Each student must improve one Wikipedia article that addresses a short story or poem from our assigned reading. Each student will analyze the current Wikipedia article and then rewrite the article to preserve its strengths and to correct its weaknesses. Students should select an article that needs improvement. For instance, compare the excellent (and very long) Wikipedia article about Shakespeare’s Hamlet with the weaker article about “A Rose for Emily” or the very weak article about “Soldier’s Home”. Avoid the “Hamlet” article as it has little room for you to make a contribution. If you research a poem or story that does not have an article in Wikipedia, then create a new article modelled on an existing, exceptional Wikipedia article. For a good model of a Wikipedia article, look at “Indian Camp” the short story or “Ulysses” the poem.
Begin your article by using the opening paragraph of the Wikipedia article. For instance, if you choose to develop the article about Faulkner’s story “A Rose for Emily”, then start this way:
According to Wikipedia, “A Rose for Emily” is a short story by American author William Faulkner first published in April 30, 1930 issue of The Forum. The story takes place in Faulkner’s fictional city, Jefferson, Mississippi, in the fictional county of Yoknapatawpha County. It was Faulkner’s first short story published in a national magazine.
If you copy and paste the material from Wikipedia, then you must be careful to change the font and style to match your MLA document and to remove the hyperlinks, which MLA does not use. Remember, MLA and Wikipedia do not use the same format, so be mindful. Part of the purpose for this assignment is to teach you how to format a document in MLA style. You should also add authoritative resources to support the facts in any material you add to your document. For instance, add a reference for the date of publication.
This document focuses on research of a given work. It also assesses if you can analyze an existing critical article for strengths and weaknesses. Thus, this assignment helps you sharpen your ability to analyze and research an assigned topic or issue, a skill that will work well for you in college and in your careers. Your purpose is to provide interested readers with reliable information about your topic. Your voice should be academic, educated, and authoritative—slightly stuffy. You should verify everything you write with authoritative sources. There is no room in this article for your opinion, so avoid using first and second person (I and you). You should sound like an encyclopedia that addresses an educated audience in search of useful, reliable information about some poem or short story. You want to convince your readers that they have gotten the best information, so you must base your information on authoritative resources. The library can help you find those resources. Follow the MLA guidelines.
You must cite everything in your article. Citations have two parts: the in-text citation which points to a reference on the Works Cited page. For instance, when you quote a story such as “A Rose for Emily” by William Faulkner, put the title of the story in quotation marks, put the quote itself in quotation marks if shorter than 4 lines: “When Miss Emily Grierson died, our whole town went to her funeral” (99), with the page number/s in parentheses inside the end punctuation. If you quote 4 lines or more, set off the quote on separate lines, indented one-half inch from the left margin, without quotation marks, with the page number/s in parentheses outside the end punctuation:
Already we knew that there was one room in that region above stairs which no one had seen in forty years, and which would have to be forced. They waited until Miss Emily was decently in the ground before they opened it. The violence of breaking down the door seemed to fill this room with pervading dust. A thin, acrid pall as of the tomb seemed to lie everywhere. (104)
Using the author’s last name (Faulkner) in your text points the reader to a reference on the Works Cited page at the end of the document. Remember: a citation has two parts: in-text citation and end of document reference. You must have BOTH.
Works Cited
Faulkner, William. “A Rose for Emily.” The Bedford Introduction to Literature: Reading, Thinking, Writing, 10th ed, edited by Michael Meyer, Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2013, pp. 21-26. (sample selection from anthology)
Hamon, Keith. Faulkner Unbound. Big Publisher, Inc., 1825. (sample book reference)
Hans van Stralen “The Coveted Monument.” PSYART: A Hyperlink Journal for the Psychological Study of the Arts, 8 June 2013, psyartjournal.com/article/show/van_stralen- the_coveted_monument. Accessed 10 Aug. 2004. (sample online reference)
Meyer, Michael, editor. The Bedford Introduction to Literature: Reading, Thinking, Writing, 10th ed. Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2013. (sample anthology reference)