Writing in the Major

This semester, you will create a full-fledged wiki devoted to presenting your major's required research and writing to a group of incoming first-year students. Below is an outline of the requirements for students participating in this class.

Your group wiki page will be complete before the start of class on 1 April 2013. If your page is not complete and linked to the homepage, your contract grade will drop one letter automatically.

Group Responsibilities

WIM Wiki Homepage

Welcome

Goal of the Wiki

Introduction to Majors Discussed

Early Childhood Education +
MultimediaCommunications
Undeclared +
Political Science +
Exercise Science*
Business+
+Fashion Merchandising
Biology
Graphic design
Apparel design& art
Sport Management*
+Nursing
Information Technology +
Engineering*
Public Relations+
Marketing+

Individual Page Contents (below)

Discipline History

Education

Research and Writing in the Discipline

Non-traditional Research and Writing

Blogs

Listservs

Publication Manual(s) and Style Guide(s)

Jobs and Careers

Graduate School

References

Individual Responsibilities

Biography

Annotated References


Getting Started

Adding and Editing Pages

Your formal work this semester will consist of adding and editing pages for your major. The above guidelines tell you which specific pages you need to add and/or edit. This section explains to you the process for both tasks.

Adding Pages

The pages you add to this wiki will include your individual biography page and specific pages that construct your research presentation. To add a new page, type the name of your page into the "Pages" box on the left hand navigation panel. Type the title just as you wish it to appear for the page. Once you have typed the title, click on the "new page" button beneath the page box. When the page reloads, your new page will appear.

Editing Pages

Editing your individual pages is work you complete mostly independently. You will want to check back with the "discuss" tab when you prepare to add or edit information to make certain that peer questions are addressed either in the discussion or in your revisions and edits to your individual pages.

Editing group pages is a bit more complex. Pay close attention to the guidelines below before editing group pages.
Adding Original Material
Original, new content to group pages can be added immediately to the page without need for revision. Type or copy/paste your new information directly into the page, edit the syntax to display the information appropriately, make notes of your changes in the page change descriptions, and save the page.

Revisions to Others' Materials
If you see areas that need revision, but are not your own, you should begin a discussion about these revisions. Do not simply delete other contributors' material and replace it with your own. Follow these steps to begin a discussion of the revisions you believe are necessary.

  1. Indicate the material in need of revision. If you believe specific portions of text should be completely removed, use the strikethrough feature to mark these out in the original text. The material you believe should be removed will then look like this sentence. If you believe a portion of text needs revision, but not deleting, italicize and underline the text. The material in need of revising should then look like this sentence.
  2. At the end of the section you marked, add a footnote. In the footnote explain why you believe the revision is needed and present your suggestion for replacement. You cannot recommend revisions without a suggested revision and a plausible argument for revision. Add your screen name to the end of your statement.

Responding to Revision Requests
If a portion of your work receives a revision recommendation, take a careful look at what the other contributor is recommending. If you choose to revise the text, make the appropriate revisions, but leave the original footnote. We will clean these up at the end of the semester. After making the appropriate revisions, add another footnote after the original revision footnote indicating what you changed and how you used the revision suggestions.
If you do not believe the revision is necessary, leave the text as-is, and add a footnote explaining why you do not believe the revision is necessary.

Before You Edit

I welcome you to work in the wiki itself for your writing of your individual pages. However, with pages that the group is responsible for contributions, please keep this in mind. If you expect to spend more than 20 minutes writing, please type the base of your text in a document and then copy and paste the material into the wiki to add the necessary syntax. This way, other users who wish to access the group pages will have access to the page sooner. If you are still expecting your changes to take longer, please let your peers know in Google+. You may also use Google+ to coordinate times that the wiki page you specifically want to use is available. Please do not use the "Discuss" page on the wiki for this purpose.

Saving Changes

Make certain to save changes regularly. Remember that a wiki is web-based and may have minor issues occasionally. To prevent this, save frequently. These saves also help if we need to revert a page to a previous version and do not wish to reconstruct an entire page of work. I recommend saving every 2-3 minutes. You can use the "Save and Continue" button at the bottom of the edit page to continue working. Once you are fininshed, make certain to click "Save" so that the timer on the user-lock

Change Logs

At the bottom of the edit screen, you will find a box labeled "Short description of changes." Please make certain to provide information on pages you edit. This will help other contributors to have a better understanding of the changes made.

Writing a Wiki

Building a wiki is not a difficult task, but understanding the syntax does take some tinkering and time spent. What follows in this section offers a few basic tips. If you want to work with the syntax before editing a page, you may work with your biography page or test the different functions in the Sandbox page on this wiki. You can edit a page on this wiki by selecting either the "Edit this Page" tab at the top or the "Edit button at the bottom of the page you wish to edit. If you receive a warning that the page has a lock and is in use by another user do not force the lock off. This will cause significant damage to the page and cause strife between yourself and the other user. Wait for the lock to be removed and then edit. This means you will need to check back in about fifteen minutes or post a message in the Google+ Community or appropriate Google+ Circle to see when the other user will be finished with the page. If you are editing a page, please check Google+ each time you save to see if another user is waiting to edit the page.

Edit Screen Basics

In edit mode, you will see a toolbar at the top of your screen. This toolbar contains wiki syntax for many of the common features you will use when working in the wiki. You should become familiar with the toolbar to simplify your work.

Advanced Editing Options

For information on advanced editing features and syntax, visit the WikiDot Syntax page.

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