Wikipedia:Wiki Ed/Vanderbilt University/States and their Secrets (fall 2022)

This course offers an introduction to cultural and ethnographic analysis of political and legal systems, with a focus on the development and workings of the state. We will inquire into the nature of bureaucracy, the role of secrecy in state actions, the organization of warfare and atrocities, surveillance, and whistleblowing. The main assignment will be to write an article on a major instance of well-documented, but secret or once-secret government policies with major ethical implications.

Week 4
This week, everyone should have a Wikipedia account.

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.)

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

Week 5
Thinking about sources and plagiarism

Choose your topic / Find your sources

Week 6
What's a content gap?

Cultural Anthropology

History

Political Science

Week 8
Out of respect for fall break, the &quot;Evaluate an Article&quot; assignment is now due by October 19.

Each group collectively produces a bibliography of 20 sources. The Wikipedia article writer publishes these to a Wikipedia talk page.

Thinking about Wikipedia

Week 9
Resource: Editing Wikipedia, pages 7–9

Everyone has begun writing their article drafts.

For this “Add to an article” assignment, everyone must add at least four cited sentences to an article related to the course (either the course theme of state secrecy or any of the events covered in the syllabus) by October 26. Consult the assignment sheet from &quot;Evaluate an aritcle&quot; assignment for suggestions.

Week 10
This work must only be completed by the designated Wikipedia editor in each group project (other people are creating other types of research products).


 * 1) Post a complete outline of the article (using section headers of various levels) and post it to your userspace.
 * 2) Include five fully referenced paragraphs by this first checkpoint.
 * 3) You must post a bibliography of at least ten sources you plan to use to your talk page or the article’s talk page. Provide the reference information, not just weblinks.

Week 11
This work must only be completed by the designated Wikipedia editor in each group project (other people are creating other types of research products).


 * 1) Post a complete (or as complete as you can) draft of the article and post it to your userspace.
 * 2) Ensure that your first-draft version of the full article has a lead that complies with WP:LEAD
 * 3) Your draft article should include specific facts directly referenced to at least five of these sources.
 * 4) Regardless of how much text you posted at Checkpoint 1, the article should be improved during this week.

Week 12
Guiding framework

Every student must review their assigned article during the week of November 6–10, so that article writers can have your feedback by the weekend.

Week 13
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.

Exercise
Add links to your article

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 14
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

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.

Guiding questions