Wikipedia:Wiki Ed/Vanderbilt University/States and their Secrets (fall 2022)

Milestones

This week, everyone should have a Wikipedia account.

Assignment - Get started on Wikipedia

Create an account and join this course page, using the enrollment link your instructor sent you. (Because of Wikipedia's technical restraints, you may receive a message that you cannot create an account. To resolve this, please try again off campus or the next day.)

In class - Introduction to the Wikipedia assignment

Welcome to your Wikipedia assignment's course timeline. This page guides you through the steps you'll need to complete for your Wikipedia assignment, with links to training modules and your classmates' work spaces.

Your course has been assigned a Wikipedia Expert. You can reach them through the Get Help button at the top of this page.

Resources:

• Editing Wikipedia, pages 1–5
• Evaluating Wikipedia

In class - Discussion

Thinking about sources and plagiarism

Assignment - Exercise

Choose your topic / Find your sources

In class - Discussion

What's a content gap?

Guide(s) for writing articles in your topic area

Cultural Anthropology

History

Political Science

Assignment - Evaluate Wikipedia

Out of respect for fall break, the "Evaluate an Article" assignment is now due by October 19.

Milestones

Each group collectively produces a bibliography of 20 sources. The Wikipedia article writer publishes these to a Wikipedia talk page.

In class - Discussion

Thinking about Wikipedia

Assignment - Start drafting your contributions

Resource: Editing Wikipedia, pages 7–9

Milestones

Everyone has begun writing their article drafts.

Assignment - Add to an article

For this “Add to an article” assignment, everyone must add at least four cited sentences to an article related to the course (either the course theme of state secrecy or any of the events covered in the syllabus) by October 26. Consult the assignment sheet from "Evaluate an aritcle" assignment for suggestions.

Milestones

This work must only be completed by the designated Wikipedia editor in each group project (other people are creating other types of research products).

1. Post a complete outline of the article (using section headers of various levels) and post it to your userspace.
2. Include five fully referenced paragraphs by this first checkpoint.
3. You must post a bibliography of at least ten sources you plan to use to your talk page or the article’s talk page. Provide the reference information, not just weblinks.

In class - Checkpoint 2

Full draft article posted to Wikipedia by November 6

This work must only be completed by the designated Wikipedia editor in each group project (other people are creating other types of research products).

1. Post a complete (or as complete as you can) draft of the article and post it to your userspace.
2. Ensure that your first-draft version of the full article has a lead that complies with WP:LEAD
3. Your draft article should include specific facts directly referenced to at least five of these sources.
4. Regardless of how much text you posted at Checkpoint 1, the article should be improved during this week.

Assignment - Peer review an article

Guiding framework

Milestones

Every student must review their assigned article during the week of November 6–10, so that article writers can have your feedback by the weekend.

Assignment - Respond to your peer review

You probably have some feedback from other students and possibly other Wikipedians. Consider their suggestions, decide whether it makes your work more accurate and complete, and edit your draft to make those changes.

Resources:

• Editing Wikipedia, pages 12 and 14
• Reach out to your Wikipedia Expert if you have any questions.

Assignment - Continue improving your article

Exercise

Add links to your article

Now's the time to revisit your text and refine your work. You may do more research and find missing information; rewrite the lead section to represent all major points; reorganize the text to communicate the information better; or add images and other media.

Assignment - Polish your work

Continue to expand and improve your work, and format your article to match Wikipedia's tone and standards. Remember to contact your Wikipedia Expert at any time if you need further help!

Assignment - Begin moving your work to Wikipedia

Now that you've improved your draft based on others' feedback, it's time to move your work live - to the "mainspace."

Resource: Editing Wikipedia, page 13

Assignment - Final article

It's the final week to develop your article.

• Read Editing Wikipedia page 15 to review a final check-list before completing your assignment.
• Don't forget that you can ask for help from your Wikipedia Expert at any time!

Milestones

Everyone should have finished all of the work they'll do on Wikipedia, and be ready for grading.

In class - In-class presentation

Guiding questions