Wikipedia:Wiki Ed/University of Toronto, Mississauga/WGS 455 Queer Theory (Fall 2015)

“Queer,” as a term, has been associated with both non-normative sexualities and a critique of the normal in general terms, including stable identity categories of “lesbian,” “gay,” etc. Queer theory emerged in the early 1990s as a response, in part, to the identity politics of LGBT social movements. During the same period of the early 1990s, “transgender” emerged as an umbrella term describing diverse minority gender identifications and embodiments, including transsexual, cross-dresser, passing women, MTFs, and others. Both queer theory and trans studies owe political debts to women of color feminisms from the 1980s and 1990s, anti-racist projects that have given rise to contemporary queer and trans* of color (QTPOC) critique. Today, in 2015, queer theory and trans studies are increasingly in dialogue with each other, both politically and academically, inside and outside the academy. This course is designed as an introduction to some of the key concepts in both queer theory and trans studies to allow you, as students, to understand the histories and stakes of both sets of commitments

Week 1
 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. ==

recommended handout: Editing Wikipedia


 * Basics of editing
 * Anatomy of Wikipedia articles, what makes a good article, how to distinguish between good and bad articles
 * Collaborating and engaging with the Wiki editing community
 * Tips on finding the best articles to work on for class assignments

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Handouts:, Evaluating Wikipedia


 * Create an account and then complete the online training for students. During this training, you will make edits in a sandbox and learn the basic rules of Wikipedia.
 * Create a User page.
 * To practice editing and communicating on Wikipedia, introduce yourself to another student on their user talk page.
 * Explore topics related to your topic area to get a feel for how Wikipedia is organized. What areas seem to be missing? As you explore, make a mental note of articles that seem like good candidates for improvement.

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Resources: Online Training for Students

All students have Wikipedia user accounts and are listed on the course page.

Week 2

 * Be prepared to discuss some of your observations about Wikipedia articles in your topic area that are missing or could use improvement.
 * Complete the Assignment Due: complete the one-hour student training for Wikipedia here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Training/For_students. Create a user account and enroll in our course on Wikipedia. Create a “sandbox” for yourself to start playing around in (a user sandbox is a personal wiki page(s) where you can experiment, practice editing, plan out articles, or begin drafting articles before moving them into the article &quot;mainspace” on Wikipedia—where live articles are read and edited). Review the handouts that Wikipedia makes available to you through the course portal, such as “editing Wikipedia” and ‘Evaluating Wikipedia.” I can see what you have or have not done on Wikipedia, so I will be taking a peek and sending you kittens of encouragement. Please see me if you are stuck or anxious.

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Handouts:

Week 3: Using Sources

 * Be prepared to explain close paraphrasing, plagiarism, and copyright violations on Wikipedia.
 * To get the hang of using citations on Wikipedia, add some new information to a Wikipedia article of your choice—backed up with a citation to one of the readings from the course thus far. At this point, you should know what your writing will be on, and be working on a bibliography (due next week).

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Handouts: and


 * Add 1–2 sentences of new information, backed up with a citation to an appropriate source, to a Wikipedia article related to the class.


 * Your instructor has created a list of potential topics for your main project. Choose the one you will work on.
 * Compile a bibliography of relevant, reliable sources and post it to the talk page of the article you are working on. Begin reading the sources. Make sure to check in on the talk page (or watchlist) to see if anyone has advice on your bibliography. *submit a bibliography of 8-12 sources for your article. The majority of these sources should be secondary, peer-reviewed, scholarly sources, since Wikipedia is an encyclopedia. For some topics, you might have trouble finding scholarly writing exactly on the topic, and so you need to be creative and find sources that you can use to write from and cite while, perhaps, using primary sources for other information more specific to your person/event/organization. If you have spoken with me about doing a different article, also submit today the following: a) 150-200 word proposal for your Wikipedia entry that tells me what your topic(s) are; if this is an original article or an addition to an existing entry; and justifies the notability of the topic if it is a contemporary one.I

Week 4

 * We'll discuss moving your article out of your sandboxes and into Wikipedia's main space.
 * A general reminder: Don't panic if your contribution disappears, and don't try to force it back in.
 * Check to see if there is an explanation of the edit on the article's talk page. If not, (politely) ask why it was removed.
 * Contact your instructor or Wikipedia Content Expert and let them know.

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Handout:


 * Move your sandbox articles into main space.
 * 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.
 * If you are creating a new article, do NOT copy and paste your text, or there will be no record of your work history. Follow the instructions in the &quot;Moving out of your sandbox&quot; handout.
 * Begin expanding your article into a comprehensive treatment of the topic.

Week 5

 * Demo uploading images and adding images to articles.
 * Share experiences and discuss problems.

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Resources: Illustrating Wikipedia and Evaluating Wikipedia


 * Expand your article into a complete first draft.

Week 6

 * As a group, offer suggestions for improving one or two other students' articles, based on your ideas of what makes a solid encyclopedia article.

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


 * Open discussion of the concepts of neutrality, media literacy, and the impact and limits of Wikipedia.


 * Make edits to your article based on peers’ feedback. If you disagree with a suggestion, use talk pages to politely discuss and come to a consensus on your edit.

Week 7

 * Continue discussing how the articles can be further improved. Come up with improvement goals for each article for next week.


 * Return to your classmates' articles you previously reviewed, and provide more suggestions for further improvement. If there is a disagreement, suggest a compromise.
 * Do additional research and writing to make further improvements to your article, based on your classmates' suggestions and any additional areas for improvement you can identify.


 * Prepare for an in-class presentation about your Wikipedia editing experience.

Week 8

 * Students give in-class presentations about their experiences editing Wikipedia.


 * Add final touches to your Wikipedia article.

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Handout:

Week 9
Students have finished all their work on Wikipedia that will be considered for grading.