Lecture 26: Wiki Work

During today's lecture you'll have MC and Erin in class, ready to answer any questions you might have about the intricacies of creating a Wikipedia article.


As a reminder:

Write a Good Article
Our goal is to produce a Good Article that will be of service to the general Wikipedia community. We need to have a sense of what more needs to be done, and an overall plan for the article. I suggest looking at examples and guidelines (e.g. Manual of Style or the Guide for nominating good articles), as well as reminding yourself of the criteria for a Good Article. I suggest finding an example of a Good Article related to your stub, and follow its structure including its section headings.
Remember:
This Wikipedia article forms part of the e-portfolio which means when you write your blog post ABOUT the writing of your article:

1. Include at least one image
2. Include at least one external link (somewhere out in the WWW – probably to your article)
3. Include at least one reference to a fellow student’s blog post (you must link to the post, i.e. internal link)
4. Be on topic (i.e. related to our class work).
5. Each blog post should be at least two paragraphs but no more than four.

Suggestions and hints

• You will be writing an encyclopedic article that is neutral and verifiable by established facts. You will not be collecting data, analyzing it, or writing about your experiences. You will not be writing an essay with personal opinions or judgments.
• One of the exciting aspects of Wikipedia is its dynamic and communal nature. You are free (and encouraged) to use Wikiepdia's Peer Review to provide feedback on your article before submitting the final copy. It is likely that you will receive messages from editors. Be polite in replying, and don't hesitate to ask them to explain something.
• Avoid simply copying text from a reference. Isolated quotations are okay, but most of time, it is better to use a summary or paraphrase of the quotation that flows better with the rest of your article. See Wikipedia policies on copying and quoting sources.
• Here is a useful Wikipedia page giving general advice for writing good articles.
• Have a read of this Wikipedia Cheatsheet that tells you all the wiki code you need to insert images or bold text etc.: http://webtrends.about.com/gi/o.htm?zi=1/XJ&zTi=1&sdn=webtrends&cdn=compute&tm=15&f=20&su=p284.12.336.ip_p504.1.336.ip_&tt=7&bt=1&bts=1&zu=http%3A//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia%3ACheatsheet

Note: When you register with Wikipedia, it is a good idea to use EITHER your twitter alias or your real name (if you choose) so that the professor and the TAs can track your contributions.

Note on Quality of E-Portfolio and Wikipedia Article Content:

Rating	Characteristics
4	Exceptional. The blog entry is focused and coherently integrates examples with explanations or analysis. The entry demonstrates awareness of its own limitations or implications, and it considers multiple perspectives when appropriate. The entry reflects in-depth engagement with the topic and demonstrates interaction and engagement with lecture content. Appropriate references are included to support arguments. Submitted on time. Wiki: Length: For the purposes of this assignment, a reasonable article will contain 300-600 words, which correspond to 1.5-3 pages of standard double-space text. Content: Neutral and verifiable Uses quotations Uses twitter alias or real name for revision history/marking purposes
3	Satisfactory. The blog entry is reasonably focused, and explanations or analysis are mostly based on examples or other evidence. Fewer connections are made between ideas, and though new insights are offered, they are not fully developed. The entry reflects moderate engagement with the topic and lecture content. Some references are included. Wiki: Length: follows the recommended standard Content: Neutral and verifiable Uses quotations or paraphrases where appropriate Uses twitter alias or real name for revision history/marking purposes
2	Underdeveloped. The blog entry is mostly description or summary, without consideration of alternative perspectives, and few connections are made between ideas. The entry reflects passing engagement with the topic and lectures. Few references are included. Wiki article most copies with a few paraphrases little to no referencing/citations length is insufficient Not a recognisable name/twitter alias
1	Limited. The blog entry is unfocused, or simply rehashes previous comments, and displays no evidence of student engagement with the topic or lectures. Insufficient references to support content. Wiki simply copies text from elsewhere, no references, incorrect length
0	No Credit. The blog entry is missing or consists of one or two disconnected sentences. No referencing. Submitted after the deadline. Wiki - does not follow any of the recommendations for content or length

Wikipedia E-Portfolio Assignment

I have had a few questions from students so let me clarify this assignment a bit more.

The assignment to write on Wikipedia is really to show you how easy it is for anyone to create information there and hence, how unreliable it might be. Remember, in academia we're interested in peer-reviewed scholarly sources (usually!). It also helps you as students to become producers and communicators rather than simply consumers of information. This is something too that you can add to your CV to show how you engage with content (in your field).

BUT the way we will mark the assignment is really focused on the e-portfolio entry. If you look at the wikipedia assignment google doc you will see that the rubric is really geared to the analysis/critical interpretation of your ACT of writing the wikipedia article rather than the article itself. We're more about marking the reflective content rather than the entry. Of course part of the content mark (how focused etc it is) comes from the Wikipedia article you have written too.

This Wikipedia article forms part of the e-portfolio which means when you write your blog post ABOUT the writing of your article:

1. Include at least one image
2. Include at least one external link (somewhere out in the WWW – probably to your article)
3. Include at least one reference to a fellow student’s blog post (you must link to the post, i.e. internal link)
4. Be on topic (i.e. related to our class work).
5. Each blog post should be at least two paragraphs but no more than four.

Note on Quality of E-Portfolio and Wikipedia Article Content:

Rating	Characteristics
4	Exceptional. The blog entry is focused and coherently integrates examples with explanations or analysis. The entry demonstrates awareness of its own limitations or implications, and it considers multiple perspectives when appropriate. The entry reflects in-depth engagement with the topic and demonstrates interaction and engagement with lecture content. Appropriate references are included to support arguments. Submitted on time. Wiki: Length: For the purposes of this assignment, a reasonable article will contain 300-600 words, which correspond to 1.5-3 pages of standard double-space text. Content: Neutral and verifiable Uses quotations Uses twitter alias or real name for revision history/marking purposes
3	Satisfactory. The blog entry is reasonably focused, and explanations or analysis are mostly based on examples or other evidence. Fewer connections are made between ideas, and though new insights are offered, they are not fully developed. The entry reflects moderate engagement with the topic and lecture content. Some references are included. Wiki: Length: follows the recommended standard Content: Neutral and verifiable Uses quotations or paraphrases where appropriate Uses twitter alias or real name for revision history/marking purposes
2	Underdeveloped. The blog entry is mostly description or summary, without consideration of alternative perspectives, and few connections are made between ideas. The entry reflects passing engagement with the topic and lectures. Few references are included. Wiki article most copies with a few paraphrases little to no referencing/citations length is insufficient Not a recognisable name/twitter alias
1	Limited. The blog entry is unfocused, or simply rehashes previous comments, and displays no evidence of student engagement with the topic or lectures. Insufficient references to support content. Wiki simply copies text from elsewhere, no references, incorrect length
0	No Credit. The blog entry is missing or consists of one or two disconnected sentences. No referencing. Submitted after the deadline. Wiki - does not follow any of the recommendations for content or length

Wikipedia Improves Student Writing

I thought you #ALES204 students would be interested in this given our upcoming Wikipedia assignment:

Wikipedia improves students' work

Students become much more concerned with accuracy when their research is posted online

FREDERICTON, May 30 /CNW/ - A student writing an essay for their teacher may be tempted to plagiarize or leave facts unchecked. A new study shows that if you ask that same student to write something that will be posted on Wikipedia, he or she suddenly becomes determined to make the work as accurate as possible, and may actually do better research.

Brenna Gray, Image from Douglas College. 

Brenna Gray, an instructor at Douglas College in New Westminster, B.C., was presenting the results of the study at the 2011 Congress of the Canadian Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences at the University of New Brunswick in Fredericton.

She became interested in why students seem to adopt some technological innovations (Wikipedia, for example) and reject things their schools would like them to use, such as the student-teacher interface Blackboard. Gray says it's easy to criticize Wikipedia because of the unstructured way it is set up.

She says despite its faults, it does promote solid values for its writers, including precise citations, accurate research, editing and revision.

"Those ideals are the ones we espouse as English instructors," she said.

She decided to get first-year students in an English class to write short biographies of Canadian writers that would then be posted on Wikipedia.

What she found was that the moment the students realized their work was going public in a forum over which they had no control, they took the work a lot more seriously. They became concerned, for example, with the accuracy of facts.

Gray says it's not only the fact that their work was going public that stimulated the students, it was the realization that in producing the Wikipedia entries they were acquiring skills that were transferable to other parts of their lives.