Wikipedia as an Introduction to Academic Writing. The Tenets of Composition Go Public. Wikipedia as way to teach information literacy. Why smart profs want students to use Wikipedia. Photo by Kalexanderson on Flickr Wikipedia is an outcast on most university campuses.
At the beginning of the semester, most professors mention that it’s banished from essays and assignments. If you dare to include a Wikipedia article on your reference list, you’re practically asking for a zero on your bibliography. In extreme cases, your professor might set your essay on fire and scatter the ashes across the Pacific Ocean. That’s because most profs regard Wikipedia’s crowdsourced articles as unreliable. Despite the website’s reputation, some professors at schools like the University of Alberta are using Wikipedia as a teaching resource.
Why the turnaround? School and university projects/Piotrus course intro boilerplate/old. This is a boilerplate wiki-syllabi for any course which is going to ask students to do something on Wikipedia.
It is divided into several sections. First, 'general instructions' for anybody who stumbles into the page. Five pillars. The fundamental principles by which Wikipedia operates can be summarized in five "pillars": Wikipedia is an encyclopedia: It combines many features of general and specialized encyclopedias, almanacs, and gazetteers.
Wikipedia is not a soapbox, an advertising platform, a vanity press, an experiment in anarchy or democracy, an indiscriminate collection of information, or a web directory. It is not a dictionary, a newspaper, or a collection of source documents, although some of its fellow Wikimedia projects are. Editors should treat each other with respect and civility: Respect your fellow Wikipedians, even when you disagree. Tutorial. Wikipedia is a collaboratively edited encyclopedia to which you can contribute.
This tutorial will help you become a Wikipedia contributor. The following pages will give you guidance about the style and content of Wikipedia articles, and tell you about the Wikipedia community and important Wikipedia policies and conventions. This is a basic tutorial, not an extensive manual. If you want more details, there are links to other pages for more information. To read them as you go along, you can open them in a separate browser window or tab. There are links to "sandbox" pages where you can practice what you're learning.
So, let's learn about editing! Note: The tutorial assumes you are using the default page layout. Article development. Some of Wikipedia's articles are comprehensive from their inception, but most begin as stubs and ideally grow into well-written, comprehensive articles.
This page describes the stages in the life of an article, and lists the ways in which you can help an article grow into the next stage. Skipping stages is not only allowed—it is encouraged! The following categories should give you an idea of how articles typically grow on Wikipedia. Stages of an article Uncreated articles. Writing better articles. This page sets out advice on how to write an effective article, including information on layout, style, and how to make an article clear, precise and relevant to the reader.
You can post questions about English grammar and usage at Wikipedia's language and grammar desk.If you want to peruse some of Wikipedia's finest articles, have a look at Wikipedia:Featured articles.For information on how to cite sources, see Wikipedia:Citing sources.For our guidelines on style, see the Wikipedia:Manual of Style and its subsidiary pages, listed in the template to the right.To learn about markup in Wikipedia articles, see Wikipedia:How to edit a page.To learn about lists, disambiguation pages, and images, see Wikipedia:Lists, Wikipedia:Disambiguation and Wikipedia:Picture tutorial.
Layout Layout matters. Good articles start with introductions, continue with a clear structure, and end with standard appendices such as references and related articles. Structure of the article Introductory material Paragraphs. Are We Ready to Use Wikipedia to Teach Writing? Several years ago I started asking students in my composition classes to compose entries for Wikipedia.
Most of my students were familiar with Wikipedia as the most popular link at the top of a Web page after a Google search. But my purpose in bringing Wikipedia in to the classroom was not to use Wikipedia as a reference source; instead, I sought to bring a more authentic, immediate audience for student writing. A little more than two years ago, this publication gave the story of the then typical higher education reaction to the use of Wikipedia in student writing, entitled “A Stand Against Wikipedia.” The story was centered on Middlebury's history department, but it could have spoken for academe's attitude in general. The message from faculty was clear: “Students, you cite Wikipedia at your peril.” BRAVO!!! My purpose here is not to debate with Jim whether or not Wikipedia is an accurate resource. Of course, not all of the assignments in my class are based in electronic networks.
Lazy Virtues: Teaching Writing in ... - Robert E. Cummings. The Hows and Whys of Wikipedia in the Classroom. Resources >> Browse Articles >> Utilizing Technology "I’ve found that asking my students to discuss a Wikipedia author’s tone and stance means that I don’t have to lecture at them.
" Featured Author: Katt Blackwell Katt Blackwell teaches First Year Composition in Dallas, Texas. She is currently completing coursework for her Ph.D. in Rhetoric and holds both a B.A. and M.A. in English Literature. Teaching featured writer, Katt Blackwell, was recently asked by a colleague why and how she taught Wikipedia in the classroom. Why Teach Wikipedia In the Classroom? It teaches students to pay attention to authorial credibility Given the open contributions allowed on Wikipedia, I have chance to teach my students why it is important to pay close attention to the ethos of their author.
Tone and stance become a discussion instead of a lecture. Best practices in assigning Wikipedia articles as coursework to students. See this article in Ukrainian Best practices in assigning Wikipedia articles as coursework to students is an introduction to using Wikipedia as a teaching tool.
As demonstrated by the Wikipedia Public Policy Initiative, a pilot project for using Wikipedia as a teaching tool in higher education, there are many benefits associated with exposing students to an open peer production community like Wikipedia. Other resources[edit] Wikipedia:School and university projects – list of current and past projects on the English WikipediaBest practices documentation – other best practice pages on public outreachCoursework Writing: Guidelines to Success.
Reaching Perfection Further reading[edit]