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Wikipedia:Wiki Ed/SUNY College at Oneonta/Technical and Professional Writing (Spring 2017)

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Course name
Technical and Professional Writing
Institution
SUNY College at Oneonta
Instructor
Suzanne Black
Wikipedia Expert
Adam (Wiki Ed)
Subject
COMP239
Course dates
2017-01-18 00:00:00 UTC – 2017-05-05 23:59:59 UTC
Approximate number of student editors
23


Coming soon

Timeline

Week 1

Course meetings
Wednesday, 18 January 2017   |   Friday, 20 January 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:


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 2

Course meetings
Monday, 23 January 2017   |   Wednesday, 25 January 2017   |   Friday, 27 January 2017
Assignment - Critique an article

It's time to think critically about Wikipedia articles. You'll evaluate a Wikipedia article, and leave suggestions for improving it on the article's Talk page.

  • Complete the "Evaluating Articles and Sources" training (linked below).
  • Choose an article, and consider some questions (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 on the article's Talk page. Be sure to sign your feedback with four tildes — ~~~~.

Week 3

Course meetings
Monday, 30 January 2017   |   Wednesday, 1 February 2017   |   Friday, 3 February 2017
Assignment - Add to an article

Familiarize yourself with editing Wikipedia by adding a citation to an article. 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.

Week 4

Course meetings
Monday, 6 February 2017   |   Wednesday, 8 February 2017   |   Friday, 10 February 2017
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.

Week 5

Course meetings
Monday, 13 February 2017   |   Wednesday, 15 February 2017   |   Friday, 17 February 2017
Assignment - Illustrate an article

You'll want to find or create an appropriate photo, illustration, or piece of video/audio to add to an article.

  • Before you start, review the Illustrating Wikipedia handbook, or see Editing Wikipedia pages 10–11.
  • When you've reviewed those pages, take the training linked below.
  • When you're ready to start finding images, remember: Never grab images you find through an image search, or those found on Instagram, Tumblr, Reddit, Imgur, or even so-called "Free image" or "free stock photo" websites. Instead, you'll want to find images with clear proof that the creator has given permission to use their work. Many of these images can be found on search.creativecommons.org.
  • Don't just upload an image to Wikipedia. Instead, upload it to Wikipedia's sister site for images, Wikimedia Commons. For instructions, read through the Illustrating Wikipedia handbook.