Wikipedia:Wiki Ed/University of Maryland/LGBT 200 (Spring 2016)

LGBT 200 is an introduction to LGBT Studies, an interdisciplinary study of the historical and social contexts of personal, cultural and political aspects of LGBT life. We will read texts from a variety of fields, such as anthropology, history, psychology, sociology, and women's studies, focusing on writings by and about LGBT people. The course aims to develop your skills in analysing and critiquing sociocultural structures, particularly the role of LGBT individuals and embedded assumptions about gender, race, class, sexuality, and other categories of identity.

Week 3

 * Overview of the course
 * Introduction to how Wikipedia will be used in the course
 * Understanding Wikipedia as a community, we'll discuss its expectations and etiquette.

Handout: [http://wikiedu.org/editingwikipedia Editing Wikipedia ]

For this assignment, you will compose a short (300 word minimum) summary of your preliminary research on your queer object. This summary should tackle these three points:


 * History: What is the origin of this object? When did it come out? Are there multiple versions/editions? If it’s a media object (book, movie, song), who wrote/directed/sang it?
 * Reception: How has this object been received? How do people commonly view/use it? If it was reviewed, how did it do? What non-queer cultural connotations does it have (so, is it referenced/discussed/etc.)?
 * Queer Significance: How does this object have “queer” meaning? So, how do queer individuals use it? Why do they use it as opposed to other objects?

Following your summary, you should select and link to an object appropriate Wikipedia page you will be analysing and editing this semester. At the end of your assignment, include a full bibliography of your sources in a style of your choice (MLA, Chicago Author-Date, or APA).

Submit your summary to the appropriate ELMS assignment.

Week 4
Complete the online training for students. During this training, you will make edits in a sandbox and learn the basic rules of Wikipedia. This assignment is broken into two parts:


 * 1) Module Completion: 10 of points for finishing modules
 * 2) Wikipedia Basics: Quiz: 15 of points from ELMS quiz.

You will receive your grade for the Wikipedia Basics: Module Completion assignment in the appropriate ELMS assignment.

Week 5
For this assignment, you will have two tasks:


 * First, create a mockup &quot;article&quot; for a Wikipedia page in your sandbox. Practice all of the skills you were first introduced to in the training, which you will need when editing Wikipedia. Format your &quot;article&quot; Wiki-style, with a bolded first sentence, a section header, a fact under the second header with a properly cited course following it, and an accompanying reference section. Include at least one edit summary.
 * If at any point, you forget any of the code or want tools to help make compiling citations easier, you can refer to WP:CHEAT, Help:Citation tools, or the refresher modules. (YOUR USER PAGE SHOULD LOOK LIKE THIS  but without an image.)
 * Second, to practice communicating on Wikipedia, leave a message for a classmate on their user talk page.

Submit links to both your sandbox and the talk page you commented on to the appropriate ELMS assignment.

Week 7
We'll be meeting in McKeldin RM 6107 to go over how you can use library resources in your research.

Week 8
For this assignment, you will be evaluating your chosen article's overall quality and identifying areas of improvement where you can make additions. Before you begin, review pages 4-7 of the Evaluating Wikipedia brochure. This will give you a good, brief overview of what to look for in other articles, and what other people will look for in your edits. In a short essay (750 word minimum), you will (using section headers for 1, 2, and 3):


 * 1) Summarize the article's content. What is the page about? What all does it cover? What kinds of information are in the page?
 * 2) Evaluate its quality based on brochure and the &quot;questions to consider&quot; listed below.
 * 3) Identify at least two areas where you could improve upon the article. These, ideally, are related to your evaluation in section two. Describe how you could make improvements - ideally, you should collect the information necessary to make these improvements as you prepare your research paper.
 * 4) Possible improvement options:
 * 5) * Addition of citations to reliable references
 * 6) * Addition of relevant information
 * 7) * Updating out-of-date information
 * 8) * Updating citation links with new, working citations

Questions to consider (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?

Turn this short essay in as a .doc or .docx file in to the appropriate assignment on ELMS.

Resources: Evaluating Wikipedia[https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Using_talk_pages.pdf ]

Week 10

 * Compile a list of 3-5 sources you will use for your research paper. Begin by citing them in a style of your choice (MLA, Chicago Author-Date, or APA), then annotate them below. Your annotation should describe the source’s content, its relevance to your queer object, and why the source meets Wikipedia’s standards for a reliable source. Finally, post this list to your User sandbox on Wikipedia.

[https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/99194947/Wiki_Sandbox.jpg SAMPLE ANNOTATION PAGE ]

Example annotation: For a theoretical Wikipedia article on feminist artist Joan Semmel.

Schwendener, Martha. 2013. “A Review of Joan Semmel’s Work at the Bronx Museum of the Arts.” The New York Times, February 1, sec. N.Y. / Region. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/03/nyregion/a-review-of-joan-semmels-work-at-the-bronx-museum-of-the-arts.html.

This newspaper article reviews the &quot;Joan Semmel: The Lucid Eye&quot; exhibit, held at the Bronx Museum in 2013. The author positions Semmel as a feminist artist, positioning her depiction of nudity in historical context. Schwendener describes a variety of Semmel's works on display and and how they play on both traditional painting styles and formats and normative gender expectations. This piece is a relevant source for my Wikipedia article because it provides information about Semmel's later works, as well as description and expert analysis of her art style. It also meets Wikipedia's standards for a reliable source because it is a secondary source, published in an established news outlet.

A link to your sandbox (with your Annotated Bibliography) should be submitted to the appropriate assignment on ELMS.

Week 14
For this assignment, you will make at least two substantive edits to the Wikipedia article you previously analyzed, utilizing the research gathered for your research paper.

These edits can be:


 * Add at least 1–2 sentences of new information, backed up with a citation to an appropriate source.
 * Update out-of-date information with new information drawn from your sources.
 * Add new reliable references drawn from your research or update currently outdated references.

Below I've linked to training modules you may need to refresh when making your edits. After you've completed your edits, submit a link to the Wikipedia page to the appropriate assignment on ELMS.