidance in working with articles in these areas:

Art History

Biographies

Books

Cultural Anthropology

Environmental Sciences

Films

History

LGBT+ Studies

Medicine

Political Science

Psychology

Science Communication

Sociology

Women's Studies

Here is a list of current &quot;stub&quot; articles by Wikipedia. These are articles that need development and expansion. and this is where your own editing work will come into play.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:WikiProject_Stub_sorting/List_of_stubs

There are even several &quot;stub&quot; pages for COVID-19 related topics!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:COVID-19_pandemic_stubs

(However, you may feel like you are not able to gather the right type of information to expand these, and if that's the case, I understand!)

I have two Wikipedia articles that I am thinking about in order to make minor edits to during various Zoom Presentations this week. They are &quot;Sparklehorse&quot; (a band that I love) or else &quot;Manang Language&quot; (a language spoken in Nepal). These are topics I'm interested in, and they are articles in the Wikipedia encyclopedia that need some development. This means that you are not allowed to choose either of these articles to edit/improve. But trust me: there are many other articles in Wikipedia that are either stubs, or else that are not technically classified as stubs, but that still need a lot of work! I'm sure you will find something interesting and relevant enough to you to work on for some brief edits and improvements.

I will explain this a bit in Zoom Presentation #1 for Week 4. There are two assignments here.

For Assignment 16:

Assignment #16 teaches you about &quot;Sandboxes&quot; in Wikipedia, which are spaces in your Wikipedia account where you can draft material that I can see and that other Wikipedia editors can see (but is not yet public). Please complete the &quot;Drafting in the Sandbox&quot; training module. This is due by 11pm on June 22, 11pm Central time

For Assignment #17:

I want you to choose a stub article (you can choose any stub--you do not have to commit to it) and answer a few questions. You can choose any one stub from this link. Have a look at the different categories and find a stub article that you think is potentially interesting.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:WikiProject_Stub_sorting/List_of_stubs

Here are the questions. You must respond in your Wikipedia Sandbox. You don't have to write a polished essay--you can respond to each number in turn. I will be able to see your responses when I check your Sandboxes after the due date of June 23, 11pm Central time:

1. What stub did you choose? Why did you choose this one? Copy and past the URL link into your Sandbox

2. How do you know that it's a stub: Identify where on the page that you know that this is a stub

3. What are some missing or under-developed parts of this stub? A good way to determine this is to compare your stub to a more developed article on the same topic and category. So for example, if you chose a stub-article on a horror novel, look for another Wikipedia article on another horror novel that is more fully developed. What is missing on your stub page in comparison? You should devote 4-5 sentences to answering this question.

4. In particular, locate the &quot;References&quot; section of the stub. What, if anything, is listed in the references? If the references are hyperlinked, do the links still work?

5. And, when you compare this stub to a well developed article of the same category type, what sections of the overall article are present, and what are missing?

I will give some explanation for this assignment in Zoom Presentation #2 for Week 4. I want you to consult the training module called &quot;Finding Your Article&quot; and then create a short list of 3 stubs using the stub article link I introduced you to for Assignment #17 above. You eventually will choose a &quot;winning stub&quot; from this shortlist that you will spend some time editing as we wrap up this unit. But first, read the training module &quot;Finding Your Article.&quot;

Next: Identify the three stub page titles and provide the URL links. They do not have to be on the same topic--just antyhing that strikes your eye and seizes your potential interest (for the short term). I will check to see your three candidates after the deadline of 11pm Central time on June 22.

You should have these three candidates indicated (stub title and URL/web address of that stub article) in your own Sandbox.

This discussion is covered in Zoom Presentation #2 for Week 4, &quot;Learning to Edit.&quot; Since you are almost at the point where you will pick a stub (or pick an underdeveloped Wikipedia article) to research and improve via editing, I want to spend some time reminding you of the Lovejoy Library resources (all online) that we have to help you find the right kinds of sources for your editing work.

Remember the requirements that Wikipedia imposes on sources:


 * No primary sources
 * Sources must be reputable, and your inclusion of them must result in an unbiasaed and neutral contribution to the article.
 * The topic guides that I have already introduced to you have some further advice on the most appropriate sources to include, so once you decide on a stub/page to edit, you should return to the most fitting guide to see what it recommends.

Let's start here today: https://www.siue.edu/lovejoy-library/

This is our library's home page

It is often a student's first choice to start looking for books (and that's fine), but I think that for many of you (and of course because the Library's physical building is closed right now), the sources you'll locate for this particular exercise will come from other places, like academic journals, newspapers, trade magazines, etc.

Here is where you can start when you need to find sources on a topic, but you don't know what else to do: Research Support &gt;&gt; Research Guides (also called &quot;Lib Guides&quot;) &gt;&gt; and start looking at the different categories to see what matches up with your chosen topic.

Here is where you can find online versions of newspaper articles for those newspapers that SIUE subscribes to: http://libguides.siue.edu/Newspapers

And remember that Academic Search Complete is a good place to start if you are not even sure which Lib Guides are useful (you must log in with your e-ID and password for all SIUE databases).

As I make my edits to the under-developed Wikipedia article about the music group &quot;Sparklehorse&quot; or the article on the Manang Language, I am also using sources that I find in our Lovejoy Library Lib Guides as a starting point.

Here are a few random Wikipedia stub articles. What Lib Guide(s) do you think might be most useful as a place to find appropriate sources for these articles? You may want to think about more than one Lib Guide.

1. NASCAR Mexico (under sports stubs)

2. Chris Rock: Kill the Messenger (under U.S. television program stubs)

3. Belhare (under Sino-Tibetan language stubs)

4. Runaway Ralph (a children's novel by author Beverly Cleary, under children's literature stubs)

With these resources in mind, I want you to to complete Assignment #19 (see below).

Please follow along with the Zoom Presentation #2 for Week 4, &quot;Learning to Edit&quot; (which you can find on Blackboard &gt;&gt; Week 4 Materials). This guided discussion will culminate in your completion of Assignment #19 by doing two things:

1. Completing the Training &quot;How to Edit: Wikicode vs. Visual Editor&quot; (there are a couple of short videos embedded and a quiz at the end)

2. Responding to some prompts below. This also sets you up for Assignment #20, coming up next....

Now that you have identified (approximately) candidate 3 stub pages or else articles that need more development, let's work on identifying sources for these pages. This will help you narrow down your choice to one article/stub that you will follow through with edits.

FIRST: Pick any  one  of the 3 stub articles that you chose last time.

SECOND: Can you find a guide that connects to the topic of the stub you are working with (look back to the block with discussion on &quot;Guides&quot;)? If so, take a moment to open that guide and find out what types of sources are okay, and what types are off limits. Please spend 1-2 sentences in your Sandbox identifying which, if any, guides are appropriate for this stub article.

THIRD: Let's visit your stub. What exactly is missing? Again, compare your stub to the guide that connects most closely to your topic. Also, compare your stub/underdeveloped page to one on a similar topic that is more developed. What sections are missing? What do you think you can contribute? In 2-3 sentences, what is missing in your chosen stub article compared to a more fully fleshed out article on a similar topic?

FOURTH: Now, let's go to the Lovejoy Library journal/trade magazine/newspaper databases. I'd like each of you to spend some time identifying and actually getting your hands on an appropriate source that you think brings something to you stub. Enter the bibliographic information from at least one source that is connected to your chosen stub article, in your Sandbox.

Your assignment #20: Enter the full bibliographic information for minimally two sources identified and located  that you think will contribute useful information to stub #1.

Please fully cite both of the sources in your Wikipedia Sandbox. Save/publish your work. You do not have to use the source citation tool in Wikipedia (I'll show you that later), but I want to see evidence that you've located sources that you could potentially use.

Please follow along with Zoom Discussion #3 of Week 4.

There are two pieces to this assignment:

1. Complete the second-to-last Training Module &quot;Adding Citations&quot; (see the link just above this text box)

2. <span style="font-family: 'Open Sans', arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15.008px; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; text-align: inherit; color: #2c2c2c;">Now turn to one of the other two stub articles that you identified (you've already been working with one of them). I want to see <span style="font-family: 'Open Sans', arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15.008px; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; text-align: inherit; font-weight: 600; color: #2c2c2c;">minimally two sources identified and located <span style="font-family: 'Open Sans', arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15.008px; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; text-align: inherit; color: #2c2c2c;"> that you think will contribute useful information to stub #2.

<span style="font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 600; font-size: 15.008px; font-family: 'Open Sans', arial, sans-serif; color: #2c2c2c; text-align: inherit;"> Please fully cite both of the sources in your Wikipedia Sandbox. Save/publish your work. <span style="font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; font-size: 15.008px; font-family: 'Open Sans', arial, sans-serif; color: #2c2c2c; text-align: inherit;">You do not have to use the source citation tool in Wikipedia (I'll show you that later), but I want to see evidence that you've located sources that you could potentially use.

I will look for evidence of this work in your Sandbox after the deadline of June 24, 11pm Central time.

Now is the time for you to decide: Which Wikipedia stub/under-developed article have you chosen as the one to improve as part of your grade for ENG 102? Please see below for instructions on Assignment #22.

During this Zoom Discussion, I'm going to walk you through the process of:


 * 1) Reading through the sources you have located
 * 2) Locating a section (or creating a section) of your Wikipedia article where your own contribution will make the most sense
 * 3) Drafting your improvement into a coherent stretch of text in the Sandbox
 * 4) Citing your source
 * 5) And then, bringing your work back to the article itself to save for all of the world to read!

 For this Zoom: 

1. Make sure you can open and read your sources for your chosen stub. Think for a minute: Why did you choose these sources, and what aspects of the article can they improve?

2. Also, do you need to add a new section to your stub article in order to accommodate your own edits? Some of you may need to do this, and some of you may just work within an existing section that is already present in the article. You can decide this based on the more fully developed articles that you compared your stub to last week. I will show you how this is done via a quick demonstration in class.

3. When you have identified some kind of information from one or more of your sources that you think will make sense in your stub, start drafting in your Sandbox (do not draft in the article directly). Your edits should be approximately one paragraph, minimally (so, a good 4-5 sentences of content that you are adding). I will circle around in class to see how you are progressing with this.

4. (optional) You may be interested in adding an image plus caption (and then citing and sourcing the image and caption). As long as the image &amp; caption contribute some improvement to the content of a stub/under-developed article, and as long as the image is designated as open access, that is fine. Here is a link with advice on adding an image to a Wikipedia article: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/90/Editing_Wikipedia_brochure_%28Wiki_Education_Foundation%29_%282017%29.pdf (p. 10-11)

Assignment #22 (Due by 11.59pm CST on June 23).

Essentially, I will be looking for evidence of your working on this very process that I've been ilustrating in the Zoom presentation. This really means that by now, you've committed on a stub article to edit and enhance, that you've followed along and found your sources that you will integrate into the stub article, that you are thinking about how your article will look and be organized as you enahance it, that you'll have begun adding some kind of text, and that you are drafting all of these changes into your Sandbox.

As we continue Zoom Discussion #3: We are continuing with drafting, copy-editing, and source incorporation for your Wikipedia stub article edits. This is also connected to Assignment #22, which is due at 11pm Central time on June 24. See above.

First: What questions do you still have regarding your sources and what/how to add/contribute/ improve content in your chosen Wikipedia page?

If you have chosen to add a section (&quot;Header&quot; in the Sandbox editor), do you know how to do this?

Also: Make sure your content contribution is grammatically coherent, makes sense, and actually adds useful (unbiased) information to the article.

Next: Let's look into how you can cite your source in your Wikipedia Sandbox. I am going to demonstrate how you can &quot;automatically&quot; add a reference (that will be auto-formatted by Wikipedia), and how to &quot;manually&quot; add a reference (that you need to format yourself). However, even if you have to &quot;manually&quot; add a reference, if you got the source from a database like Academic Search Complete, you can have that database auto-format the source for you, and you can copy-paste that formatted citation into your Wikipedia Sandbox.

I will be showing you examples either from my edits to the Sparklehorse article, or else the Manang Language article.

This presentation wraps up the publishing process for your Wikipedia stub article upgrade, and is connected to Assignment #23.

First, You will finish up with any drafting and editing work that you have remaining in your Sandbox. I will be there to help answer any questions that you have about the style and look of your edited comments, as well as how to add your source to your own work.

Next: I will use my own Sparklehorse or Manange Language page edits to demonstrate how you move your edited material back over to the main Wikipedia stub article, how you save/publish this work to that public article, and how you document your edits on your &quot;Talk&quot; page for this article.

Then, once your changes are published, you may view the page's &quot;History&quot; and &quot;Talk&quot; tabs to see if your changes have been accepted/allowed to remain, or if there is any further discussion generated by other Wikipedia editors regarding your own edits.

When I go in to check your final work, I will first inspect your Sandbox page (to see your draft of edits), and then I will inspect the main article itself to see that the changes have been brought over. I will inspect this shortly after the deadline at 11pm Central time on June 37, so you must have everything completed by then.

After the deadline of 11pm Central time on Sunday 6/27, I'll be looking for two things:

1. For you to complete the Training &quot;Moving Your Work Out of the Sandbox&quot;

2. I'll be looking for your actual published updates/upgrades/enhancements to your final chosen Wikipedia Stub article.

This will be submitted to Blackboard, but the instructions are included here:

<span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif;">ENG 102: SWA #7

<span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol;"> ·        <span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif;">This SWA is due to Blackboard &gt;&gt; Submit All SWA's Here &gt;&gt; SWA #7

<span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif;">Due date: 11pm Central time on Sunday June 28.

<span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif;">Remember that some of you already have missed an SWA, so you should consider carefully whether or not you will submit a completed essay for this one. I do drop your lowest SWA grade.

<span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol;"> ·        <span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif;">The topic of this essay: Reflecting on and evaluating your Wikipedia Unit experiences

<span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol;"> ·        <span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif;">Give your essay a title! It might be a brief synopsis of your evaluation, for example: &quot;Wikipedia Was More Useful/Interesting Than I Thought It Would Be&quot;, or &quot;This Wikipedia Unit Was Not Useful&quot; (or something like that--but please remain respectful and mature in your title!)

<span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol;"> ·        <span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif;">Feel free to refer back to our ENG 102 Wikipedia Dashboard, including any of the readings and links contained in the Dashboard Timeline

<span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol;"> ·        <span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif;">Important note: This is not the essay where you argue for or against Wikipedia in college research! We will work on this essay as our final set of activities in Week 5. This essay is a more &quot;first-person&quot; evaluation that you are offering to me, but in a well-organized essay format.

<span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif;">I would like you to introduce your essay by briefly providing your experience/history with Wikipedia before this unit, and then summarizing the main/major activities that made up this unit. Then, in the body of your essay, I would like you to include coverage and discussion of the following:

<span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"> 1. <span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif;">Describe at least one training assignment that you completed. Include your understanding of the point of this assignment, and what you think you learned

<span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"> 2. <span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif;">Describe at least one outside (non Wikipedia) article that you were asked to read and respond to. What was the point of this article, and what do you think you learned as part of this larger unit?

<span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"> 3. <span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif;">Describe at least one Wikipedia article that you were asked to inspect. What types of information did you learn about Wikipedia articles that you did not know about before this unit?

<span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"> 4. <span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif;">Finally, describe your process of deciding on a stub page to edit. How did you come to the decision that you made, and do you think that this stub article was a good choice for your required work in this unit?

<span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif;">(In these paragraphs, please provide the full title of the training, and also cite the article and the Wikipedia pages. The article and Wikipedia pages should also be cited at the end of your essay. You can use MLA, APA, or Chicago style as you build your reference page)

<span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif;">After you provide this coverage and discussion, I would like you to dedicate at least one paragraph to provide a thoughtful critique and evaluation of this experience. If you enjoyed or found this unit interesting or helpful, discuss what exactly you did or learned that you found useful. If you found this unit uninteresting and unhelpful, what about this unit was so problematic or painful? How do you think what you learned in this unit would be useful for how you value or judge Wikipedia in future college classes?

<span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif;">As you conclude your essay, it would be useful to include one or two pieces of advice that would make a future version of this unit more interesting and useful.

<span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif;">Special notes and formatting: It's okay if you did not like/enjoy or even find this unit useful or interesting. You are allowed to be honest and honesty does not result in a lower grade, but just make sure that you are mature and appropriate in any criticisms of this unit or your own experiences. I plan to teach this Wikipedia Unit for at least the next couple of future runnings of ENG 102, and so even if your experience was negative, I can use your feedback to help improve how I do this.

<span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif;">Your response essay should be approximately 2-3 pages in length, and should follow the appropriate formatting that I require from academic essays: An introduction and conclusion, a well-organized set of main-body paragraphs that respond to the prompts above, and a reference/bibliography at the end that includes the details of the readings that you identify in your main essay (one article and two Wikipedia articles). Also: you are allowed to use first person &quot;I&quot;, but be careful to avoid send person &quot;you/your/you're.&quot; As we have practiced in class, think about ways to re-structure a sentence to avoid that pronoun.

We are primarily finished working with new material in this Wikipedia unit, but your final essay will incorporate what you have learned into your argument with evidence. So, I will keep this page, and all of its various pieces, available for you to access as you build this final essay.

Week 5
We are almost finished with ENG 102! One final week to go--you can do it!

There are two more small assignmentss (#24 and #25), which will be due on Monday, 6/28 and Tuesday, 6/29, respectively. And, the pieces of your final essay will be due to me at various points throughout that fifth week. I will have a separate assignment information handout for you for all of this (and of course some videos, we can never escape the videos...), found in Blackboard.