Wikipedia:University of Edinburgh/Events and Workshops/Edinburgh Gothic 2018

University of Edinburgh edit-a-thon

Booking a place

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Booking is now open and you can book here.

Join the event!

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Click here to join the Edinburgh Gothic assignment page.
Click Allow to permit the assignment page to work with your Wikipedia account. This way we can help see changes to pages you edit today.

About the event

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Have you ever wondered why the information in Wikipedia is extensive for some topics and scarce for others? On Tuesday 13th November 2018, the University's Information Services team are hosting an edit-a-thon to celebrate Robert Louis Stevenson Day 2018. Full Wikipedia editing training will be given in the morning before a break for lunch. Thereafter the afternoon's editathon will focus on improving the quality of articles about all things Gothic. The University of Sheffield's Centre for the History of the Gothic will also be supporting the event.

Working together with liaison librarians, archivists & academic colleagues we will provide training on how to edit and participate in an open knowledge community. Participants will be supported to develop articles covering areas which could stand to be improved; Gothic art, Gothic architecture, Gothic literature, Gothic film, Gothic music, Gothic history etc.

Come along to learn about how Wikipedia works and contribute a greater understanding of Gothic history!

 
Robert Louis Stevenson

How do I prepare?

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  • Sign up for the event
  • Create a Wikipedia account
  • Bring a laptop (wi-fi will be provided)
  • Learn about editing if you like: Tutorial, or Getting started on Wikipedia for more information
  • Think about what you would like to edit - please prepare some materials to bring with you on the day
  • If you have time then the Wikipedia Adventure is a fun, informative & easy to follow tutorial you can do at home in 45-60 minutes which takes you through Wikipedia's main policies & guidelines and introduces you to Wikipedia's Source Editor.
  • Visual Editor user guide

Further reading: Wikipedia's main policies

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Programme

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Morning - Wikipedia Training and Talks

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  • 11:15-11:30am Tea and coffee
  • 11.30am to 12.30pm Talks
  • 12.30-1.30pm - Wikipedia training

Afternoon - Talk and Wikipedia edit-a-thon

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  • 1.30pm-2pm - Lunch break at DHT cafe.
  • 2.pm-5pm - EDIT.
  • 5.pm-5.30pm - Publish.

Thanks and close.

 
Frontispiece to Frankenstein 1831
 
We Can Edit

Trainers

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Ewan McAndrew, Wikimedian in Residence at the University of Edinburgh

Hit list of articles to be created or improved

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Helpful updates could be as simple as: Making sure reference links are still appropriate and functional; Adding new inline citations/references; Adding a photo; Adding an infobox; Adding data to more fields in an existing infobox; Creating headings; Adding categories; etc.

All are welcome to add names to the list which is intended to serve as a basis for creating new articles in this important but somewhat neglected sector on the English Wikipedia.

The following is a small sample of topics to work on. Feel free to come up with your own ideas!

Why not create a data-driven timeline of Gothic works by your favourite author e.g. Timeline of works by Robert Louis Stevenson

Looking for ideas

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  1. List of Gothic artists
  2. Gothic architecture
  3. Gothic architects
  4. Category: Gothic paintings
  5. List of gothic fiction works
  6. List of Gothic horror films
  7. Writers of Gothic fiction
  8. Gothic novels
  9. Southern Gothic films

The Manual of Style

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Wikipedia has help pages which set out style guidelines for pages being created on certain subject areas. Please have a look at the following pages:

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Some times it is a good idea to see how see how other similar articles have been structured. The following are considered to be of Featured Article quality.

Articles to be created

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Scottish Gothic

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Classic Gothic Literature

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Contemporary Gothic Writers

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Articles to be improved

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Scottish Gothic

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Gothic Architecture

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Classic Gothic literature

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Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde poster edit2
 
Picture of Margaret Oliphant

Contemporary Gothic Writers

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Southern Gothic

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Gothic films

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Robert Louis Stevenson on Wikisource

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Lost Literary Women - Articles to be created

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Edinburgh has a long literary history, and many famous authors have made the city their setting and subject. But it’s also a place rich in voices and stories which are now just the faintest of echoes around its streets and tenements. The LitLong app and web resource recovers some of these lives and stories, giving them back to the city and its readers. But LitLong users rely on the common store of knowledge built up elsewhere online, so in this event we’ll be adding to that store by creating and improving Wikipedia pages for neglected or overlooked authors in the LitLong database.

Lost Literary Women- articles to be improved

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Tools

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  1. A tool which 'scores' a Wikipedia page. (tick the checkbox for WP10 once you've selected enwiki from the dropdown menu)
  2. Citation Hunt tool
  3. Google Books citation tool
  4. Plagiarism detector
  5. Special:BookSources - This page allows users to search for multiple sources for a book given the 10- or 13-digit ISBN number.

Sources

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Suggested sources:

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General
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  • DiscoverEd to find books, ebooks, journals, ejournals and more.
News sources
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Theses databases
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Example texts

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  1. 2012. The Victorian gothic : an Edinburgh companion. Edited by Andrew Smith and William Hughes. Edinburgh: Edinburgh : Edinburgh University Press.
  2. Baker, Timothy C. 2014. Contemporary Scottish Gothic Mourning, Authenticity, and Tradition.
  3. Glenn, Virginia. 2003. Romanesque & Gothic decorative metalwork and ivory carvings in the Museum of Scotland. Edited by Scotland National Museums of, Romanesque and #Gothic decorative metalwork and ivory carvings in the Museum of Scotland. Edinburgh: Edinburgh : Museums of Scotland.
  4. Hall, James. 1798. Essay on the origin and principles of Gothic architecture. By Sir James Hall ... From the Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. Read April 6. 1797. Edinburgh]: Edinburgh.
  5. Order of the, Thistle. 2009. The Thistle Chapel within St Giles' Cathedral, Edinburgh. Edited by Robin Blair. Edinburgh: Edinburgh : Published by The Order of the Thistle.
  6. Robertson, Fiona. 1994. Legitimate histories : Scott, Gothic, and the authorities of fiction. Oxford: Oxford : Clarendon Press.
  7. Smith, Andrew. 2013. Gothic literature. Second edition.. ed: Edinburgh : Edinburgh University Press.

Advice about searching

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Resources for Edinburgh Gothic Wikipedia Editathon

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Search results for Edinburgh AND Gothic in the following databases
Major problem: if including Edinburgh in search, many search results actually containing materials published in Edinburgh.
Better to use Scotland instead of Edinburgh as search term.
Gale Artemis primary sources including:

  1. 17th and 18th Century Burney Collection
  2. 19th Century UK Periodicals
  3. Archives Unbound
  4. British Library Newspapers
  5. Eighteenth Century Collections Online
  6. Nineteenth Century Collections Online
  7. The Times Digital Archive
  8. Times Literary Supplement Historical Archive

Combining Edinburgh AND Gothic in advanced keyword search = 8 monographs, 450 newspaper & periodical articles

e.g. Forbes, Robert. An Account of the Chapel of Roslin; One of the Most Curious Pieces of Gothic Architecture in Scotland; Built in the Year 1446, by William St Clare, Prince of Orkney, Baron of Roslin, &C. To Which Is Added, a Particular Description of the Costly House-Keeping, and Grand Retinue of Servants, Kept up by the Said Prince, and His Princess, Lady Elizabeth Douglas. Edinburgh: printed for William Wood Bookseller. Print. [1790]. In DiscoverEd.

Available from ECCO. URL: http://find.galegroup.com/ecco/infomark.do?&source=gale&docLevel=FASCIMILE&prodId=ECCO&userGroupName=ed_itw&tabID=T001&docId=CW3300617717&type=multipage&contentSet=ECCOArticles&version=1.0 Wikipedia entry:Rosslyn Chapel

Outcomes - Content created

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Articles created

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  • Eugene Chantrelle - French teacher who lived in Edinburgh and who was convicted for the murder of his wife, Elizabeth Dyer. He is claimed to be the inspiration for Robert Louis Stevenson's character Dr Jekyll featured in "The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde". Stevenson met Chantrelle at the home of Victor Richon, Stevenson's old French master. Chantrelle was hung for his crimes at Calton Prison in Edinburgh.
  • Thrawn Janet - a short story, written in Scots, by Robert Louis Stevenson. He wrote the story in the summer of 1881 while he stayed at the rented Kinnaird Cottage, Kinnaird near Pitlochry with his parents and wife. On reading the story to his wife Fanny she said of it that it "sent a cauld grue (shudder) along my bones" and "fair frightened" Stevenson himself. It was first published in the October 1881 issue of the Cornhill Magazine. It is a dark tale of satanic possession.
  • The Library Window - The Library Window is a short story by the Scottish author Margaret Oliphant. It was first published in Blackwood's Magazine in January 1896. It is a well-written ghost story where the protagonist is fascinated by a window at her aunt's house in which she sees the ghost of a young, murdered writer. It was one of Oliphant's most controversial stories. Modern interpretations consider it a statement of the oppressive conditions for women in the late Victorian period.
  • Corstorphine Collegiate Church - St. John’s Collegiate Church is at the old centre of Corstorphine, a village incorporated to the West area of Edinburgh. The church was transformed to the new format of worship of collegiate churches, which allowed a space for the parish to co-exist, and this included the absorption of earlier Gothic features from the previous building and the erection of the characteristic barrel vaults, which may have concluded by 1436.

Articles improved

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  • Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson - Improved by new section on the real-life inspiration of Dr. Eugene Chantrelle.
  • Olalla (short story) - written by the Scottish novelist, poet, essayist and travel writer Robert Louis Stevenson. It was first published in the Christmas 1885 issue of The Court and Society Review, then re-published in 1887 as part of the collection The Merry Men and Other Tales and Fables. It is set in Spain during the Peninsular War. The story is based on a dream that Stevenson had and in his 1888 essay "A Chapter on Dreams" he describes the difficulties he had in fitting his vision into a narrative framework. Stevenson wrote the story at the same time as he was proofing "The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde" (published 1886).
  • Author Margaret Oliphant - Wikipedia page improved with infobox and redrafting.
  • Author Louise Welsh Wikipedia page improved.
  • Author AL Kennedy Wikipedia page improved.
  • Author Patrick McGrath (novelist) page improved.
  • Robert Louis Stevenson article on Gaelic Wikipedia improved.
  • Touch Not the Cat by Mary Stewart - first published in 1976 and is one of her best-known works. In the United States, Touch Not the Cat was the 9th highest selling book of 1976. Like many of Stewart's novels, the story has a supernatural element. This novel is also classified as romantic suspense, mystery fiction or Gothic fiction.
  • Robert Louis Stevenson, Morag Joss, John Burnside, Catherine Cuthbertson, Alasdair Gray all improved with Category:Writers of Gothic Fiction.
  • Catherine Cuthbertson - Wikipedia article improved.
  • Sydney George Hulme Beaman - author & illustrator best known as the creator of the Toytown stories and their characters including Larry the Lamb. He also illustrated the 1930s John Lane, edition of a Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde.
  • Holyrood Abbey - article improved.
  • Architecture of Scotland in the Middle Ages - Rosslyn Chapel belongs to a very unique group of collegiate churches built throughout the 15th century. The majority are barrel vaults over single naves and votive or burial aisles, many built even till the 17th century. Their stonework is usually dressed but overall the structures are heavy as they are roofed by flagstones and the space of the pitch is filled with rubble. There are also a few domical vaults, like the Lady Aisle of the choir in St. Giles High Kirk, Edinburgh (before 1419).
  • Feck - In his 1881 short story Thrawn Janet, Robert Louis Stevenson invokes the sense of feck meaning Amount; quantity (or a large amount/quantity) e.g. "He had a feck o' books wi' him—mair than had ever been seen before in a' that presbytery..."
  • The Merry Men (short story) - a short story by Robert Louis Stevenson first published in 1882 in Cornhill Magazine.

Histropedia Timeline

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Wikidata

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Prior to the editathon, there were only 6 writers of Gothic fiction listed in Wikidata.

Wikisource (the free content library)

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Editors in attendance

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Sheffield Gothic

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  • Ann Radcliffe - (née Ward, 9 July 1764 – 7 February 1823) was an English author and pioneer of the Gothic novel. Her style is Romantic in its vivid descriptions of landscapes and long travel scenes, yet the Gothic element is obvious through her use of the supernatural. It was her technique, "the explained supernatural" as the final revelation of inexplicable phenomena, which helped the Gothic novel achieve respectability in the 1790s. 2500 approx characters added to the article.
  • Boy in Darkness - a novella written by Mervyn Peake. Upon publication of the work in 1956, a Glasgow Herald reviewer called it "completely hair-raising". Edwin Morgan referred to Boy In Darkness as a ‘very different’ piece, ‘a nouvelle, a sinister epic incident, a reflection in miniature of Titus Groan and Gormenghast.’The story is one of Mervyn Peake's short works. After this he wrote only Titus Alone (1959); by the time it was published, Parkinson's disease had made writing almost impossible for him, although he continued to draw, intermittently, for several more years. Improved by Littleljn
  • Marchmont (novel) - Marchmont is Charlotte Smith's ninth novel, and follows the story of her heroine, Althea Dacres, and the Marchmont family. It was published in August 1796. New article created by Maz Going.
  • Eleanor Sleath - New article created by Edwardx. Eleanor Sleath was an English novelist, best known for 1798 gothic novel, The Orphan of the Rhine, listed as one of the seven "horrid novels" by Jane Austen in her novel Northanger Abbey.
  • The Old English Baron - an early Gothic novel by the English author Clara Reeve. Copyedited.
  • Eliza Parsons - (1739 – 5 February 1811) was an English Gothic novelist. Her best-known novels in this genre are The Castle of Wolfenbach (1793) and The Mysterious Warning (1796) – two of the seven Gothic titles recommended as reading by a character in Jane Austen's novel Northanger Abbey. Copyedited.
  • Copyedited The Midnight Bell - a gothic novel by Francis Lathom. It was one of the seven "horrid novels" lampooned by Jane Austen in her novel Northanger Abbey.

Dear creature! How much I am obliged to you; and when you have finished Udolpho, we will read the Italian together; and I have made out a list of ten or twelve more of the same kind for you. Have you, indeed! How glad I am! What are they all? I will read you their names directly; here they are, in my pocketbook. Castle of Wolfenbach, Clermont, Mysterious Warnings, Necromancer of the Black Forest, Midnight Bell, Orphan of the Rhine, and Horrid Mysteries. Those will last us some time. Yes, pretty well; but are they all horrid, are you sure they are all horrid? —Northanger Abbey, ch. 6

  • Patrick McGrath (novelist) - Gothic writer. Infobox added.
  • Trauma (novel) - 2008 novel by Gothic author Patrick McGrath, centered on post-traumatic stress disorder cases as narrated by an American psychiatrist. 2458 characters added.

Sheffield Gothic attendees

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What can I do after the event?

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Join us for the event!

You may find these useful if you want to learn further about editing:

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Participants - Sign Up Here!

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Prior to the event:

  1. RSVP: ewan.mcandrew@ed.ac.uk
  2. Do you have a Wikipedia User Name?
    No? Create a Wikipedia account
    Yes? Go to Step #2
  3. Sign up! Add your Wikipedia User Name to this section by clicking the blue button below (follow instructions). Your name will be added to the bottom of this page
Don't worry! If you haven't edited Wikipedia before and don't have a Wikipedia User Name yet, we will help you on the day of the event! And remember to have fun!
To sign up for this event: Log in or create an account.