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=Welcome= =IAH 211D Area Studies the Middle East=

**Complexities of the Arab World**
Spring 2010 Professor Salah D. Hassan

The wiki project involves collaborative writing and research by group members. A wiki is an online document in which groups of individuals contribute to the design and content. Wikipedia is the largest example of a wiki. It consists of thousands of pages. Your wiki project will consist of 4-6 pages (one page single spaced per student). For the wiki project, each group will create a wiki based on a randomly assigned topic (see below) related to the early contexts in which Islam developed and Islamic concepts discussed in class. The wiki that the group creates will include general historical information on the topic and also images, links to relevant online resources and a list of references/sources. You must indicate in your text where you have quoted from your sources. For the wiki you are expected to do original academic research on the group topic. By academic research, what we mean is that your sources of information should be works by scholars with expertise in the field of Islamic, Middle Eastern or Arab Studies. In other words, you will not want to use Wikipedia or popular sources of information that are on the internet, such as blogs, organizational websites, newspaper or magazine articles, etc. Online research of academic materials is relatively easy at MSU. You can use the electronic databases on the [|MSU library website]: On the electronic resources webpage of the library, you can search your topic on the following sites: JSTOR; Project MUSE; or ProQuest. You can then download digital versions of the articles and document them for your works cited.
 * Wiki Group Project**
 * Due Date: February 23, 2010 by 1:00 pm**

Each student should include at least **ONE** academic source in his/her project. You may wish to include additional materials from books or credible news sources, such as weekly magazines or newspapers.. You may want to include images, charts, links and other elements in your wiki to illustrate your project. You can also scan images for inclusion on your page, but you should always document your sources.
 * NOTE ON RESAERCH**

As a group project, you are expected to help each other design and develop the wiki. You will decide together on the subtopics that you intend to address within the wiki and then assign subtopics to each group member. You will also want to comment on each others contributions, help revise each others pages, and make suggestions for ways to improve. Your project will be accessed based on the following criteria: 1) Quality of the research (15 pts): 2 academic sources, inclusion of references, inclusion of additional materials, etc 2) The design (10 pts): are the subtopics clearly indicated, are they specific, well illustrated with graphics, charts, images, etc 3) Quality of the writing (10 pts): are the ideas clearly presented, grammatically correct, clearly documented, etc 4) Effort (10 pts): how much time was put into the project.

If you need help with wikis, check out this short video: []

If you still need help, make an appointment to see me.

Getting Started

 * Click on the edit button above to put your own content on this page.
 * To invite new members, click on **Manage Wiki** and **Invite People**.
 * To change your wiki's colors or theme, click on **Manage Wiki** and **Look and Feel**.
 * To set who can view and edit your wiki, click on **Manage Wiki** and **Permissions**.

Need Help?

 * Click on the help link above to learn more about how to use your wiki.