Wikipedia:Wiki Ed/James Madison University/Critical Reading and Writing (Spring 2016)
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- Course name
- Critical Reading and Writing
- Institution
- James Madison University
- Instructor
- Kurt Schick
- Wikipedia Expert
- Adam (Wiki Ed)
- Subject
- WRTC
- Course dates
- 2016-01-04 – 2016-05-02
- Approximate number of student editors
- 22
Critical Reading & Writing fosters reflective, critical reading, writing, and research in public discourse, culture, humanities, technology, and science. The course challenges students to consider cross-disciplinary modes of inquiry through multiple genres with an attention to enlightened, global citizenship. Instruction will emphasize revising for rhetorical effectiveness.
Objectives: After completing the course, students should be able to: - Demonstrate an awareness of rhetorical knowledge, which may include the ability to analyze and act on understandings of audiences, purposes and contexts in creating and comprehending texts. - Employ critical thinking, which includes the ability, through reading, research and writing, to analyze a situation or text and make thoughtful decisions based on that analysis. - Employ writing processes. - Demonstrate an awareness of conventions, the formal and informal guidelines that define what is considered to be correct and appropriate in a variety of texts. - Compose in multiple environments using traditional and digital technologies.
Framework: I normally teach this course as an introduction to public and scholarly argumentation. The problem with this approach is that effective public and scholarly arguments are usually written by experts, not novices. So, this semester, we’re going to become experts (to the extent we can do so in one semester) on Wikipedia.
We’ll begin by reading about Wikipedia, then analyze Wikipedia articles, and then practice writing for Wikipedia. These activities will give you plenty of practice with the course objectives stated above, including critical reading and analysis, research, drafting and revising, and using digital technologies. But this will also enable you, at the end of the course, to write an argument about some aspect of Wikipedia—not as a novice, but as a developing expert.
Timeline
Week 1
- Course meetings
-
- Monday, 1 February 2016 | Wednesday, 3 February 2016 | Friday, 5 February 2016
- Assignment - Practicing the basics
- Create an account and join this course page.
- Complete the introductory training modules. 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.
- Milestones
All students have Wikipedia user accounts and are listed on the course page.
Week 2
- Course meetings
-
- Monday, 8 February 2016 | Wednesday, 10 February 2016 | Friday, 12 February 2016
- In class - Editing basics
- Basics of editing
- Collaborating and engaging with the Wiki editing community
Handouts: Using Talk Pages, Editing Wikipedia
- Assignment - Copyedit an Article
- Choose one article, identify ways in which you can improve and correct its language and grammar, and make the appropriate changes. (You do not need to alter the article's content.)
Week 3
- Course meetings
-
- Monday, 15 February 2016 | Wednesday, 17 February 2016 | Friday, 19 February 2016
- In class - Exploring the topic area
- Be prepared to discuss some of your observations about Wikipedia articles in your topic area that are missing or could use improvement.
Handouts: Choosing an article
Week 4
- Course meetings
-
- Monday, 22 February 2016 | Wednesday, 24 February 2016 | Friday, 26 February 2016
- In class - Using sources
- Be prepared to explain close paraphrasing, plagiarism, and copyright violations on Wikipedia.
Handouts: Citing Sources and Avoiding Plagiarism
Supplementary training: [[../../../training/students/sources|Sources and Citations
]]
- Assignment - Add to an article
- Add 1–2 sentences of new information, backed up with a citation to an appropriate source, to a Wikipedia article related to the class.
- Assignment - Choosing your article
- Your instructor has created a list of potential topics for your main project. Choose the one you will work on.
- Compile a bibliography of relevant, reliable sources and post it to the talk page of the article you are working on. Begin reading the sources. Make sure to check in on the talk page (or watchlist) to see if anyone has advice on your bibliography.
Week 5
- Course meetings
-
- Monday, 29 February 2016 | Wednesday, 2 March 2016 | Friday, 4 March 2016
- In class - Discuss the article topics
- Discuss the topics students will be working on, and determine strategies for researching and writing about them.
Supplementary training: [[../../../training/students/sandboxes|Sandboxes and Mainspace]]
- Assignment - Drafting starter articles
- If you are starting a new article, write a 3–4 paragraph summary version of your article—with citations—in your Wikipedia sandbox. If you are improving an existing article, create a detailed outline reflecting your proposed changes, and post this for community feedback, along with a brief description of your plans, on the article’s talk page. Make sure to check back on the talk page often and engage with any responses.
- Begin working with classmates and other editors to polish your short starter article and fix any major issues.
- Continue research in preparation for expanding your article.
Week 6
- Course meetings
-
- Tuesday, 8 March 2016
- In class - Wikipedia culture and etiquette
- Talk about Wikipedia culture and etiquette, and (optionally) revisit the concept of sandboxes and how to use them.
- Q&A session with instructor about interacting on Wikipedia and getting started with writing.
- Milestones
All students have started editing articles or drafts on Wikipedia.
Week 7
- Course meetings
-
- Monday, 14 March 2016 | Wednesday, 16 March 2016 | Friday, 18 March 2016
- In class - Moving articles to mainspace
- We'll discuss moving your article out of your sandboxes and into Wikipedia's main space.
- 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 - Moving articles to mainspace
- Move your sandbox articles 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.
- Begin expanding your article into a comprehensive treatment of the topic.
Week 8
- Course meetings
-
- Monday, 21 March 2016 | Wednesday, 23 March 2016 | Friday, 25 March 2016
- In class - Building articles
- Demo uploading images and adding images to articles.
- Share experiences and discuss problems.
Resources: Illustrating Wikipedia and Evaluating Wikipedia
- 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 9
- Course meetings
-
- Monday, 28 March 2016 | Wednesday, 30 March 2016 | Friday, 1 April 2016
- Assignment - Complete first draft
- Expand your article into a complete first draft.
Week 10
- Course meetings
-
- Monday, 4 April 2016 | Wednesday, 6 April 2016 | Friday, 8 April 2016
- In class - Group suggestions
- As a group, offer suggestions for improving one or two other students' articles, based on your ideas of what makes a solid encyclopedia article.
Supplementary training: [[../../../training/students/peer-review|Peer Review]]
- 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.
- Milestones
Every student has finished reviewing their assigned articles, making sure that every article has been reviewed.
Week 11
- Course meetings
-
- Monday, 11 April 2016 | Wednesday, 13 April 2016 | Friday, 15 April 2016
- In class - Media literacy discussion
- Open discussion of the concepts of neutrality, media literacy, and the impact and limits of Wikipedia.
- Assignment - Address peer review suggestions
- 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.
Week 12
- In class - Discuss further article improvements
- Continue discussing how the articles can be further improved. Come up with improvement goals for each article for next week.
- Assignment - Continue improving articles
- Return to your classmates' articles you previously reviewed, and provide more suggestions for further improvement. If there is a disagreement, suggest a compromise.
- Do additional research and writing to make further improvements to your article, based on your classmates' suggestions and any additional areas for improvement you can identify.
- Assignment - Prepare for in-class presentation
- Prepare for an in-class presentation about your Wikipedia editing experience.
Week 13
- In class - In-class presentation
- Prepare for an in-class presentation about your Wikipedia editing experience.
- Assignment - Final article
- Add final touches to your Wikipedia article.
Handout: Polishing your article
- Assignment - Reflective essay
- Write a reflective essay (2–5 pages) on your Wikipedia contributions.
- Assignment - Wikipedia portfolio
- Put together a Wikipedia portfolio.
- Assignment - Original analytical paper
- Write a paper going beyond your Wikipedia article to advance your own ideas, arguments, and original research about your topic.
Week 14
- Milestones
Students have finished all their work on Wikipedia that will be considered for grading.