Here are your directions for class today. We’ll be starting to work on Wikipedia in your userspace. This will not post to your novel’s article right away. Instead, you will be able to practice first on your userspace. Wikipedia is written in code, so symbols are used to tell the computer to format the page in a certain way. It’s not exactly like typing in Microsoft Word, so it’s important that you follow directions closely to do it right!
1. In another window (or tab) sign in to your GoogleDoc.
2. In a third window, sign in to Wikipedia.
If I made your account:
- I will give you a sticky note with your username on it. Your password is superstar.
- Click here to sign in to Wikipedia.
- Once logged in, click my preferences.
- Scroll down to E-mail options.
- Enter in the E-mail address you use most often (REQUIRED).
- Click Save on lower left.
- Scroll back up and click Change password.
- In Old password, type superstar.
- Type in a New password and write it down!
If you made your account:
- Make sure you included your email address when you signed up by clicking on my preferences and checking under E-mail options.
3. Create your User Subpage.
This space will be used for the rough draft of your sections of the article.
- Click on your username at the top of the page (next to the little person).
- Click Start the User:YourName page.
- The big white box is your editing box. In the box you will make a link to a subpage where you’ll post your sections of the article your group wrote. Type
[[User:YourUsername/Draft of Your Book Title]]
Make sure you include the square brackets and fill in the underlined parts with your individual information.
- In the Edit Summary at the bottom of the page, type “Added subpage.” You must always fill in the Edit Summary when you make changes to Wikipedia pages. This tells people what you changed.
- Click Preview. You must always click Preview before clicking Save.
- If you see a red link, you did it right. If not, check with a classmate or Ms. G. to see what you did wrong.
- Click Save. Now, click on the red link. That’s your subpage. That’s where you will be editing your contributions until they’re perfect. Only then will you post to the real Wikipedia page.
4. Add Headings, Copy and Paste GoogleDoc Info.
You will add only the information from your GoogleDoc that you wrote and only the information that needs to be added to Wikipedia. (If your group’s Wikipedia page is already really good, you can add whatever you like to this subpage.)
- Create in the edit box all the section headings you need. To make the headings, click on the big A in the toolbar, then type:
- == Plot summary ==
- == Characters ==
- == Reception == (or Themes or Autobiographical elements — whichever you chose for your Source Summary).
- == References ==
- == Notes ==
- Copy and paste your Plot summary, Characters, and Source summary under the appropriate headers in the edit box. WARNING: You must take out all indents (tabs) at the beginning of paragraphs! To show a new paragraph, just leave a space between the sections. Each line should be flush with the left-hand side of the edit box or it will not format correctly.
- In the Edit summary type something like “Added content.”
- Click Preview page. Make sure you fix anything that looks wrong!
5. Format your Characters
- Check the current Wikipedia page of your novel to see how the Character list is formatted (if there is one). You will need to format your Character list the same way. For instance, it may look like this:
- Brian is a bodybuilder and avid rollerblader who falls in love with Susie.
or this:
-
- Brian: a bodybuilder and avid rollerblader who falls in love with Susie.
- To make a word bold, put three apostrophes around it: ”’Brian”’ is a bodybuilder…
- To make a bulleted list, put an asterisk (*) in front of each character’s name.
6. Format your References
- Under References you need to put the publishing information for your book so that when you cite page numbers, readers will know what edition you’re referring to.
- Type the MLA Citation info like this:
Authorlastname, Authorfirstname. Title in italics. Publisher: Cityofpublication, 2004. ISBN 887494475
You can find all this information (except publishing city) on Amazon.com or in the front of your book. The ISBN number can be copied and pasted from Amazon.
- Under Notes you must type this to make a list of citations automatically appear:
<references/>
- Now, in the body of your text (in the Plot summary, etc.), every time you use a page number or a quote, you need to delete your parenthesis and replace it with a reference code. Here’s what to do:
- After the quote or bit of information that needs citation (doesn’t have to be at the end of a sentence), click the button that says <ref> </ref> on the far right-hand side of the toolbar. Then, if it’s a page number from your book, type in:
Authorlastname, p. 34
-
- If it’s from a website, you need to type in all the required citation information, which you can find by searching WP:CITE in Wikipedia.
7. Get Ms. Garvoille to check your work.
8. Post the new information to the real Wikipedia page for the novel. You need to be sure to edit sections (i.e. Plot Summary or Reception) instead of editing the entire page at once. Remember to always fill in the Edit Summary!
HW: If you didn’t make a Wikipedia account yet, make one! Otherwise, no homework. Bring food and drink on Thursday and we’ll have a party!
Absentees: Follow the directions for the day. We will continue working on this tomorrow. Meet in T-221.
ALEXA GARVOILLE 