Wikipedia assignment

How to Fix the World in One Keystroke, or Editing Wikipedia.

Introduction:
Many view on-line media, such as Wikipedia, as erroneous because it is on the internet and anyone can edit it. However, the idea behind Wikipedia is that contributors will increase the accuracy of the entries through using and citing scholarly sources. Regardless, the reality is that much of the public (including many college students) relies upon Wikipedia. The scholarly community, including students, have an important stake in the on-line exchange of information, providing content derived from scholarly works, so that decisions made by the public (including museum and government officials) reflect the most accurate data and interpretations available. You will help this process by culling information from scholarly resources and editing Wikipedia pages so that they represent the best knowledge available. Similarly, this is a way for students, who frequently write papers that are only seen by professors, to have their work “published” in the open. You will change the world- okay, just a little piece of it, but it’s a start.

Goal of the Assignment:
To select a scholarly article and edit the appropriate Wikipedia pages to reflect the most accurate interpretations of archaeological and ethnohistoric sources and to ensure that sources are correctly referenced.

Details of the Assignment:
First, you will need to select a journal article. These articles may come from the following journals:

  • Latin American Antiquity
  • Ñawpa Pacha
  • Ancient Mesoamerica

All of these journals are available through Muhlenberg’s Trexler Library. Unfortunately, these all have “moving walls” of 3 or 5 years, which means that the most up-to-date articles are not available. Please select articles from the most recent year (or two). Select your article based upon your interest. Once you have decided, please ensure that your article is NOT used in wikipedia. That is, go to Wikipedia and search for the title of the article (in quotes). If you get extensive “hits” then the article is likely already in Wikipedia. Please select a different article.

Types of Changes:
Make changes that
1. increase references to your scholarly source
2. increase the degree to which the entry represents the best scholarship
3. increase clarity of the entry
4. decrease the amount of information that clearly contradicts scholarly works
1. Be careful, do NOT remove anything unless you are sure it is inaccurate or problematic.

Before you make any changes:
Register with Wikipedia. In the upper right hand side of the Wikipedia main screen, you will see “Log in/Create Account”- click it. Create a username (different than your email) and password. You are now ready to go. Please submit your username to me. You must be logged in with this username when you make changes! I can only count changes made with this username!

Your contribution. The goal of Wikipedia is not to include all of the details, but enough so that readers understand the ideas, concepts and facts. If they want more, they can get the article. So, your edits should be about accuracy not length. Your edits should include adding your article on multiple pages and or in multiple places on a couple of pages. You should add your article in 10 locations (one or more pages in Wikipedia) and most of those should include a sentence you wrote or one that you substantially edited.

Record your changes.
As long as you make changes using your username, they will be recorded in the log associated with the page, but you will also need to report the changes that you have made, so keep a record.

Report your changes.
Please write a short essay justifying how you (as an individual) contributed to the public knowledge on Wikipedia. Be clear about exactly what changes you made (you may should quotes and examples from the Wikipedia page) and WHY you made them. Be sure to record exactly how many citations (footnotes), references, connections to other Wikipedia pages, sentences added, edits made, etc. Essay should be long enough to explain the above.

Present your changes.
You will have a few minutes of class time to present your changes. This includes; 1) what changes you made and why, 2) a brief summary of the page (with images!).

Assessment.
You will be assessed on your changes based upon the criteria listed above (under “Types of Changes”). You will be graded, not on the page, but on your changes. That is, unless the page is perfect, you should add to all five of these components. Although the Wikipedia page itself is the final project, documenting, reporting and justifying your changes is also essential for assessment.

Here’s the rubric that I will use to help me assess your contribution. Note that the rubric does not translate directly into a grade, but provides a mechanism by which I can provide feedback. Note that it is highly unlikely that you can score a “4” (or even a “3”) in every category.

0- Not Addressed 1- Poorly Done 2- Addressed 3- Well done 4- Excellent
Increase accuracy (most important) Overall, accuracy has little changed Relatively few additions increase the overall accuracy of the entry Moderate additions that increase the overall accuracy of the entry Many more additions and with excellent effect. A large number of additions that dramatically increase the overall accuracy of the entry
References to scholarly resources None added Very few- 1-2 3-4 5-7 8+
Editing for increased clarity Clarity has either not been addressed or has actually decreased. Some editing has been performed but clarity has not been increased. Editing has increased clarity in some parts, but other changes either limit or degrade clarity in others Editing has increased the clarity of the text substantially Editing has dramatically increased the flow and structure of the text.
Accurate In-text citations to scholarly Resources(numbers are estimates) None added Minimal- <4 Average- c. 7 Good c. 13 Excellent- 20+
Decrease erroneous Not addressed Some erroneous data has been addressed, but this may have had a negative impact. Some erroneous data has been addressed, but impact is limited. Occurrences of erroneous data have been address to significant effect. Multiple occurrences addressed to excellent effect.
Abided by Wikipedia Standards Never Rarely Yes, but with some mistakes Mostly, but with 1-2 mistakes Always