Africa Growth Pilot/Live Tutorials on Core Policies/Module3

Module 3: The Voice of Wikipedia: Neutral Point of View

Rationale

The most basic core policy of all, the one without understanding which one cannot contribute even a single sentence to Wikipedia, is the policy of Neutral Point of View. It is at the same time intuitively-reasonable (does not provoke resistance in newbies), eminently teachable, by principles and examples, but also nuanced and with some surprisingly tricky edge-cases.

Understanding of NPOV -- even only of NPOV -- can already allow a volunteer to contribute to Wikipedia in certain ways. (e.g. correcting neutrality of existing articles, expanding an article with additional uncontroversial statements), and is indispensable for any other work on Wikipedia.

Teaching NPOV requires absolutely no contact with Mediawiki's interface, so that learners can focus on the material and not on interface details or challenges. It is therefore the first core policy taught in the pilot.

Goal

Learners understand the concept of 'voice' in writing, of "Wikipedia's Voice" on Wikipedia, and of the main characteristic of that voice being neutrality.
Learners learn to identify the many kinds of non-neutrality and bias, beyond the ones we intuitively think of when thinking of 'neutrality'.
Learners learn how to correct them into neutral phrases.
Learners practice correcting non-neutral texts.
Learners practice writing neutral prose themselves.

Time frame

2 sessions of 120 minutes each.

Outline

First session:

Wikipedia is written in a NPOV
NPOV is an ideal
Wikipedia's Voice - a precious asset we must all protect
- Example passage (who wrote it? Where are they from? What is their gender? What do they think about the topic?)
Opening example
- Un-encyclopedic questions (e.g. "Who is the best football player of all time?")
- NPOV way of describing achievement
Achieving NPOV:
- Be fair and accurate, write in Wikipedia's Voice
  - Opinions vs. facts
  - Presenting opinions
  - Puffery
  - Emotive language
  - Editorializing
  - Weasel words and unsupported attribution
  - Implying doubt or truth
  - Idioms and clichés
  - Contentious labeling
- Don't take sides
  - Writing neutrally about controversies
  - Transcend the controversy and report on it
- Write for the world
  - Do not assume the reader's nationality, religion, culture, etc.
  - Contextualize! (e.g. "in Slavic folklore, ...", or "According to the Hebrew Bible, ...")
  - Avoid relative place/time references ("recently", "in this country")
- Avoid undue weight
  - "Some people consider the Earth to be round; others consider it to be flat."
  - Reflect majority view in reliable sources
Exercise 1: Neutral or Not? (words and phrases)
Exercise 2: Rewrites (sentences)
Exercise 3: (homework) Composition
Exercise 4: (homework) Rewrite a non-neutral paragraph

Second session:

Review of NPOV principles
Review of exercise 3: Composition
Review of exercise 4: Rewrite a non-neutral paragraph
Q&A