PREPARATION FOR 3/5 (VISUAL ARGUMENTS & OTHER GENRES)

Hello, Everyone:

As a reminder, by 3/5 please make sure you have contacted all members of your Wikipedia working team to do the following:

1. designate a team leader to coordinate the group;
2. decide on when/where you will schedule working time for the remainder of the project;
3. decide on several possible article topics ("pitches"), along with what your group could potentially offer the topic, if we select it for our class project.

Project Wikipedia Working Teams:

• Anneleise Sanchez, Austin Tillery, Morgan Hough
• Lindsey Sullivan, Rachel Cushanick, Shay Morant
• Brittany Stephens, Erik Reed, Jordan Spina, Nick Pelton
• Amanda Diehl, Cassie Hamilton, Joseph Hendel
• Chris Menendez, Danae VanPortfliet, Jenn Gaudreau
• Brittany Morrill, Donovan Todd, Tyler Avery
• Catalina Quintana, Katherine Saviola, Joey Arellano
• Alex Snider, Rachel Young, Stacey Cox

There is no new reading for Tuesday's class, but we will spend the first 25-30 minutes following up Thursday's Wikipedia discussion with Dr. Wadewitz, with the goal of selecting our article topic for the Wikipedia project. I offer you the following links in advance of our discussion:

• a student-produced Wiki Book (not Wikipedia) on <"rhetoric and writing in the public sphere">
• a crowd-sourced book (produced by scholars in one week) on <"hacking the academy">
• a Wikipedia page on <"article development">
• another Wikipedia page on <"featured article candidates">.

For the remainder of the class, we will review Ridolfo/DeVoss on "rhetorical velocity" and Killingsworth on appealing to "place" and "time." Our goal is to better understand embodied arguments--especially to understand how much the success of any public-sphere argument rests on its many embodiments (e.g., place, time, audience, environment). We will also consider how some different visual genres have fulfilled the Public Argument and/or what it is like to argue through alternative mediums.

Looking forward to it,

-Prof. Graban

PREPARATION FOR 2/28 (WIKIPEDIA PROJECT INTRODUCTION)

Hello, Everyone:

During the first part of Thursday's class, we will discuss the Wikipedia Project Assignment so that you can understand the timing and logistics of its various parts, since it will occupy much of our semester after the Public Argument project is complete. We will also conduct some brief exploration together of Wikipedia's <"Five Pillars"> page, introduce ourselves to the <"Sandbox">, and discuss what it means to write for and within a networked culture. Finally, we will share what you have come up with in terms of article pitches and briefly recap your results from <Short Assignment #4>. It will be another busy day!

As a reminder, during the second part of the class, we will be talking via Skype with <Dr. Adrianne Wadewitz>, long-time Wikipedia editor, and official <Wikipedia Ambassador>. Dr. Wadewitz will share some of her experiences writing, editing, and teaching Wikipedia, and she may provide us some insight into what Wikipedia writers/editors do, who they are, and how they negotiate some unique challenges in building and maintaining such a large, crowd-sourced research tool. She brings much insight to this work, so please bring your questions for her, as she will be the best person to answer them.

Folks, this assignment -- and the entire last unit of our course -- offers you a unique opportunity to apply and demonstrate what you know (or want to learn) about writing and editing in a collaborative, knowledge-making, online composing environment. I hope you will take the fullest advantage of it and am excited to get started on it with you!

Looking forward,
-Prof. Graban