User:Jmfullerton/Project Page/Week 1

Purpose: Basic background information on what Wikipedia is/is not; connect with Wikipedia Ambassadors; create a user account; choose an article to improve.

Time: Two-weeks with work being accomplished at home

Task: Complete the eight items to gain an understanding of the overall project.

1. Watch Wikipedia: Tutorial is the place to start your work with this wiki
   1. Familiarize yourself with Instructions for Students
   2. If you have any questions check with Help: Contents
2. Next, become a Wikipedian by creating an account
   1. While obtaining an account with Wikipedia is not required to be successful with this project it is recommended
   2. Look over Sections 1-1.3 of Wikipedia's Username policy
   3. This video will give you step-by-step instructions for registering an account, once you have chosen a username.
3. Look over Wikipedia:Wikiquette
   1. Remember that Wikipedia is not a project limited only to our school. We are guests here and we should all behave accordingly. Please try to think what impression you want other Wikipedians to have of our school — and of yourselves.
4. Take a look at the information Wikipedia provides about User pages.
   1. The “Creating a userpage” document will walk you through Wikipedia:Verifiability the steps involved in setting up your userpage.
   2. Review this Wikipedia Cheatsheet as you begin your edits.
   3. Remember NEVER enter personal information about yourself. Think of the userpage as a place to write notes about the project.
5. A sandbox is a great way to experiment in Wikipedia before making live edits to articles.
   1. A sandbox is a sub-page of your userpage that can be used for drafting articles or any other purpose relating to Wikipedia. These pages are not live articles, so they do not have to meet the Wikipedia Manual of Style guidelines.
   2. You can experiment in the main Wikipedia Sandbox.
   3. Or you can create your own sub-page on your userpage. See this tutorial to get started.
6. It is important that you read about the Five Pillars of Wikipedia.
   1. Read at least the introductory sections (and more, if you desire) of the following articles:
      1. Neutral Point of View Policy
      2. No Original Research Policy
      3. Verifiability Policy
7. Some other useful tips: Whenever you are done with an edit and want to save a page, fill out the edit summary box and view a preview of the page after your edit to make sure it looks as you actually want it to look. Only then click the "Save Page" button. You may find the page history tool and watchlist tools to be very useful when you want to check what changes by other editors have been made to the article(s) you are working on.
8. As a team decide on a topic within American government, civics, and economics that you would all like to gain more knowledge about. Then search within Wikipedia for the referenced topic. Once found make sure that the topic either doesn’t have a substantial article already written about it. A topic that is listed on the history stubs page on Wikipedia is a good place to start.