Wikipedia:Wiki Ed/University of Washington/Astro482 (Spring)

This course is designed to help with current and future writing needs in Astronomy/Physics. Editing/writing content for a topic in Wikipedia will be one part of this course. Other parts include optimizing a CV, writing a journal paper and a newsletter article for the public.

Week 1

 * Create a Wiki account and join this course page using the enrollment link that you received in class.
 * Go through the 2 student online training modules below.

This course has an assigned Wikipedia Content Expert. Check your Talk page for notes from them.

Week 2
Look through various Wiki articles and stubs on the subject of your research that you will be writing up for your journal article. Decide on which one needs improvement that you can provide. You can review page 6 of your Editing Wikipedia guidebook for help in considering a topic.


 * Category:Astronomy_stubs
 * Once you have your topic finalized, assign it to yourself on the Students tab above.

Week 3
Creating a new article?


 * Write an outline of that topic in the form of a standard Wikipedia article's &quot;lead section.&quot; Write it in your sandbox.
 * A &quot;lead&quot; section is not a traditional introduction. It should summarize, very briefly, what the rest of the article will say in detail. The first paragraph should include important, broad facts about the subject. A good example is Ada Lovelace. See Editing Wikipedia page 9 for more ideas.

Improving an existing article?


 * Identify what's missing from the current form of the article. Make notes for improvement in your sandbox.

Page through the Training module below.

Leave comments on the Talk pages of your classmates about their articles.

Week 4
Make improvements to your article based on your peer review feedback. For help, read Editing Wikipedia pages 12 and 14.

 After you've made improvements to your article based on peer review feedback, it's time to move your work to Wikipedia proper - the &quot;mainspace.&quot;

'''Editing an existing article? '''


 * NEVER copy and paste your draft of an article over the entire article. Instead, edit small sections at a time.
 * Copy your edits into the article. Make many small edits, saving each time, and leaving an edit summary. Never replace more than one to two sentences without saving!

'''Creating a new article? '''


 * Read Editing Wikipedia page 13, and follow those steps to move your article from your Sandbox to Mainspace.
 * You can also review the Sandboxes and Mainspace online training.

Week 5
Do additional research and writing to make further improvements to your article, based on suggestions and your own critique.


 * Read Editing Wikipedia page 12 to see how to create links from your article to others, and from other articles to your own. Try to link to 3–5 articles, and link to your article from 2–3 other articles.

Week 6
Hand in original (before your edits) and final version that you edited.


 * Read Editing Wikipedia page 15 to review a final check-list before completing your assignment.