User:Sadads/DH class
https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Index:Father%27s_memoirs_of_his_child.djvu
For this exercise, I primarily worked on the article Regeneration (novel). Currently the article has been developed over a long period of time, but most of it is haphazard. In particular, the plot summary and the discussion of themes are rather poor. To begin revising the article, I did a basic search on Google scholar, and reading first an article on Masculinity and then an interview and another article on intertexuality, began expanding and refining those sections. For a record of what I changed to the article, see this comparison of the edits. In particular, I think these contributions help remove the problematic original research about themes and various texts, that operated more as trivia than as useful insights into the text. I plan to continue expanding the page throughout the semester, as part of my work for the Downton Abbey in context class, because its a relatively prominent novel, and the current state lends itself to misreading it. As I go forward in these revisions, I hope to represent more scholarly opinions, instead of the more onesided reading that is happening right now.
I ended up contributing to The Sneetches and Other Stories. I own a book entitled The Gospel According to Dr. Seuss by James W. Kemp. The book contained three chapters that all related to stories found in The Sneetches. I was concerned as I was writing the summaries of the chapters that the information might be biased. I thought that since the book only dealt with a Christian reading of the text, it would be perceived as providing a one-sided viewpoint of the stories. With that in mind, I tried to make my contribution as neutral as possible by emphasizing that it was Kemp's interpretation and not an authoritative reading of the text. Of course, I did not consider other possibilities as to why my information would not work on the page. My edit was taken off within 24 hours. The editor explained that my contribution was removed because the information was not about the book itself, but about another book that used The Sneetches as a source. I agree with the editor's decision. It was not something that I considered, and it would make more sense to place the information on its own page or perhaps the author's page. Special:Contributions/Vlvincent12
After consideration, I decided to focus my efforts solely on expanding the stub page The Homecoming of Beorhtnoth Beorhthelm's Son. Previously, there was only a very basic description of the work and its component parts. Though there's a lot of work that still needs to be done on the page, I decided to focus on adding two sections: plot summary and critical discussion. For the plot section, my aim was to give readers more details about the play's main action, characters, and driving conflict--enough to give give readers a sense of the work without spoiling it, should they want to read it in full. The bulk of my contributions, however, involved providing key aspects of the critical discussion surrounding "Homecoming." I've tried to represent a variety of different scholars' opinions, incorporating the work's relation to Old English poetry and to Tolkien's ideas about heroism, as well as referencing how those ideas about heroism show through in Tolkien's Middle-earth fiction. Furthermore, I also made sure to utilize the infrastructure to link out to relevant articles, and (of course) to add in references. Special:Contributions/TurinT
Added image of commemorative plaque marking the site of the Battle of Maldon.
All of my additions were made to the First-year composition page. I added a section titled "First-Year Requirement Debate" that acknowledges the debate in composition studies regarding the first-year composition requirement held at most universities. I added this section largely to make users aware that there is a scholarly discussion happening about the status of this course and that some universities have abolished this requirement. While I added and cited three scholarly opinions, most of the information came from two scholars who represent the different viewpoints on the issue. I tried to maintain neutrality by giving both sides of the argument, noting that no consensus has been reached in this conversation, and that there are a multitude of other voices who have contributed to the debate. After discussing my contribution with my partner on Friday, I added more specific information about Crowley's and Smit's argument. My partner aptly noted that my representation of the views was a bit vague and a clearer summary of their arguments could be given. On Friday, I also linked to Composition studies and altered an unclear sentence. My contributions totaled around 400 words. Special:Contributions/Tylermil.
I made an addition to the psychology of film article, including information from a study on eye tracking which involved participants who had not been exposed to film in their lives. There was a section in the article that discussed how we learned to watch and understand film techniques, so I think citing this source was helping to make that statement more valid. I also added information about the difference between top-down and bottom-up processes, and how those influence film watching. On Friday in class, my partner added links for some of the terms in my discussion of the study.
(Special:Contributions/stephmscott16)
I made most of my contributions to Russell Freedman, mostly because I found sources easily for his page. I added a lot of information to his biography, and added a section listing many of his awards. This section will probably need more work in the future, not only because he'll win more awards, but because some of the awards I'm not even sure should be listed on Wikipedia, and some awards were probably missing from the source I found the information from. But I feel like my contribution is a good start, anyway. For Lincoln: A Photobiography, I added a short section titled Critical Reception. Unfortunately, I could only find and access one of the book's original reviews, I know there are a lot more reviews out there, but I would need to interlibrary loan them, since K-State didn't have access to the texts. Special:Contributions/Llbrummer.
For my contribution I edited The Round House (novel) page. I read Louise Erdrich's novel last semester and still have it on hand. Upon examining the page, which was merely a stub, I decided to add a "Plot Summary" section. Previously, the page only contained a one sentence description of the novel and a list of awards won. I looked back through the novel to refresh myself on the story and some of the main characters. I tried to give readers a detailed description of the main plot points, while trying to not give any major plot twists away. As the plot is rather extensive, I tried to stay away from discussing the main themes and political issues Louise Erdrich built the story around as I would like to add a separate section dedicated to both elements. I would like to continue expanding this page as the semester goes on adding various sections. I would love to add character descriptions, a discussion of the themes and the issues surrounding jurisdiction, and of course incorporate more scholarly sources and opinions of the novel into the page. (Special:Contributions/Taymad10)
For this exercise I worked on the wiki page for Jeanette Winterson's novel, Sexing the Cherry. I found the information in the page to be vague and not a lot of citations were added. Before I decided to edit some of the scholarly information circulating this book the people visiting this page would not have had a lot of background information on some crucial scholarly conversation that has been happening in recent years. I added some of the scholarly conversation happening with Historiography and the chapter in the book that talks about The Twelve Dancing Princesses. I am currently working on updating some of the scholarly conversation that surrounds the main characters of Jordan and Dog Woman as well. The last things I added were 2 images; one of the author and the other of a 17th Century London map (since this is a crucial setting within the novel).
Special:Contributions/Zian Butler
For my contribution, I started by trying to provide more information on a mythology topic I've done a lot of personal research on: the hippogriff. I added two different paragraphs (about 100 words total), though I temporarily posted one without a full, "verifiable" source, as I was having trouble finding my original source. Within minutes, however, someone had already yanked all of my information off the page, even the perfectly verified bit. I tried again, but whoever it was obviously was jealously guarding this faulty and incomplete page, so I had to let it be. As I have done a lot of research on video game adaptations of children's books for my Writing Project, I added a paragraph under the new label I inserted - "Critical Reception" - on American McGee's Alice (~100 words) and a paragraph of video game literary theory under List of works based on Peter Pan (~100 words). Both of those changes still stand, though another helpful user moved my Peter Pan section from near the top of the page to the more appropriate "Video games" heading.
I introduced the Wikimedia Commons image captioned "Roger délivrant Angélique by Louis-Édouard Rioult depicts a hippogriff in flight" into the hippogriff page under the section "Beliefs and Symbols" in order to provide readers with another fine art representation of hippogriffs besides the famous Gustave Doré illustration.
Special:Contributions/Arden Corvidae
- Marilynne Robinson
- Charles Johnson (writer) - which Johnson page were you thinking about editing? Sadads (talk) 19:09, 3 March 2014 (UTC)
- Gilead (novel)
I edited the Gilead (novel) page. I added some context to the introduction, specifically I added that Gilead is a prequel to Robinson's highly acclaimed novel Housekeeping which as published thirty-fours years ago. I also pointed out that is an epistolary novel. My major changes, however, took place under "Influces" and "Societal Impact." Using one of Robinson's lectures in which she clearly states how Calvin's Institutes of the Christian Religion affect her writing and aesthetic, and I was able to add a "theological" influence. The article already recognized the theological underpinnings in the "Plot" section, so I think it was a nice addition. Similarly, with "Societal Impact" I was able to reference some of Robinson's other work as well as a review in The New York Times to demonstrate how her novel works to deconstruct modern stereotypes in relation to Calvin and the Puritans. I included the link to the video lecture, an extensive essay from the Reformed Church of America regarding her book of essays "The Death of Adam, and the link the The New York Times article. My edits equaled approximately 375 words.
For this assignment, I chose to add a “Critical Discussion” section to the “Iago” page. The page itself was much less developed than I was expecting, and, while there was a “Motives” section that quoted different actors’ outlooks on the character of Iago, there was a lack of scholarly input. Thus, I added the opinions of three different scholars (Babcock, West, and Draper), which were all summaries of articles that had appeared in peer-reviewed journals. My hope in adding their opinions was to make the public aware that there are a variety of views regarding Iago’s character and motives; there is a conversation in which scholars offer their research, but which has not yielded a definitive pronouncement on the character. I believe that allowing the public to see this conversation shows them that it’s okay to have and express an opinion that might not be held by others, while at the same time bringing them into contact with well-research articles that could further inform their own knowledge and understanding of this complex character. (Special:Contributions/emhoyt)
I chose to make additions specifically to the page for The Neighbourhood's debut album, I Love You. I noticed the subheading regarding critical reception was especially lacking, stating simply: "Critical response to I Love You. was mixed; aggregating website, Metacritic, reports a weighted average rating of 48, based on 8 reviews, indicating 'mixed or average reviews'." I wanted to add a sort of abstract of several of the "mixed" reviews to give readers a better idea of what the critics were critiquing about the specific album and to provide more of a cross-section than simply "mixed or average." With my contributions, readers should be able to get a better idea of the album's shortcoming and triumphs. (Special:Contributions/ekampsen)
I chose to make an addition to the article on Social media marketing. The article was fairly polished, but I noticed that there was definitely a lot more that could be added on the subject. Under the campaigns section, there wer five notable social media marketing campaigns listed. While these are famous examples, I know there were more that could be added. I chose to add to the campaigns section with an entry detailing the famous San Francisco Bat Kid campaign. Most of us that use the internet actively were probably aware of this going on around November in 2013. This campaign was a good example of the power of social media in modern society. The other article I added to was about Aggieville. Unfortunately, this article is barren compared to what it could contain. While there is much work to be done on it, I added a section describing one of Aggieville's popular establishments, Auntie Mae's. Special:Contributions/Famstutz