English194assignments

From English 194 Wiki Site

Assignment for each team

• Create Glossary, Objects, and Bibliography items for the wiki. See content templates for the format of these items. [timetable: ongoing]
• Edit the team's Glossary, Objects, and Bibliography items (see General work procedures for editing the wiki below) [timetable: ongoing]
• Give informal presentations in class on the team's research [timetable: ongoing]
• Create the team's "topic page" (This is the front page for a team's topic area. It should provide an organized, effective introduction to the team's research, including an overview statement, images, and links to the team's research reports and other pages on the site as appropriate.) [timetable: due June 12]

Assignments for each individual

• Learn how to edit the wiki and post some material or pages on the testing "sandbox" site kept by Wikipedia (create an account there to use the sandbox). For help with editing the wiki, see Tech help. [timetable: due April 13]
• Write two research reports in the class's standard report format for the wiki (the equivalent of approximately 7 pages each). Research reports must be about topics introduced on the Glossary or Objects pages of the wiki. (Or create the matching glossary or object item for your report if it does not yet exist.) For more detail on what is required in a research report, see report format.
  [timetable: Report 1 due May 9; Report 2 due June 1]
• Edit one research report by another team member (see editing research reports below)
  [timetable: Edit due May 16]
• Each student will work on improving the common Wiki site. After a brainstorming class meeting on May 25th to decide what needs to be done, tasks will be assigned to particular students. Then students will work on their own timeline to complete those tasks, while also keeping a Work Log
  [timetable: open-ended]

General work procedures for editing the wiki

• Signing your work:
  • When first created, each page in the Wiki must be signed/dated at the bottom by the original author (just type "By ~~~~" at the bottom of the editing form in the wiki to have the server fill in your user name and the time/date).
  • If you are the assigned editor for another team member's page (a glossary item, object item, or a research report), add your name as editor to the bottom of the page. (Just type "Edited by ~~~~" to have the server fill in your name and the time/date.) Minor edits subsequent to the original editing job should go unsigned (though they will be registered under the "history" for the particular wiki page).

• Intellectual property issues
  • Plagiarism: Attribute the words, images, music, or other material that you are directly borrowing (quoting, copying, etc.) from external sources. Failure to do so in an academic context is plagiarism, and is a serious offense. An additional reason to attribute sources carefully is to allow readers to verify your research by going to an original source and seeing whether they agree with your conclusions (the equivalent of "reproducing an experiment" in the sciences). Depending on the situation, attribution can take the form of direct mention of a source in your argument, a full citation in a note, an abbreviated citation backed up by a bibliography, or a link—so long as it is clear in context where you are borrowing from.
  • Fair Use: Even when material that you are directly quoting, copying, etc. is clearly attributed, you are limited in the case of copyrighted material to using only what is allowed by "fair use" (unless you receive permission from the copyright holder). There is much gray area here; and we will be discussing "fair use" in this class as part of the general issue of intellectual property. (See the U.S. Copyright Office's statement on fair use). In the context of the class wiki, please be especially careful not to copy or excerpt (as opposed to link to) images, music, or video in a way that exceeds fair use.
  • Linking protocol: Linking from a web site to online material normally does not require permission from the owner of the online material (which, by definition, is online). The exception is when you are not just linking but presenting the externally-linked (or -sourced) material directly on your own page—for example, by showing an image on your page whose source is actually on someone else's server. At a minimum, this is considered bad net protocol (since it siphons off bandwidth resources from someone else).

• General editing "best practices"
  • If you are just testing or practicing your wiki skills, use the testing "sandbox" site kept by Wikipedia (create an account there to use the sandbox). You can test formatting and the creation/editing of new pages there without cluttering up our own course site.
  • Always fill in the "summary" field in the wiki editing form with a brief description of the editing change you are making.
  • Always "preview" a page you have created or edited in the wiki editing form before "saving" the page. You can correct mistakes and preview multiple times before committing to saving the page. (Saving a page creates an additional entry in the page "history," and it's best not to clutter the editing history of a page.)
  • If you are just correcting a typo or making a minor formatting change, check off the box in the wiki editing form for "minor" revision.
  • When creating a complex page, it is best to work in a word processor or text-editing program (so you retain a master copy), and then cut-and-paste into the wiki editing form.

Editing another team member's research report

• The task of the editor of a research reports is to perform "due diligence" on the content of the report (is the report accurate, fair, cohesive, understandable, focused on the right things, etc.?) as well as to iron out problems in writing.
• If you find that you only need to make minor corrections or changes, just go ahead and do so.
• If you think that major changes should be made (e.g., adding or correcting points in the argument; reorganizing the argument), then the courteous procedure is first to suggest the changes to the original author. That gives the author a chance to make his/her own changes or to approve the changes you are about to make.