Wikipedia:Wiki Ed/Tulane University/GESS 2900 - Writing for Wikipedia (Fall 2020)
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- Course name
- GESS 2900 - Writing for Wikipedia
- Institution
- Tulane University
- Instructor
- Erin Siodmak
- Wikipedia Expert
- Ian (Wiki Ed)
- Subject
- Gender and Sexuality Studies
- Course dates
- 2020-08-19 00:00:00 UTC – 2020-12-12 23:59:59 UTC
- Approximate number of student editors
- 20
As Gender and Sexuality Studies scholars, you have much to offer Wikipedia, both by filling information gaps and by engaging in debates about Wikipedia policies regarding notability and neutral point of view. Through this project, you write, edit and improve Wikipedia articles by working collaboratively with your colleagues and the larger Wikipedia community. The project will improve your writing and research skills.
Timeline
Week 4
- Course meetings
-
- Wednesday, 9 September 2020 | Friday, 11 September 2020
- Welcome to the Wiki Edu course page!
If you're reading this, you've created an account and joined this course page - welcome! (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.)
You can look over the complete timeline if you'd like to get an idea of what's coming up, but I will make updates and changes throughout the semester. I will also add the schedule you see on Canvas for each week/module as we get to it. On this site, you will find all of the details about the trainings and exercises related to the Wikipedia work; on Canvas, you will find links to each week on the timeline and to the exercises (I will stop doing this after week 4/5 in order to reduce clutter on Canvas, so be sure you are visiting this site when prompted on Canvas), and abbreviated information about the activities.
FYI re: dates: On Canvas, our week goes from Mon-Sun (9/7-9/13, for example); on the Wiki Edu site, the week goes from Sun-Sat (9/6-9/12). The week number (Week 4, Week 5) will match on both sites. To stay consistent with Canvas, all trainings and assignments listed on the Wiki Edu site will be due on Sundays (9/13), even though the date will fall outside of the Wiki Edu week (which ends on 9/12).
- Weeks 4+5 Schedule (Canvas link)
Please test the link below. It will take you to the Week 4-5 Schedule page on Canvas.
What to do on this site for Week 4:
- Read the introduction to the assignment + the linked guides
- Complete Get Started trainings (take the practice quiz to test your knowledge)
- Assignment - Everyone has a Wikipedia account
This week, everyone should have a Wikipedia account and access to the Wiki Edu dashboard.
- Introduction to the Wikipedia assignment
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.
Getting help
Your course has been assigned a Wikipedia Expert. You can reach them through the Get Help button at the top of this page.
Please review these resources. They will always be available here or on the Resources tab at the top of the page.
- Editing Wikipedia - Pages 1–5 are the most relevant, but please skim through the rest as well.
- Evaluating Wikipedia - How do we evaluate Wikipedia articles? You have a jump on this after doing your rubrics! But please read through this - it will help you with the Week 5 trainings.
- Assignment - Get started on Wikipedia (training)
How well do you know Wikipedia's policies? Try this quiz: https://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/Wikipedia/Quizzes
*Note: The "Keeping Track of Your Work" training includes information about the steps to completing work on an article. The final step is to move your work live, after which you can mark the work as completed (for the purposes of a course). However, we will not be moving work live until after it has been reviewed (peer review, by the professor, and by Wiki Edu staff), so you will mark the work as complete to indicate that you're ready for review, but you won't make it live.
- How-to
- Use Google to search Wikipedia
Week 5
- Course meetings
-
- Monday, 14 September 2020 | Wednesday, 16 September 2020 | Friday, 18 September 2020
- Weeks 4+5 Schedule (links to Canvas)
Link to the Week 4-5 Schedule page on Canvas.
What to do on this site for Week 5:
- Wikipedia editor trainings
- How to evalute Wikipedia training + exercise
- Plagiarism training + exercise
- Assignment - How to use the Wikipedia editor (training)
You will review the drafting trainings later in the course, so it's okay if you don't feel completely confident yet!
*Note: The Wikicode vs. Visual editor training includes two tutorial/practice exercises within it: 'Be Bold' and 'Talk Page' - be sure to launch and complete these (about 3-5 minutes each).
Re: 'Drafting as a Group' - This training will be assigned a second time when we get to the point where groups have chosen an article; it is assigned here to you have an idea of what to expect.
- Assignment - How to evaluate Wikipedia articles and sources (training + exercise)
Be sure you have done the training and read the guide (linked in Week 4) first! If you don't want to search for an article, choose one from the list under the Articles tab.
- Assignment - Sources + plagiarism (training + response)
Thinking about sources and plagiarism
First, complete the Plagiarism training (top). When you open the assignment ('Thinking about plagiarism'), you will see a series of questions that you will copy into a new Sandbox page where you will address them. Please create a new Sandbox page where you can answer the questions. To create the page:
- Copy and paste the following into the browser address bar (do not hit 'enter' yet!): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:XXXXXX/sandbox/whatisplagiarism
- replace the XXXXXX with your Wikipedia username, then hit 'enter'
- Click 'Start the User:XXXXXX/sandbox/whatisplagiarism page'
- Copy and paste the questions in to your new Sandbox page (delete them when you're done) so you can complete the response. Please write in paragraph form (not in question/answer format).
The purpose is to practice creating a page, to edit, and to think about plagiarism. Your response can/should be brief (100-200 words).
- How-to
- View summary details about an article
Add summary info under article title
If you would like to see the basic information about an article's status (the actual status assigned by Wikipedia) and edit info, you use the Appearance options in Preferences. This is what you would see:
Under Preferences, go to the Gadgets tab, then scroll down to Appearance:
Select these:
- How-to
- Add a 'predicted quality' widget
Add 'Predicted Quality' widget
Find instructions here for adding a tool that shows you the predicted quality rating for an article. This is what you'll see if you add the script:
Week 6
- Course meetings
-
- Monday, 21 September 2020 | Wednesday, 23 September 2020 | Friday, 25 September 2020
- Assignment - Did you add the widgets to your Wikipedia account?
If you haven't already, use the guides listed under Week 5 to add summary information and the predicted quality widget to your Wikipedia account so you'll be able to see these.
- Assignment - Improve an article
Exercise
To complete Copyedit an article and Add to an article:
You can choose an article from the Articles tabs (top of page; click 'available articles' button) or use one of these:
- Gender representation in sports politics (thanks, Lauryn!)
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bollywood_Diaries
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Etah
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dolphin_Nature_Conservation_Society
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baku_Zoo
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gisela_von_Pöllnitz
Keep in mind: this is just for practice, so you start to get more familiar with using Wikipedia so you'll be more comfortable when you begin work on the group's article. Note: groups will be editing in a Sandbox only, not live on Wikipedia, so it's okay if you don't feel completely sure about how everything works. You won't break Wikipedia or ruin any articles, I promise. Remember: Be Bold.
Find a Wikipedia copyediting guide here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Basic_copyediting (very helpful for identifying errors)
To complete Add a citation:
- You will be directed to complete this exercise in your Sandbox; alternatively, you can create a new Sandbox page to use a repository for sources to use in the article you will edit with your group. You can use the same format explained in the Thinking about Plagiarism exercise (copy and paste the following into the browser address bar, replacing XXXXXX with your username; hit enter: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User: XXXXXX/sandbox/2900-bibliography).
- Be sure to launch the 'Citing Sources' tutorial (you'll see the button when you go through the exercise) - this will guide you through the process of adding a citation.
- Assignment - Post on Professor Siodmak's Talk page
Find the professor's Talk page and respond to the prompt ('Week 6 activity'). (10-20 minutes)
- Need help finding articles?
Finding articles:
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Start-Class_Women_scientists_articles
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Start-Class_Women_writers_articles
Wiki Projects:
More guides and resources:
- https://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/Wikipedia (Wikiversity)
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:Cheatsheet (Wikicode cheatsheet)
- How-to
- Add a 'citation needed' tag
How to add a 'citation needed' tag
You have to switch from the visual editor to the source editor. In wiki markup (source editor), you can question an uncited claim by inserting a simple {{Citation needed}}tag, or a more comprehensive {{Citation needed|reason=Your explanation here|date=April 2020}}. Alternatively, {{fact}}and {{cn}}will produce the same result. These all display as:
Example: 87% of statistics are made up on the spot.
Week 7
- Course meetings
-
- Monday, 28 September 2020 | Wednesday, 30 September 2020 | Friday, 2 October 2020
- Weeks 7 + 8 schedules (links to Canvas)
Week 7 schedule // Week 8 schedule
To do this week for Wikipedia work:
- Complete everything from prior weeks (don't forget to post on professor's talk page!)
- Complete exercises + trainings (try to finish the Finding Your Article training before you meet your group on Friday)
- Review relevant writing guide(s)
- Complete health/medical topics training
- Assignment - Discussion
- What's a content gap?
Review the training on evaluating Wikipedia and read through and consider the questions about content gaps. You are not required to respond in writing, but if you'd like to answer them or take notes, use your sandbox or create a page using the same method above (copy and paste the following into the browser address bar, replacing XXXXXX with your username; hit enter: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:XXXXXX/sandbox/contentgap)
- Assignment - Choosing an article (training + exercise)
Complete the 'finding your article' training before you meet with your group on Friday. You can search for articles on your own and/or choose from the list on the Articles page on the dashboard. Click on 'available articles' to see what is available.
The exercise demonstrates how to assign yourself an article on the dashboard. You can complete the exercise any time, but you should not assign yourself an article until after you've submitted Friday's discussion summary and heard back from the professor.
- Guide(s) for writing articles in your topic area
- Assignment - Important! Re
- psychology, medical and health related topics
Please read the following (from Helaine at Wiki Edu). Please complete this training, whether you are working on health or medical articles or not.
Any student who seeks to add any biomedical content anywhere to Wikipedia needs to do that training. The rules for sourcing medical facts apply to any article where a medical fact might be found, not just articles where the subject is medical. Wikipedia defines biomedical content to include:
- Attributes of a treatment or drug (for your students, that could include anywhere they refer to medication abortions)
Medical decisions (decision to terminate a pregnancy; surgical vs. medical abortion, etc) - Population data and epidemiology (abortion statistics, maternal mortality rates, etc)
- Biomedical research (anything about fetal pain, fetal development, abortion reversal controversy, use of fetal stem cell)
I'm including in parentheses potential areas where this could apply to the articles your students are working on, this is not meant to be exhaustive. You can read more about what constitutes biomedical content here.
- How to
- Create a new article
Create a new article
When you want to create a new article, if you are not an experienced editor, you have to go through a few pages of guides. The video linked here will show you some of the steps.
Week 8
- Course meetings
-
- Monday, 5 October 2020 | Wednesday, 7 October 2020 | Friday, 9 October 2020
- Still looking for an article?
Choose something from the Articles-->Available articles section of this site or search a Wiki Project, like Women in Red.
Or, here's another option: abandoned drafts. If someone doesn't work on a draft (in the 'draftspace' - similar to a Sandbox, but it's where articles can be submitted for review. The order (or hierarchy/levels) of completion ('doneness') is Sandbox --> Draft --> Article.
- Weeks 7 + 8 schedule (links to Canvas)
Week 7 schedule // Week 8 schedule
To do this week for Wikipedia work:
- Complete everything from prior weeks if you haven't already, and the trainings/exercisies for this week (including 'pinging' group members) - Predicted Quality widget is working again!
- Review relevant writing guide(s) if you didn't do this in Week 7
- Read Uma Narayan article about feminist epistemology
- Begin finding sources and writing!
FYI: The 'ping' instructions below are incorrect. This page has instructions.
- Assignment - Read
- Uma Narayan, The Project of Feminist Epistemology (1989)
- Assignment - Start drafting your contributions
Reach out to your Wikipedia Expert if you have questions using the Get Help button at the top of this page.
Resource: Editing Wikipedia, pages 7–9
- Assignment - Everyone has started writing
Everyone has begun writing their article drafts.
If you are writing a new article, you should have created it and starting outlining it (in your Sandbox or in the article itself); if you are editing an existing article, you should be making more minor edits in the article itself (copyedits, adding citations and other minor changes); if you are adding new sections or changing to order of an existing article (or other larger changes), please work in your Sandbox.
For those working on multiple sections of an article, please keep track of the areas you've been working (this will make it easier for your peer to review the article and know more clearly the work you've done).
- Assignment - Exercise
Practice 'pinging' other users (i.e. your group members)!
- Choose one of the questions in the Thinking about Wikipedia activity to answer (answer it on your user Talk page).
- Let your group members know you answered the question by ‘pinging’ them from your Talk page.
- Respond to one of the ‘pings’ you receive by going to the sender’s Talk page and leaving a follow up comment on their response to the question they answered. [Review the How to Edit training section on how to 'ping' someone here] [These instructions do not work - use these: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template:Reply_to]
- *** The code is: {{reply to�|Username}} Message text. ~~~~
One of the questions under Thinking about Wikipedia asks how Wikipedia defines an 'expert' - read about expert editors here.
Week 9
- Course meetings
-
- Monday, 12 October 2020 | Wednesday, 14 October 2020 | Friday, 16 October 2020
- Read
- 'Ignore all rules: A beginner's guide'
- Week 9 Schedule (Canvas)
https://tulane.instructure.com/courses/2225465/pages/week-9-schedule-10-slash-12-10-slash-18
- Assignment - Continue adding sources to your bibliography + drafting your contributions
There is not a word count, but you should have a couple of paragraphs drafted as a group.
Each group member will also continue to add sources to a shared bibliography page. Create this as another Sandbox, or as a subsection of the Sandbox you're editing it. By the end of Week 9, each group should have 10-15 new potential sources in the bibliography.
Leave a message on the professor's Talk Page with the links for your group bibliography page and draft page; and for each group member's drafting page (where you work on your contributions before adding them to the group draft - this avoids edit conflicts).
- Assignment - How to give your peers feedback
Please leave a peer review for your colleague who you were assigned to review. Be sure to contact the person you're reviewing for if you are unsure where they have been doing their editing. Check the article history and/or talk page, and also their sandbox to see what they've been working on.
In most cases, your review will be of the article as it is and not of new contributions. The goal is to offer suggestions for where the group/group member can focus attention to improve the article. Should there be more sources? Are they out of date? Where are there errors or readbility issues? Do you have suggestions for reorganzing the article? Are there missing citations/uncited sections? All of these are helpful things to address! The reviews do not have to be long or very in-depth; think about what you would want to know and offer the same to your colleagues.
When you have reviewed your peer's article, you should leave a message on their User Talk page (unless your instructor encourages you to do it some other way). Leaving a message on a User Talk page is different than leaving one on the Talk page of their sandbox (remember that every page on Wikipedia has a Talk page), and will notify them (whereas, leaving a note on their sandbox will not).
To find a user's Talk page, go to their Wikipedia User page — something like "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:HistoryBuff34%22. You'll see the Talk link at the top left of the page. Click "New Section" on the Talk page and enter your message. Remember to sign with four tildes! (Ian (Wiki Ed) (talk) 18:42, 14 December 2020 (UTC))
Week 10
- Course meetings
-
- Monday, 19 October 2020 | Wednesday, 21 October 2020 | Friday, 23 October 2020
- Assignment - Peer review ONE article
- Assignment - Exercise
Week 11
- Course meetings
-
- Monday, 26 October 2020 | Wednesday, 28 October 2020 | Friday, 30 October 2020
- Assignment - Respond to your peer review
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. Respond to your peer review in the Sandbox - explain the edits and revisions you will make based on the feedback/input you received.
Resources:
- Editing Wikipedia, pages 12 and 14
- Reach out to your Wikipedia Expert if you have any questions.
- Milestones
Every student has finished reviewing their assigned articles, making sure that every article has been reviewed.
Week 12
- Course meetings
-
- Monday, 2 November 2020 | Wednesday, 4 November 2020 | Friday, 6 November 2020
- Assignment - Revisions based on peer reviews
You should have a good amount of work done on your article: new references, added sections headings, organization improvements, a new paragraph (or several sentences, with references), copy edits, or the start of a new article (if you created one).
If you copied parts of the article into your Sandbox and/or the group Sandbox (to work on or for reference), be sure to indicate what you've worked so you know what you've done and what was already in the article. Once contributions are given the okay, you only want to add in what you've done - do not copy and paste everything over the existing article. If you added a sentence within a paragraph, only paste in the new sentences; if you corrected some errors in your Sandbox or the group Sandbox, have that page open next to the article and make the edits one by one. If you copy and paste a whole paragraph back in, it looks like you erased the previous editors' work. In short: be considerate and conscientious.
The peer reviews will have feedback re: areas where the article needs improvement, though the feedback will probably not address what the group has done. The point of the review is to get some input re: how to further improve the article, and to get another set of eyes on it so the group can continue to make updates where needed.
There is no required word count for individual or group contributions, but these are some basic guidelines to keep in mind:
- for a new article, have a couple of paragraphs sketched out, an organization schema, the info box and at least 5 references.
- for existing articles, have edits that add/address grammar, copyedits, syntax improvement, clarity, additional references and citations, new information, and reorganization. Contribute at least a few sentences of new information based on the sources you're adding.
This is something you should be spending 1-2 hours/week doing, depending on how much you've done up to this point. If you've stayed caught up with everything, you can probably spend less than an hour (find one needed source; write a couple of summary sentences based on a new source); if you've gotten behind, you may need more than 2 hours a week to catch up. Reminder: the goal is always to make the article - and, by extension, Wikipedia - better! If you have any questions about 'doing enough' please ask!
Submit the URL for the page where you have done your edits if you did not already add it to the professor's Talk page.
- Assignment - Continue improving your article / Adding images
Exercise
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. You can continue working in your Sandbox to create any additional content, or you can work live.
Consider media you can create or seek out that could improve your articles (or any others you were interested in).
- Assignment - New media contributions
Add your images, tables, etc to Wikipedia. All images and media that are added to Wikipedia must be under a Creative Commons license (complete the training for more information). Find images using Wikimedia or by doing a Creative Commons search. You can also upload your own original images (photos, maps, charts, tables and other visualizations) after first adding them to Wikimedia and assigning them a Creative Commons license.
Week 13
- Course meetings
-
- Monday, 9 November 2020 | Wednesday, 11 November 2020 | Friday, 13 November 2020
- Assignment - Polish your work
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
- Course meetings
-
- Monday, 16 November 2020 | Wednesday, 18 November 2020 | Friday, 20 November 2020
- Assignment - Final article
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!
Week 15
- Course meetings
-
- Monday, 23 November 2020 | Wednesday, 25 November 2020
- Assignment - You're almost done!
Everyone should have finished all of the work they'll do on Wikipedia, and be ready to have their work reviewed before making it live on Wikipedia! Please submit the following on Canvas:
- Your sandbox link, where you've been working on the article
- Links to your peers' reviews of your work
- A 1-page summary (200-250 words) of where the article needed work when you started, the work you did, how your work improves the article, and what you think the article score/rating should be now - don't hold back! Give yourself the credit you deserve. You've made a free, publically accessible source of knowledge and information better. Your work matters!
Week 16
- Course meetings
-
- Monday, 30 November 2020 | Friday, 4 December 2020
- Assignment - Last chance for article review!
Submit the final version of the article by today! If you submitted earlier and need to make updates or revisions, please submit as well! Message professor on Remind when the draft is updated (no need to submit anything on Canvas if you previously submitted the link to the draft).