Wikipedia:Wiki Ed/University of Iowa/It's Not Just Food: Intro to the History Major (Fall 2019)

What is history? And how do we write it? Historians are not primarily concerned with collecting facts from the past. Instead, we are interested in important transformations and relations of power. Food and foodways, practices relating to the production, and preparation and consumption of food, are particularly revealing markers of class, ethnic, gender and religious identities. Therefore, in this class we will use food to talk about and write history. We will use primary and secondary sources to learn how historians collect and use evidence to interpret the past and make arguments. And we’ll work together as you develop your own historical project in stages: identifying possible topics, finding sources, developing an argument, drafting your paper and making revisions.

Week 1
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
 * 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.

Exercises
Evaluate an Article

Choose a Topic

History

Week 7


1.     Complete the training module for this week.



2.     Hunt around Wikipedia for a topic related to our course material which you,  with the help of a secondary source(s) from the library, can improve. This could be an article that is lacking key information, an article that is biased, simplistic, or wrong, or an article that lacks references.

Note: if the article you choose is very long, you should only commit to working on a section of it, and clarify what that section is. Don’t commit to working on an entire article if it is long [e.g. “Bible”], because you will be overwhelmed by the task.



3.      Come to class prepared to give a   very short presentation – 2 minute long  – on:



·       Why that article is problematic.



·       Which secondary source(s) will you use to solve some of the problems? What you will do to make the article better. Will you correct content? Add content? Insert &quot;citation needed&quot; tags? All of the above?



Aim for an addition / correction of between 100 and 300 words, not including references.

Week 8


After sharing your idea in class, you may have chosen to do the assignment with a classmate (up to 2 students per assignment). You may have changed your plan following my feedback or after hearing other students. You may have met with me to get help with planning your edits. All of these are fine.



In this assignment, write a short essay (1-2 pages) answering the same questions as above: * Which article did you choose? * Why that article is problematic?* Which secondary source(s) will you use to solve some of the problems. What will you do to make the article better? Will you correct content? Add content? Insert &quot;citation needed&quot; tags? All of the above?



Aim for an addition / correction of between 100 and 300 words, not including references.



1.     Complete the training module for this assignment.



2.     By now you have received substantive feedback from me and have a clear idea of what you will edit. The next stage is to inform the Wikipedia community of your plans.



In the article’s Talk Page, write 2-3 sentences on what you intend to do. End your plan with an invitation to other Wiki editors to weigh in on your changes, e.g. “If anyone wants to comment on these changes, please let me know on this Talk Page or on my Talk Page.” Make sure you do this while you’re logged in, and sign after your post (Jford2 (talk) 01:40, 2 December 2019 (UTC)).

Week 12


1.     Improve the Wikipedia article you chose. It’s recommended to use your Sandbox first, preview what you’ve done, and then copy and paste from Sandbox into the article.



2.     If you are expanding an existing article, copy your edit into the article. If you are making many small edits, save after each edit before you make the next one. Do NOT paste over the entire existing article, or large sections of the existing article.



3.     If you are creating a new article, write the article in your Sandbox, and follow the instructions in the training module above on how to move it out of your Sandbox.

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 13
<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;">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!

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

Week 14
<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;">Write a paper going beyond your Wikipedia article to advance your own ideas, arguments, and original research about your topic.