Wikipedia:Wiki Ed/Cal Poly Pomona/Freshman Composition - English 110 (Fall 2016)
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- Course name
- Freshman Composition - English 110
- Institution
- Cal Poly Pomona
- Instructor
- Jim Hays
- Wikipedia Expert
- Ian (Wiki Ed)
- Subject
- English
- Course dates
- 2017-01-09 00:00:00 UTC – 2017-03-20 23:59:59 UTC
- Approximate number of student editors
- 25
Students will be expected to do a small assignment this term where they learn about Wikipedia. All students will be expected to take the Wikipedia trainings, critique an article, and make a small contribution to Wikipedia. Please check back here weekly for more information about your assignment.
Timeline
Week 1
- Course meetings
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- Tuesday, 24 January 2017 | Thursday, 26 January 2017
Week 2
- Course meetings
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- Tuesday, 31 January 2017 | Thursday, 2 February 2017
Week 3
- Course meetings
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- Tuesday, 7 February 2017 | Thursday, 9 February 2017
- In class - Introduction to the Wikipedia project
Welcome to your Wikipedia project's course timeline. This page will guide you through the Wikipedia project for your course. Be sure to check with your instructor to see if there are other pages you should be following as well.
Your course has also been assigned a Wikipedia Content Expert. Check your Talk page for notes from them. You can also reach them through the "Get Help" button on this page.
To get started, please review the following handouts:
- Editing Wikipedia pages 1–5
- Evaluating Wikipedia
- Assignment - Practicing the basics
- Create an account and join this course page, using the enrollment link your instructor sent you.
- It's time to dive into Wikipedia. Below, you'll find the first set of online trainings you'll need to take. New modules will appear on this timeline as you get to new milestones. Be sure to check back and complete them! Incomplete trainings will be reflected in your grade.
- When you finish the trainings, practice by introducing yourself to a classmate on that classmate’s Talk page.
Week 4
- Course meetings
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- Tuesday, 14 February 2017 | Thursday, 16 February 2017
- Assignment - Critique an article
It's time to think critically about Wikipedia articles. You should all evaluate the article on Gender Identity or the article about Racism
- Complete the "Evaluating Articles and Sources" training (linked below).
- Consider the following questions as you complete your critique (but don't feel limited to these):
- Is each fact referenced with an appropriate, reliable reference?
- Is everything in the article relevant to the article topic? Is there anything that distracted you?
- Is the article neutral? Are there any claims, or frames, that appear heavily biased toward a particular position?
- Where does the information come from? Are these neutral sources? If biased, is that bias noted?
- Are there viewpoints that are overrepresented, or underrepresented?
- Check a few citations. Do the links work? Is there any close paraphrasing or plagiarism in the article?
- Is any information out of date? Is anything missing that could be added?
- Choose at least 2 questions relevant to the article you're evaluating. Leave your evaluation in your sandbox space and on the article's Talk page. Be sure to sign your feedback with four tildes — Jbhays11019 (talk) 05:11, 20 December 2016 (UTC).
- In class - Discussion
- Why do some instructors say "don't use Wikipedia?"
Don't cite Wikipedia, write Wikipedia!
When your instructors say "don't use Wikipedia" what do they mean? Today in class we will discuss Wikipedia generally and how we use it in our lives, how it relates to research, and more. Pick one of the following questions and come prepared to discuss in class on Thursday.
- Wikipedia is first and foremost an encyclopedia. Why shouldn't we cite encyclopedia's in our research?
- What are the impacts and limits of Wikipedia as a source of information?
- Blog posts and press releases are considered poor sources of reliable information. Why?
- What are some reasons you might not want to use a company's website as the main source of information about that company?
- What is the difference between a copyright violation and plagiarism?
- What are some good techniques to avoid close paraphrasing and plagiarism?
- Does it matter who writes Wikipedia? How can we tell who the authors of content are, or if their work has been peer reviewed or published? How might this information change our view of the content certain Wikipedian's contribute?
- What does it mean to be "unbiased" on Wikipedia? How is that different, or similar, to your own definition of "bias"?
- What do you think of Wikipedia's definition of "neutrality"?
Week 5
- Pick one of the following
For the add to an article project: Create a new section in your sandbox where you draft your contribution. When you're ready, move it live. Leave a comment in your sandbox about why your contribution was valuable.
For the copyedit project: Create a new section in your sandbox and leave a small critique of the article (choosing prompts from the critique an article assignment). Leave a comment highlighting the copyediting you did and why you think it was a valuable improvement.
- Assignment - Add to an article
Familiarize yourself with editing Wikipedia by adding a citation to an article related to the course. There are two ways you can do this:
- Add 1-2 sentences to a course-related article, and cite that statement to a reliable source, as you learned in the online training.
- The Citation Hunt tool shows unreferenced statements from articles. First, evaluate whether the statement in question is true! An uncited statement could just be lacking a reference or it could be inaccurate or misleading. Reliable sources on the subject will help you choose whether to add it or correct the statement.
- Assignment - Copyedit an article
Choose an article. Read through it, thinking about ways to improve the language, such as fixing grammatical mistakes. Then, make the appropriate changes. You don’t need to contribute new information to the article.