User:1013-josh/homework

What We Covered in Class

Wednesday, April 11

Discussion about public spaces. Field trip to a "commons" area on campus. History of the idea of the "Commons." What are public spaces? How are they organized? Who sets the rules for how public spaces function and what activities are acceptable? How do individuals use public spaces according to those rules (or not)? How does this relate to the movie we watched last week (Style Wars)? How does this relate to the concept of discourse? Can Wikipedia be thought of us a public space?

Friday, April 13

Introduction to Wikipedia. Setting up a user account. Overview of the assignment. Introduction to your user page and your talk page. Making edits to your talk page. Selecting a research topic. Potential research topics are archived here.

Monday, April 16

We talked about how to follow discussions on talk pages, how to read page histories, and how to use your watchlist to follow conversations and page revisions on Wikipedia. We also talked about marking your edits as minor edits when appropriate and using the edit summary box to summarize your action so that your summary shows up in the page history and on watchlists. Follow the links for a refresher course or ask questions on my talk page. We also talked about these formatting tools:

How to Link to Wiki Articles (Internal Link)

[[Minneapolis, Minnesota]] produces this: Minneapolis, Minnesota
[[Minneapolis, Minnesota|my hometown]] produces this (which is a link to the same article): my hometown
Make sure you use the exact spelling and exact punctuation to produce a working link. Links to existing articles will be blue. Links to non-existing articles will be red.
Be careful to link to the right article. For example, Lake Street is a disambiguation page. It is better to link to Lake Street (Minneapolis). Click the two links to see what I mean. (Remember that you can still have your Lake Street (Minneapolis) link show up as Lake Street if you follow the my hometown example above.)
Note: two brackets, not one.
Note the vertical line used to separate the page title from what you want the link to say. You can find that line near the "enter" button on your keyboard.
The button on your formatting toolbar that produces an internal link looks like "Ab," underlined.

How to Link to Websites (External Link)

[http://www.umn.edu] produces this: [1]
[http://www.umn.edu University of Minnesota website] produces this: University of Minnesota website
Note: one bracket, not two.
Note: There is no vertical line in this example, just a space between the http link and what you want the link to say.
The button on your formatting toolbar that produces an external link looks like a globe.

How to Make a List

To make a list with bullets (like this one), use a new line for each item, with an asterisk (*) and a space at the beginning of each line.
To make a numbered list, use a new line for each item, with a pound sign (#) and a space at the beginning of each line.

How to Indent Text

On talk pages, it is customary to indent a response by beginning the new paragraph with a colon (:). You can produce a double or triple indent by using more colons (:: or :::).

An indented line looks like this.

A double-indented line looks like this.

A triple-indented line looks like this.

You can also indent text using the blockquote tags. Put <blockquote> at the beginning of the text and </blockquote> at the end. You can also do this by highlighting the text and using the button on your formatting toolbar that looks like a paragraph of text. Sometimes it looks good to use the blockquote tags with a bulleted list. Blockquoting makes the text slightly smaller on most web browsers.

A blockquoted line looks like this.

Other Formatting

Use the formatting toolbar to bold text, or do it manually by typing '''bold''' (three apostrophes on each side), which produces bold.
Use the formatting toolbar to italicize text, or do it manually by typing ''italics'' (two apostrophes on each side), which produces italics.
To break a line or produce a new paragraph use the "line break" formatting button, which looks like an arrow, or type <br>.

Wednesday, April 18

Assigned reading: Wikipedia:Researching with Wikipedia and Wikipedia:Attribution. Discussion about research strategies. What is a Wikipedia article and how does it differ from a normal research paper? Scope, organization, style. Review the neutrality guidelines at Neutral Point of View (NPOV). How do you evaluate sources for a research paper? Find multiple, independent sources, and evaluate the quality and authority of your sources. Know the difference between primary, secondary, and tertiary sources. Wikipedia:Reliable sources is a good article on this topic. Where do you find sources? Well, glad you asked...

Helpful Links:

Use the University of Minnesota Library catalog. This should be your first stop. There's nothing like a good old-fashioned book.
Search the indexes and databases at the U of M library. You can browse the indexes alphabetically or by subject area. Some indexes are more useful than others, depending on the field you are interested in. Many of them will help you search academic and professional journals. If you find a journal article you're interested in, check the library catalog to see if the library has it. (Usually, it will be in the basement of Wilson.) If not, ask a reference librarian how to order a copy of the article.
One of the best indexes available to University students is LexisNexis Academic, which has full text search capabilities for most of the major newspapers, as well as legal news and medical news.
ProQuest is another good newspaper search. Here's the link to the New York Times for the last 150 years.
Yet another thing from the U of M library: Where to find statistics.
If the U of M library doesn't have it, maybe Minneapolis Public Library does.
Use Google. Be familiar with search engine strategies. One amazing trick that often digs up interesting stuff is the "Domain Search," i.e. using Google to look for keywords only on one particular website. In fact, Google searches Wikipedia better than Wikipedia searches itself. Very helpful for looking for information buried at government and organizational websites. Follow this link for instructions.
Google Scholar is good for searching academic and professional journals. Some articles available as full text. Others will be at the U of M library.
Look at similar Wikipedia articles for their sources. Use the What links here function to find related articles.
Use the Wikipedia:Reference desk. You can ask questions here, and they will be answered by little Wiki creatures that live in the Wiki caves. (You can also ask a reference librarian at an old-fashioned brick library.)
Check out the "R" tab in your Hacker Handbook for good ideas.
Walk through the U of M Library's Research Tutorial.
Ask your colleagues. Ask me. Send emails to experts. Call organizations on the phone.

Friday, April 20

We didn't cover any new ground in class today, just problem-solving any research difficulties.

Here's a little tutorial on using Google:

Learn how to use search operators to limit your searches at Google and Lexis-Nexis. For example, Precious is writing on the O'Hare neighborhood of Chicago. If she types chicago o'hare into Google or Lexis-Nexis, she's going to be swamped with information about the O'Hare International Airport. So she could limit her search by typing chicago o'hare -airport. That will give her articles where the first two keywords appear but not the third. (Note: Google does this with the minus sign. Some search engines do it with the word NOT instead, i.e. chicago o'hare NOT airport.) But that may not be entirely helpful because it's going to hide articles that are primarily about the neighborhood but that happen to mention the airport (which most articles about the neighborhood will do). So then she could try "o'hare neighborhood" in quotation marks. Google will look for the exact phrase "O'Hare neighborhood," so a page that starts "The O'Hare neighborhood is more than an airport" will show up (yay!). But a page that doesn't include the exact phrase "O'Hare neighborhood" will not. Then she can look at the results. Is she getting too much extraneous information about shopping or real estate near O'Hare? Try "o'hare neighborhood" -shopping -estate. Is she not finding enough about the history? Get creative with what you're looking for. Try o'hare "named after" or "o'hare neighborhood" architecture or o'hare neighborhood boundaries. For most research papers I write, I end up trying hundreds of google searches to dig up information. It's all about learning to think like a search engine.

Monday, April 23

We talked about the rough draft due on Friday, April 27. What to include in the article. How to format it. You should familiarize yourself with standard formatting of footnotes (Hacker CMS-4c) and bibliography entries (Hacker MLA-4b) in the "offline" world. Then you can translate that formatting to Wikipedia, following the model I've provided. Sample formatting is at user:1013-josh/draft.

Wednesday, April 25

Today we had a grammar lesson and we worked toward the rough draft due Friday. Keep pushing forward on your rough draft, and if you have any problems, holler.

Archived Homework Assignments

Project Guidelines

Write a 1500- to 2000-word article on Wikipedia. Your article must meet three basic criteria:

It must be a new article on a subject not yet entered into the database or a revision of a stub article that is 200 words or less.
It must be related in some way to the course theme of "nature and environment."
It must meet Wikipedia’s standard of notability.

Good research topics may include individuals and groups in fields related to nature and the environment; environmental legislation and/or court cases; the physical and cultural geography of neighborhoods, watersheds, and other local places; etc. Give serious thought to choosing your topic. It’s the most important decision you will make in this unit. Can you write 1500-2000 words on this subject, filled with relevant facts, no filler? Will you be able to find authoritative sources, offline and online?

The final draft of your article will include content contributed by your colleagues, and your grade will be a reflection of the process, rather than simply a judgment on the outcome. See the print version of these guidelines for more information. (And, of course, your "final draft" will not be final at all, as it will continue to be edited by other Wikipedia users.)

Please review the grading criteria here.

Monday, April 16: Research proposal due.
Monday, April 23: First 300-500 words of your “Working Draft” due, plus bibliography.
Friday, April 27: Rough Draft due, 1000 words + outline.
Friday, May 4: Last day of class. Last day of “workshop,” i.e. last day to contribute edits to your colleagues’ papers.
Wednesday, May 9: Final Draft due at midnight, 1500-2000 words.
Wednesday, May 9: Reflection Essay due at midnight, 2 to 3 pages.

Homework: Monday, April 16

Select a research topic. Be sure to pick a topic that meets all three criteria. Also, pick a topic that is feasible to research in a short amount of time. Remember, you have only a week before your first 500 words are due, and a full draft is due shortly after that!
Go to your talk page by logging into Wikipedia and clicking "my talk" in the top right corner of the screen, and click "edit this page" to open the editing window.
You should see a heading called “My Project.” Below that heading, write one paragraph describing your proposed project. State the exact title of the article you will create, and explain why your subject deserves a 1500+ word article in Wikipedia.
List the exact titles of five Wikipedia articles that you could use as a model for your article. (For example, if you were writing an entry on Jaws (film), you could follow the model of E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial.)
List the exact titles of five Wikipedia articles that you will consider linking from your entry. (For example, if you were writing an entry on Jaws (film), you could link to Steven Spielberg.)
Remember to hit the "Save page" button so that your edits are saved to your talk page.

Homework: Wednesday, April 18

Add at least one sentence to the Wikipedia article for the movie you wrote your last paper about. When you are finished, remember to “turn in your homework.” When you do so, please provide a properly formatted wiki link to the article you changed.
Read: Wikipedia:Researching_with_Wikipedia
Read: Wikipedia:Attribution

Homework: Friday, April 20

Read: Hacker Handbook, Commas, P1+P2
Forget about the Wikipedia assignment on the print syllabus. I'm cutting it so that you have less busywork. Yay for less busywork!
Important. Do you consent to continue in this project? Two things you should think about: (1) Copyright. When you write and edit articles on Wikipedia, you are relinquishing your copyright and putting your work into the public domain (under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License). Other people may take your words, copy them, modify them, and distribute them elsewhere. Are you okay with giving up the copyright to your work? (2) Privacy. When you write and edit articles on Wikipedia you are pseudonymous but you are not anonymous. Your activities can be traced by your user id, and it is possible that someone could trace your user id to your actual identity. I want you to be aware of these two concerns, and I want to emphasize that I am not requiring you to participate in this project. If you consent to continue in the project, please sign a note to this effect under the "Homework" section of your talk page. If you don't consent, leave a note there or send me an email. You are free to opt out of this project, and I will provide an alternate research assignment.
We will have a Gramm-a-rama! presentation on Friday from Brendan, Andrew T, David, & Nqua.
Get started on your research project! 300-500 words + bibliography due Monday! 1000 words + outline of unfinished sections due next Friday! Check out notes from Wednesday's class for good research tips, including links to databases like LexisNexis.

Homework: Monday, April 23

Read: Wikipedia:Citing sources and Wikipedia:Footnotes
Go to the box at the top of this page (or your own talk page). Find your name, and then click the link below it that says "project draft page." That should take you to a page called "User:1013-yourname/draft." You can begin working on your project there. You can use that page however you want. Keep notes, draft sections of your article, etc.
You are also going to use that page to turn in your "Working Draft" for the assignment due today. First, create a heading called "Working Draft." (Remember, you can make a heading with the button on the formatting toolbar or by typing ==Working Draft==.)
Beneath that heading, write the first 300-500 words of your research paper. That's equivalent to about one-and-a-half pages in the offline world. You can write more if you like. I want to see that you are started on the project and that you're heading in the right direction. You do not have to cite any sources within this first 300-500 words, although you may choose to do so if appropriate.
Create another heading called "Bibliography." Here I want you to make a list of the sources you've found and that you plan to consult for your research paper. I'm looking for multiple, independent sources of high quality. Standard bibliography format can be found in Hacker MLA-4b, although for now I'm not concerned about formatting. Just get the relevant information down there (author, title, publication information, etc.) and we'll worry about formatting later.
If you have questions about sources or want to make notes for yourself about research leads you plan to pursue, this would be a good place to do that, as well.
You may want to review my list of research links and check out the Google tutorial I wrote up.
Sign your homework over at your talk page under the "Homework" section, with a link to the project draft page where I can see evidence of your work.
I would also encourage you to stop by your user page (not your user talk page), delete the note I left, and put something of your own up there. As we continue with this project, you may have Wikipedia users visiting your user page to see who you are. You could write something as simple as. "Hi, I'm new here. I'm working on a project for [[user talk:1013-josh|my composition class]]. Feel free to leave me a note on my talk page." Or you could do something else with it. If you don't want to have anything on your user page, I would suggest that you set it up to automatically redirect to your user talk page. The way you do that is by editing it and typing #REDIRECT [[User talk:1013-yourname]] at the top of the page. Whenever anyone visits your user page, they will be redirected to your talk page.

Homework: Wednesday, April 25

Read Hacker Handbook, Colons, Semicolons, Parentheses and Dashes, P3 + P4, P7d-e.
We will have a Gramm-a-rama! presentation from Alex, Christi, Shae, and Dan.
Keep working on research. Get started on Friday's assignment.
Nothing to sign today.

Homework: Friday, April 27

Your rough draft (1000+ words) is due today on your project draft page. It should be organized into paragraphs of a readable length, and it should be divided into sections and subsections as appropriate.
Include an outline of other sections where you plan to do more research.
If there is already an existing Wikipedia stub on your subject, remember to include text and formatting from that stub as appropriate. That stub represents the hard work of another Wikipedia user, and you should respect their work.
In most cases, your article should be fully documented in ALL five of these ways: (1) Links in body text, (2) footnotes, (3) references, (4) a "see also" section, and an (5) "external links" section.
Before you get started with your formatting, I recommend you read user:1013-josh/draft for a model article.

1. Links in Body Text

Add internal links to other Wikipedia articles as appropriate, following the class notes from April 16.
Be sure that your link points to the most appropriate article. For example, if you were writing about the Black Hills, the link Native Americans would be a better choice than Native Americans. (Click the links to see how they differ.)
You may also occasionally add links to outside sources as external links in the body text, following the class notes from April 16. However, it is more often appropriate to use the footnotes, references, or "see also" sections for outside links.

2. Footnotes

Add footnotes to your working draft, following the example at user:1013-josh/draft. You will see many other methods of citation on Wikipedia, but the method I am teaching represents Wikipedia's most current practice, so please follow these guidelines.
Footnotes should be formatted according to CMS-4c.
Add a "Footnotes" header at the bottom of the page and put the <references/> tag there, again following the example at user:1013-josh/draft. You will see that your footnotes automatically appear.

3. References

Add a separate "References" header below the "Footnotes" header. In this section, list all your sources in alphabetical order. (This should include sources used in footnotes, as well as general sources for the article that you do not cite in footnotes.)
Sources should be listed according to the models in Hacker MLA-4b. You should provide bibliographic information in an "offline" style whenever possible. For example, do not link to the Lexis-Nexis page of a newspaper article. Instead, cite the newspaper article according to MLA-4b-23, e.g., Murphy, Sean P. "Decisions on Status of Tribes Draw Fire." Boston Globe 27 Mar. 2001: A2.
Online sources, such as websites, should be cited according to MLA-4b-27, 28.
After you have provided bibliographic information in an "offline" style, you may add hyperlinks as appropriate, but remember, only link to websites that are publicly accessible. You have to log in to your umn account to access library databases such as Lexis-Nexis, and those pages will not be accessible to general internet users.

4. See Also Section

Add a "See Also" header below the "References" header. In this section, you may include links to related articles on Wikipedia.
These do not need to be in bibliographic style. In most cases, a simple bulleted list is fine. Link to Wikipedia articles with an internal link to the exact article title.

5. External Links Section

Link to outside sources by typing a description of what you are linking to, such as CNN Website.
Note that in class I originally told you these belong in the See Also section. I was wrong. The Wikipedia Layout Guide calls for a separate External Links section.

Do not move your article over to the mainspace yet. We will do that in class together.
Remember to sign your homework on your talk page and provide a link to your draft page.

In class on Friday, April 27

Be sure that you are logged in.
Copy your project draft to Wikipedia’s main space. (I’m going to walk you through this.)
Add your article page and the pages of your group members to your watchlist. (This will also add the associated talk pages.)
Add your user page, my user page, and the user pages of your group members to your watchlist. (This will also add the associated talk pages.)
Review Help:Page history, Help:Edit summary, and Help:Watching pages. Do you know what a diff is and how it works? You’re going to want to keep a close eye on your group’s articles over the next week, so if you have any questions about how to make sense of the page histories or your watchlist, please ask me.
Discuss the workshop plan with your group members.

Workshop Week: Friday, April 27, to Friday, May 4

Over the next week, we are going to be “workshopping” the rough drafts of your Wikipedia articles. You have two general responsibilities: (1) Participate in workshop discussion about the four articles drafted by members of your group, and (2) contribute your own writing and editing to all four articles.

Workshop Discussion

Discussion will take place in the Workshop section of your user talk pages. You will also have time to discuss the articles in class. The first step is to read your colleagues' work and write a brief note about each article on the user talk page of its “author” (one or two paragraphs is fine to start the conversation). What are the article’s strengths? What is most useful about the content and the way it’s organized? What questions does the article leave you with? What more do you want to learn? How could the article be improved? How are you going to help? On your own user talk page, you can post questions you have about your own article and ask for feedback in specific areas.

I would like you to get the conversation rolling over the weekend and continue it through next week. Help one another out with good, useful feedback and thoughtful questions about the articles. You may also find Wikipedia users dropping by to offer comments.

Writing/Editing Articles

Rule One: Always be logged in when you make changes.

Rule Two: Always provide a summary in the edit summary box. Most of you have not been using the edit summary box, but now it’s time to start.

Rule Three: Use the show preview button. Saving the same article a large number of times in quick succession makes it harder for people to check what changed, and clogs up the page history.

As a group, your responsibility is to make all four articles the best they can be by next Friday. You can split up the workload however you like. Maybe somebody wants to be in charge of fixing grammar and spelling. Maybe somebody else wants to be in charge of formatting the footnotes and references. Maybe you want to do more research on a colleague's article, writing a new section for her, while she writes a new section for you. You can reorganize your colleagues’ articles. You can revise their sentences. You can add or delete content (respectfully). Think of yourselves as a collective authorship working to make all four articles better. If other Wikipedia users stop by to make their own revisions or add their own content, that’s fine too. Be kind. Be helpful. Be respectful. Be bold. This may be a messy process, so don’t panic if anything goes awry. Remember, anything done to an article can be undone by looking at the page history. Use the talk pages and the edit summary boxes to communicate with your colleagues and other Wikipedia users about the revisions you make to the articles. Ask me for help as questions or problems arise.

Checklist: What you can do to make your group’s articles better

Generate new content. Identify relevant information that’s missing. Go out and find it.
Ask questions about content that seems irrelevant or unnecessary. Should it be cut?
Revise to make sure your Wikipedia article stands the test of time. Does it include information about current events that will soon be outdated? Does it feel like an entry that belongs in an encyclopedia?
Revise for proper formatting of the Footnotes, References, See Also, and External Links sections.
Improve the quality, depth, and authority of the article's sources.
Reorganize the article content (moving paragraphs, sentences, sections headings).
Reformat the article layout. (See Wikipedia:Guide to layout).
Improve the lead section.
Revise the article for a cleaner, more elegant prose style.
Revise for a formal, encyclopedic tone.
Revise for grammar and spelling errors.
Revise for Wikipedia style. See Wikipedia:Manual of Style.
Revise for neutral point of view.
Eliminate weasel words and peacock terms.
Find similar articles and see what Wikipedia categories they belong to. Place category tags on the new article. (For a simple explanation of category tags, see Alex's and Shannon's question at Questions for Josh?)
Add wikilinks to the article. Remove wikilinks that seem excessive. (See: Wikipedia:Only make links that are relevant to the context.) Note: Only the first instance of a word should be wikilinked.
Build the web! Find related articles on Wikipedia and revise those articles so that they include a wikilink to the article you’re working on.
Work toward the perfect article.
See also Wikipedia:Guide to writing better articles.

About Images

You can also add images to your articles. If there is already an image on Wikipedia, it's relatively easy:

STEP ONE: Find an image on Wikipedia. The article Wikipedia:Wikimedia Commons explains how to search the Wikimedia Commons for images and how to link them into articles.
STEP TWO: See Wikipedia:Picture tutorial for instructions on how to place the image on your page.

If there's not an image on Wikipedia yet, then it's more difficult process:

STEP THREE: Find an image that meets Wikipedia's Wikipedia:Image use policy. You can't just grab any image you find on Google. It has to be in the public domain or created under a commons license, or you have to provide a fair use rationale. Start with this tutorial.
STEP FOUR: Upload the image to Wikipedia.
STEP FIVE: Use the image description page to describe the image and its copyright status.
STEP SIX: Tag it with an image copyright tag.
Go back to STEP TWO to place the image on your page.

For an overview of images, see Wikipedia:Images, and for detailed technical information, see Help:Image.

Homework for Workshop Week

Throughout the week, keep a log in the Participation section on your talk page in which you record your contributions to your colleagues’ articles. Be sure that this record fully and accurately reflects your work. Be specific in describing the changes you make and give me a sense of how large or small they are. A sample log might look like this:

Revised John’s article for neutral point of view and Wikipedia style (your signature)
Found two images for Jennifer’s article and posted them (your signature)
Fixed minor typos in Doug’s article (your signature)
Added two paragraphs about the city’s early history to Doug’s article (your signature)
Tightened Jennifer’s introduction paragraph and reorganized some of the sections at the end (your signature)
Added three sentences to John’s article (your signature)
Added wikilinks to Jennifer’s article and added a footnote(your signature)
Found some websites and three newspaper articles relates to Doug’s article and sent them to him (your signature)

Participating in “workshop” discussions and revising/editing your colleagues’ articles is your only homework for the week. Please review the grading criteria to understand how your participation in workshop week is reflected in your portfolio score.

Final Revisions: Friday, May 4 to Thursday, May 10

The “workshop” ends Friday, and then you have another five days to make final revisions.

I suggest you do these two things on May 4:

Post a note at Wikipedia:Requests for feedback, where you can ask the Wikipedia community for more feedback on your article and invite them to make further changes.
Look for associated WikiProjects who may also be able to give you guidance. There are groups of Wikipedia editors who have organized themselves to work on topics in certain areas. Visit these projects and post a note to let them know what you’re working on and to ask for their help. Every project works a little differently, so you'll want to check out the project page to see how things work there, but in general you can talk to project members by hitting the "discussion" tab, scrolling down to the bottom of the talk page, and posting a question or comment. Remember to add the project page to your watchlist, so you can see if someone responds. Check out: Wikipedia:WikiProject Minnesota, Wikipedia:WikiProject Wisconsin, Wikipedia:WikiProject North Dakota, Wikipedia:WikiProject Chicago, Wikipedia:WikiProject Environment, and Wikipedia:WikiProject Ecology. Other projects can be found by searching the directory at Wikipedia:WikiProject Council/Directory.

Your colleagues and other Wikipedia editors may help you along the way, but at the end of the term, you are responsible for making sure that your article meets the guidelines (1500-2000 words) and that it is as strong as it can be. When you’re finished, sign a note in the homework section of your talk page letting me know that you like me to consider the current version as the final draft. Due by noon Central Time on Thursday, May 10, and you MUST sign your homework by that time. Please review the grading criteria.

The other part of your final portfolio is a 2 to 3 page reflective essay on your experience with Wikipedia. See the guidelines here. Your essay is due at the same time as your final draft. Please put a hard copy in my mail slot at 330-B and make sure that my name is on there so that it gets to me. (If you must send it by email because you will be leaving town, make sure it's a format I can open (rtf, doc, txt, pdf), and send it several hours before the deadline so that I can confirm it was received.)

That’s it! Hope it was fun. Hope you learned a few things. Have a good summer.