1. Choose your topic and think about the issues you want to write about. 

2. When working on a wiki, read if somebody else has already written on what you are going to write about.

3. Go online and do some searches for background reading; filter the information you find. When you find useful information, copy and paste the information and url into your sandbox or a Word file. Make a full reference. (see example below)

4. Write down some ideas and points to follow. Don’t only think about contents, but structure and organization (flow of ideas) as well.

5. Start writing (in your sandbox or Word file). Copy and paste it into the wiki.

6. Re-read and edit not only your contribution but what ‘surrounds’ your contribution on the page as well.

7. If necessary, comment and discuss issues that come up using the comment button or forum. You are working together, collaborating and this requires communication (e.g. Alice wants to know why somebody has deleted her work or Isabella wants to know if it’s ok with the others if she significantly changes the structure of the page).

8. [Ask someone else to read it.] Luckily on a wiki that’s happen continuously (if you’re doing your part in point 6!)

9. Re-read and check for organization, contents and, of course, language.

Referencing example.

1. I find this text that I think is interesting, so I copy it into my sandbox as follows.

"It is very funny and interesting to contribute to a wiki page BUT (third 'but' in capital...) there is one thing I can't stand with: why someone has the power to "destroy" what I have done If I did it for the whole group? For example, last week I was trying to give the wiki a good structure and after a hard work I succeded in dividing the page in sections and put all the text with the same font and it came out a well-done job (not only because it was my job...^_-). When the following day I checked out if someone had edited the page, I discovered that the adjustments made were not in the right section and with another font...I've found it very annoying because it is not for my pleasure if I work in order to give the wiki a comprehensible structure but for the whole group...SO please, pay attention to these "little" things too and not only to the content of what you are writing."

2. I copy the url and make a reference.

Alice (2007). Blogpost from Alice in Wonderland on 17 March 2007. Retrieved from http://www.eddinaworld.blogspot.com/ on 19 March 2007.

3. I decide to a. paraphrase or b. use a direct quote.

a.       Writing on a wiki can be an enjoyable experience but it can also be frustrating because others can delete your work.

b.      Writing on a wiki can be an enjoyable experience, but it can also be frustrating; as one student puts it, “there is one thing I can't stand with: why someone has the power to "destroy" what I have done If I did it for the whole group?”

4. Cite the information in the text (below are two examples, either are appropriate for either example).

a.       Writing on a wiki can be an enjoyable experience but it can also be frustrating because others can delete your work.[1]

b.      Writing on a wiki can be an enjoyable experience, but it can also be frustrating; as one student puts it, “there is one thing I can't stand with: why someone has the power to "destroy" what I have done If I did it for the whole group?” (Alice, 2007).

5. Reference the information at the end of the text.

a. [1] Alice (2007). Blogpost from Alice in Wonderland on 17 March 2007. Retrieved from http://www.eddinaworld.blogspot.com/ on 19 March 2007.

b. Alice (2007). Blogpost from Alice in Wonderland on 17 March 2007. Retrieved from http://www.eddinaworld.blogspot.com/ on 19 March 2007.

More info at Purdue University’s Online Writing Lab’s Online Writing Lab.