Wikipedia:WikiProject Writing/Open tasks

In an effort to improve, as well as create, articles that define the fields of rhetoric, composition, technical communication, literacy, and language studies, WikiProject Writing participants have developed a series of articles in need of revision and creation. Please do add articles to these lists if you find an article in need of edits or a notable topic in need of creation.

Vital articles are articles deemed most important to improve to the highest quality standard on Wikipedia (featured article status). There are five levels of vital articles categorized by subject. If you find an article you believe could be vital, check the talk page for a banner that mentions whether the subject is vital or not.

Watching articles refers to opting into receiving email notifications about any edits made to an article(s) of your choosing. This function allows you to keep track of ongoing discussions about an article, as well as serve a peer review function by offering feedback on recent edits. Additionally, you can check how many editors are currently watching a specific article to monitor the amount of feedback you may receive on a recent edit or talk page post.

Here's how you can watch an article & check how many Wikipedians are watching an article:

1. Click on the star icon in the top right of your screen, next to the ‘View history’ button to add yourself to the watch list of an article.
2. Select ‘Page information’ under tools on the leftmost side of the web page. From here you will find the total number of editors watching the page under ‘Basic information.’

General articles are articles under the scope of WikiProject Writing that need some work. We encourage you to add articles to this along with a note describing how the article can be improved. This can be as simple as mentioning an award a scholar received or restructuring the article for clarity.

• Academic writing (underdeveloped, needs citation, narrativizing, not sophisticated in approach)
• African-American Vernacular English (paragraph on Social Context > In Education mentions 1974 CCCC statement on Students’ Right to Their Own Language but needs to be updated and developed)
• Theodore Baird (Now created with details about writing program)
• Collaborative writing (from teaching point of view, underdeveloped)
• Keith Gilyard (2000 CCCC Chair)
• Native American rhetoric
• Elaine Richardson (writer) (Faculty page)
• Writing studies

Redlinked articles are articles in need of creation on Wikipedia. If you see a topic, figure, concept, etc. that is notable yet does not exist on Wikipedia yet, please do add it to our list along with a short note mentioning a source, award, or anything else that emphasizes the notability of the article.

• Cultural rhetorics (include Cultural Rhetorics Consortium, Malea Powell)
• Journal of Writing Research
• Min-Zhan Lu (faculty page, 2012 CCCC Outstanding Book Award)
• Beverly J. Moss (faculty page, 2021 CCCC Exemplar Award)
• Jacqueline Jones Royster (faculty page, 2004 CCCC Exemplar Award, 1995 CCCC Chair)
• Victor Villanueva (he is mentioned briefly in Bootstraps: From an American Academic of Color, include 2009 CCCC Exemplar Awardee)
• Writing program administration
• Vershawn Ashanti Young (2020 CCCC Chair)

These tasks help improve the scope and accessibility of WikiProject Writing. They are small tasks that improve the range of articles reviewed by WikiProject Writing participants by organizing priorities, assessing article quality, improving categorization, and increasing traffic to articles under our scope.

You can assess articles by placing the WikiProject Writing banner on an article's talk page (not the article page!) and using the two parameters, class (to assess the quality) and importance (to assess the priority). For detailed instructions on how to do this, head to the tagging and assessing articles page.

• Quality assessment criteria: Instructions on content grading.
• Importance assessment criteria: Instructions on importance/priority grading.
• You can find a list of unassessed writing articles here and a list of unknown-importance writing articles here.

In order to increase the accessibility of articles under the scope of WikiProject Writing, it is important to add hyperlinks that allow articles to be linked to each other. An article without any hyperlinks is considered an orphan. A topic/person without a Wikipedia article may be hyperlinked with a redlink - used to designate an article in need of creation.

1. Hyperlinking: Head to an article under the scope of WikiProject Writing.

• Source editor: Add a set of brackets ([example]) to the topic you wish to hyperlink. Your link will either publish in blue or red, depending on if the article exists on Wikipedia yet.
• Visual editor: Highlight the topic you wish to hyperlink or redlink. Click on the 'Link' icon from the toolbar and select the Wikipedia article it refers to in the drop down menu. If an article does not exist, click on the 'Page does not exist' link from the dropdown to create a redlink.

Wikidata is one of Wikipedia's sister projects that helps to categorize and inform connections between article topics, people, etc. Wikidata can be edited by both humans and bots in any language and showcase content gaps across language Wikipedias, proving incredibly useful for combating knowledge inequities.

Wikipedia articles can have associated 'items' on Wikidata. Each item has a unique identifier called a 'Q-number' (i.e. Q4119870). These items are made up of properties and values that can be easily documented by reading the lead section of a Wikipedia article. Properties connect items to values (i.e. instance of, date of birth etc). A value connects the item to the property (i.e. academic, March 15, 1972, etc). An item, property, and value together are called statements.

By creating items for Wikipedia articles as well as adding properties and values, we make information more accessible to a wider audience. This can lead to translations across language Wikipedias, generating queries that showcase relevant content gaps under our scope, and greater categorization of articles that already exist under WikiProject Writing's scope.

Here's how you can find the wikidata statement on a Wikipedia article and add properties and values yourself:

1. Head to any Wikipedia article
2. Click on 'Wikidata item' under 'Tools' on the leftmost side of the screen
3. The associated wikidata page will pop up
4. From here, head to 'Statements'
5. Edit or add statements. If you need some help finding properties, you can find a searchable list of properties here as well as a list of more faceted search tools.

Participants may also find it useful to query Wikidata. A Wikidata query is a valuable tool for asking questions about "pieces of knowledge in this world and their relationships" (Query Help). The query service is also especially important for WikiProjects like ours because it can be used to generate lists of items relevant to writing studies. Such lists can help us understand specific gaps in Wikidata coverage of subjects related to writing studies, gaps in the encyclopedia, and missing links between the two. See below for a list of query links useful for participants interested in using Wikidata to improve coverage of Writing Studies content:

• Individual whose main field of study is rhetoric
• Individual whose main field of study is composition studies

WikiProjects are built, edited, and maintained by a volunteer base of active participants. Articles under our scope are often edited by both active WikiProject Writing participants, as well as the wider Wikipedian community. Periodically, our article lists (general articles in need of improvement and articles in need of creation) will need to be reviewed and updated to account for new contributions. Here's how you can help:

General articles in need of improvement: Review the article list and article breadcrumbs (notes listed in parenthesis next to each article). Read and review the article(s), looking for both general and breadcrumb-specific improvements. If the notes have already been implemented into the article, delete them and add a new note with a new source or area in need of improvement. if you think the article no longer needs improvement, leave a note on WikiProject Writing's discussion page with a link to the article and why you think the article should be removed from the list.

Articles in need of creation: Review the article list and look for articles that now have bluelinks; these are articles that have now been created. Take a look at the new article and look for any clean up banners and sections in need of improvement or expansion. Delete these articles from the list and move them to the General articles in need of improvement list with your suggestions for further improvements.

When you're finished, be sure to leave a message on the WikiProject Writing discussion page mentioning what you reviewed and when. This will help other participants keep track of what's already been revised and signal renewed edit guidance on articles of interest.