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Wikipedia:Rice University/Human Development in Global and Local Communities, Section 2 (Spring 2014)/Proposed Topics

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Assignment 2: Identifying Your Topic

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Due Date: 9 pm Thursday, January 30

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Choosing your topic is the earliest decision you need to make for this project. Potential topics can be drawn from course readings, news postings, outside lectures, course presentations, and other sources. Careful selection of a workable topic will help you complete this assignment efficiently and make a valuable contribution.

1. Begin with the following activities:

  • Browse through Wikipedia and review examples of good or featured articles on topics related to the class as well as examples from past PJHC students. (Information provided separately.)
  • Carefully review the document Contributing to Wikipedia: Overall Guidelines and Evaluation Criteria.
  • Think carefully about possible topics that might interest you. You have the option of revising an existing entry, creating a new one, or some combination that may involve adding to one or more articles and creating a new entry. New entries are generally discouraged unless a clear parent entry already exists that has been well developed.
  • Talk pages also show the Project Groups an article is affiliated with. Check out the Project Groups affiliated with articles that interest you and read what other contributors have suggested for new and revised entries. If you are considering a new topic, you can post your thoughts on one or more relevant Project Group page for feedback from other Wikipedians.
  • Note: If a topic you might wish to use is extremely controversial (for example, the article on Microcredit/Microfinance or Female Genital Mutilation), Wikipedia may restrict changes to the site or others may quickly reverse your changes. Highly trafficked pages may be changed by other users frequently, leaving it difficult for you to make a unique contribution. Additionally, if someone is actively curating the page, possibly preparing it for submission as a good or featured article, he or she may not welcome someone jumping in and making wholesale revisions. Please avoid such topics. Also avoid overly broad topics (e.g. ones with the word “poverty” in them) are discouraged since these are difficult to research and cover comprehensively.
  • Topic titles should not sound like research papers or contain an argument – note Wikipedia is an encyclopedia, and all articles should reflect points of view and facts that have already been published. Also, article titles with two topics connected with the word “and” are discouraged.

2. Prepare a list of two to three potential topics. For each proposed topic: (a) supply a few sentences to explain your interest and possible revisions; (b) note whether you would like to rewrite/add to an existing entry, expand an existing stub, or create an entirely new entry; and (c) list seven to ten new references to scholarly sources you would add in revising/creating the article. (You may include references to newspaper, magazine, or blog sources, but these may not count toward the required number of scholarly references. All references need to be presented in proper reference format, following the Chicago Manual of Style (link provided in Owlspace) or another approved social science format, such as APA (http://www.apastyle.org/). References not presented in an appropriate format will not be counted towards the total required.

3. Rank the topics in order from most to least desirable. One of these topics will become your final topic.

4. Please indicate if you would like to be paired with another student. If so, your rankings will be used to team you up with another student. If you know you would like to work with a particular class member, you may submit the topic proposals jointly, indicating how you would plan to split up the work. (In such cases, you must provide double the number of references.)

5. Submit your topics and username to the relevant assignment tab on OWL-Space by 9 pm Thursday, January 30. For full credit, be sure your name appears on your document and the file you submit must be labeled as follows: <LastName> WikiTopics.doc (or .docx)

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