Wikipedia:Wiki Ed/Carleton University/Topics in Cinema and Gender (Fall 2015)
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- Course name
- Topics in Cinema and Gender
- Institution
- Carleton University
- Instructor
- Laura Horak
- Wikipedia Expert
- Adam (Wiki Ed)
- Subject
- Film Studies
- Course dates
- 2015-09-02 00:00:00 UTC – 2015-12-22 23:59:59 UTC
- Approximate number of student editors
- 50
Timeline
Week 1
- Course meetings
-
- Thursday, 3 September 2015
- In class - Wikipedia essentials
- Overview of the course
- Introduction to how Wikipedia will be used in the course
- Understanding Wikipedia as a community, we'll discuss its expectations and etiquette.
Handout: Editing Wikipedia
- Assignment - Practicing the basics
- Create an account and sign up for the Wiki Edu Course Dashboard.
- Complete the online training for students. During this training, you will make edits in a sandbox and learn the basic rules of Wikipedia.
- Create a User page.
- To practice editing and communicating on Wikipedia, introduce yourself to another student on their user talk page.
- Explore Wikipedia entries about film directors, cinematographers, writers, and related jobs to get a feel for how Wikipedia is organized.
Resources: Online Training for Students
Week 2
- Course meetings
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- Thursday, 10 September 2015
- Milestones
By Wednesday, September 9, 5pm, all students have Wikipedia user accounts and are listed on the course page.
- In class - How to find a filmmaker & how to find sources
- Discuss strategies for finding a filmmaker and finding independent sources
- Discuss the most common reasons that new Wikipedia entries get taken down
- In class - Using sources
- Explain close paraphrasing, plagiarism, and copyright violations on Wikipedia.
Handouts: Citing Sources and Avoiding Plagiarism
- Assignment - Find and choose your filmmaker
- Start researching and find some women and transgender filmmakers who either do not appear on Wikipedia or have only a short "stub" entry.
- Once you've decided on a filmmaker, go to the dashboard course page and list the filmmaker's name under the "Students" tab. (Make sure that no one else has already chosen this filmmaker first.)
* Once you've found at least two independent sources, you should submit the following information to cuLearn: your username, the name of your filmmaker, and list the two sources.
You may choose someone from any time period and any country. If you can read a language (or languages) other than English, I encourage you to use sources written in those languages.
Here are some places to look for filmmakers:
- Books about women filmmakers, such as:
- Gwendolyn Audrey Foster, Women Film Directors: An International Bio-Critical Dictionary (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1995)
- Gwendolyn Audrey Foster, Women Filmmakers of the African and Asian Diaspora (Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois University Press, 1997)
- Barbara Quart, Women Directors: The Emergence of a New Cinema (New York: Praeger, 1988)
- Janis L. Pallister and Ruth A. Hottell, Noteworthy Francophone Women Directors: A Sequel (Madison, NJ: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 2011)
- Gabrielle Kelly and Cheryl Robson, Celluloid Ceiling: Women Directors Breaking Through (Twickenham: Supernova Books, 2014)
- Patricia White, Women's Cinema, World Cinema: Projecting Contemporary Feminisms (Durham: Duke University Press, 2015)
- Mary G. Hurd, Women Directors and Their Films (Westport, CT: Praeger, 2007)
- Judith M. Redding and Victoria A. Brownworth, Film Fatales: Independent Women Directors (Seattle: Seal Press, 1997)
- And more!
- Websites about women filmmakers, such as:
- Lists of Wikipedia "stubs":
- List of Wikipedia requested articles
- Make an appointment with the MadOdrum Film Librarian,
carleton.ca Alana Skwarok - Trans filmmakers are harder to find, so you'll have to be creative!
- Assignment - Find and list 2 or more independent sources about your filmmaker
You must find at least two substantial, independent sources written about the filmmaker (and ideally more). Interviews, film festival blurbs, and the filmmaker's own website do not count, although you can use them in addition to the independent sources.
Research tools: * MacOdrum Library * MacOdrum's Film Studies Databases * Wikipedia Resources for Writing about Film * Media History Digital Library * Library and Archives Canada * TIFF Film Reference Library * National Film Board of Canada * Google Scholar * Google News
Remember: All contributions to Wikipedia must be properly cited, just like an academic essay, so keep track of where you get your information! Sources must be both independent and reputable. That means that the subject’s own website is NOT considered a reliable source, nor is IMDB.
If you run in to trouble, make an appointment with the MadOdrum Film Librarian, 
carleton.ca Alana Skwarok
Week 3
- Course meetings
-
- Thursday, 17 September 2015 | Friday, 18 September 2015
- Milestones
All students have started looking for a filmmaker and finding sources about that filmmaker
Week 4
- Course meetings
-
- Thursday, 24 September 2015 | Friday, 25 September 2015
- Milestones
By Wednesday, September 23 at 5pm, all students have posted the following information to cuLearn (under "Assignment"): Their username; the name of their filmmaker, and two or more independent sources on the filmmaker. Students have also signed up to write about their filmmaker on the Dashboard.
- Assignment - Craft the first draft
- Craft a complete first draft of your article, including references, in your sandbox.
- You must add a minimum of 500 new words of prose about your filmmaker. You should also add lists (such as filmography, awards, etc.), but this will not be counted as part of your word count.
- Make sure to include a robust lead paragraph at the beginning of the article. State the person's achievements clearly but dispassionately, so that it doesn't come off as promotional. (This is particularly important with living persons.)
- Use a lot of citations to independent sources so that your page doesn't get taken down.
- I recommend keeping a backup copy of your draft on Word in case you experience technical difficulties (this is very rare, but it happens).
Please use existing Wikipedia headings. Those in bold below are mandatory; others are optional. * Early Life and Education or Biography * Career * Legacy * Filmography * Awards and Nominations (if relevant) * References * Further Reading * External Links
- What I'm looking for when I eventually grade your article: The (as near as possible) Perfect Article
- Wikipedia Policy on Biographies of living persons
- Guidelines for Writing Biographies from Project Biography
- Guidelines for Writing about Filmmakers from WikiProject Actors and Filmmakers
- Assignment - Move article to mainspace
- Move your sandbox article into main space.
- If you are expanding an existing article, copy your edit into the article. If you are making many small edits, save after each edit before you make the next one. Do NOT paste over the entire existing article, or large sections of the existing article.
- If you are creating a new article, do NOT copy and paste your text, or there will be no record of your work history. Follow the instructions in the "Moving out of your sandbox" handout.
- A general reminder: Don't panic if your contribution disappears, and don't try to force it back in.
- Check to see if there is an explanation of the edit on the article's talk page. If not, (politely) ask why it was removed.
- Contact your instructor or Wikipedia Content Expert and let them know.
Handout: Moving out of your Sandbox
- Assignment - Choose articles to peer review
- Select two classmates’ articles that you will peer review and copyedit. On the table at the bottom of this course page, add your username next to the articles you will peer review. (You don’t need to start reviewing yet.)
Week 5
- Course meetings
-
- Thursday, 1 October 2015 | Friday, 2 October 2015
- Milestones
- Every student has posted first drafts to mainspace
- Every student has signed up to review two articles by classmates
- Assignment - Peer review and copyedit
- Peer review two of your classmates’ articles. Leave suggestions on the article talk pages.
- Copy-edit the two reviewed articles.
Week 6
- Course meetings
-
- Thursday, 15 October 2015 | Friday, 16 October 2015
- Milestones
Every student has finished reviewing their assigned articles by Weds, Sept 7.
- Assignment - Respond to peers' feedback
- Make edits to your article based on peers’ feedback. If you disagree with a suggestion, use talk pages to politely discuss and come to a consensus on your edit.
- Assignment - Final article
- Add final touches to your Wikipedia article.
- Make sure that your page links to other pages and that other pages link to yours. List your page on pages like: Canadian film directors, female filmmakers, Indian woman film directors, Hong Kong film directors, Silent film directors, Academy Award winners, Independent Spirit nominees, etc. The goal is to embed these people’s achievements in as many cross-references as possible!
Handout: Polishing your article
- Assignment - Reflection essay
- Write a short essay (~300-500 words) in which you reflect on this assignment. You should answer questions such as:
- What was the most difficult part of the assignment?
- What was the most interesting part of the assignment?
- What did you think of the Wiki Edu Dashboard?
- How could I improve this assignment for next year?
- What was the difference between writing for Wikipedia and the writing you do in most other college assignments?
- What did you learn by doing this assignment?
- Post the essay and a link to the live Wikipedia article to the cuLearn course website under "Assignments."
Week 7
- Course meetings
-
- Thursday, 22 October 2015 | Friday, 23 October 2015
- Milestones
By Wednesday, October 14 at 5pm, students have finished all their work on Wikipedia that will be considered for grading.