Wikipedia Project Process
The article I chose was “Fugitive Pieces”, a novel by Anne Michaels. The original Wikipedia article had very minimal information on the book and was also slightly disorganized. To ensure that it fit the description of an article that needs more content, I did the Wikipedia Article Evaluation and found that it did not satisfy any of their questions. After browsing through complete Wikipedia pages on books-- such as, William Faulkner’s The Sound and the Fury-- I gained a better understanding of what to add, and what to eliminate. For instance, I decided to add the sections: “main characters”, “theme, style, and structure”, as well as “reception”. I also wanted to input new information and reorganize the existing information.
Before making any live edits, Wikipedia enforces various training sessions that teach students the basic community guidelines, as well as how to use the many Wikipedia functions. For example, there are training modules on how to edit, cite, and how to use the sandboxes and talk pages.
After choosing my article and completing the training sessions, I found appropriate sources through the San Francisco State University library databases. The main database I used was the Literature Resource Center. Through these databases, I obtained ten sources with sufficient information regarding the novel.
With these sources, I started to draft my edits in my Wikipedia sandbox-- a personal space to place edits. These sandboxes can be viewed by anyone, which made it an ideal space for peer revisions. Although the peer reviewer does not leave their comments directly into the sandbox, they still gain access to the users' talk page. The talk page is the primary area where fellow Wikipedians communicate with each other.
Since Wikipedia encourages collaboration, peer reviewing was highly suggested and mandatory. There were three main ways to get peer reviewed: from two classmates, by one of the WikiEd staff, or by signing up for an Intertwine Peer Reviewing chat session. I acquired revisions from three of my classmates on my talk page, and an email with comments from one of the WikiEd Staff, Shalor. I also left peer reviews on my classmates, AJ and Derek's, talk pages as well.
With the feedback from my peer revisions, I made the final edits to my article and posted it live.
A Quick Summary of the Wikipedia Process:
1. Pick article
2. Article evaluation
3. Wikipedia trainings
*More appear as the project moves along
4. Find sources
5. Article draft
6. Peer reviews
7. Add any final edits
8. Post final draft to live Wikipedia page
