Wikipedia:Wiki Ed/Texas AM University/Technical Editing (Spring 2023)

This is an applied course meant to prepare students to function as an editor in technical and professional venues. We will use Wikipedia to target certain less-tangible skills necessary for advanced editing: the ability to join a community of editors that already have standards in place, learn to read and improve writing within those conventions, and learn to facilitate good writing within this existing community. Rather than simply copyediting existing articles, creating new articles, or adding new content to existing articles, the students will focus on finding articles that have a good base of content but which need editorial intervention to help the larger community of potential editors continue to improve the articles. Students will focus primarily on issues of organization, appropriateness, and Wikipedia style, with the aim of significantly improving the existing content of an article. Students will be expected to work within the Wikipedia infrastructure, including engaging with current interested editors and leaving traces of their work to assist with future editing of the articles they worked on.

Week 3
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.

Week 4
Resource: Editing Wikipedia, page 6

Week 5
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

Everyone has begun writing their article drafts.

Week 6
Guiding framework

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

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 7
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

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 8
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!

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