ENGL 5106/Collaborative Wiki Project

Fall 2023

See also: CompFAQ/WritDM/Wikipedia Training

The major collaborative project this semester will be a wiki article about Technical Writing in the Digital Age on LitWiki. As a class of writers, you will research, organize, compose, and publish a wiki article in the style of Wikipedia that defines our course subject. Our goal by the end of the class is to have a polished, professional article that could achieve featured article (FA) status on Wikipedia. According to the criteria, this means that it should be an appropriate length, well-written, comprehensive, well-researched, neutral, stable, and consistent.

I will work as the major editor, and you all will be my assistants. You will have weekly wiki training throughout the semester. We will coordinate on the draft article’s talk page and work on the article consistently throughout the semester. So, unlike a traditional paper where you tend to write most of it in the last part of the class, you should begin editing early in the semester and develop the habit of editing LitWiki daily with your additions and corrections. See Technical writing on WP for inspiration.

The project is not due until the end of the semester (see your section’s schedule). I have already created the draft and have added some rudimentary information. This is a real, published project, and I will act as a real editor—removing and revising and critiquing any sub-standard work. Do not take offense when your additions are revised—especially at the beginning. We learn best by making mistakes. Just be sure you actually learn.

Technical Writing in the Digital Age on LitWiki —»