The "fitness" of applying wiki in my thesis writing class

Even for English majors, writing a thesis in English may still seem too big a project, for it involves much research work, reading, drafting, writing, revising, polishing, and even proofreading. Since thesis writing is both a required and necessary skill for language majors, to get this done, I always suggest my students to take group work in the process of preparing for a thesis, through which students can realize a smooth immersion into the role of researcher instead of being resistant to all these boring loads of work ahead.

My usual practice is to ask students individually choose an area they are interested in, like literature (may be more clearly defined as English literature, American literature), culture (including food culture, architecture, comparison and contrast between eastern and western culture), teaching pedagogy, translation. All these categories may be classified even more subtly depending on the specific field students propose as an interest. After I generally weigh the value of those fields, I will ask my students to find those whose chosen field is the same as theirs and form a group based on a common interest. Usually the group will be around 5-7 students. With this size, I aim to avoid laziness of some students who depend on other members of too big a team and realize qualified brainstorming within a group of certain quantity. Then students in groups talk about the feasibility of their specific area while the teacher gives necessary advice. Once the field is decided, students themselves and the teacher will collaboratively make a reading list as well as websites for information retrieval, followed by outlining, drafting, revising and the other steps till the completion of a thesis. All through this process, students in each group are assigned a division of the whole workload. Since the focus of this blog is about the application of wiki, I won't go into further details of normal process with thesis writing.

Then let me talk about the set-in of wiki in this thesis writing process. Wiki may be tuned in at the very early stage of selecting a field of research, with students give each other necessary suggestions and recommend related books or web links, since they have similar learning background and their ideas may contribute a lot or provide a different perspective of the person who initially thinks of the topic. Usually students favor to communicate with a set of close friends, which can possibly confine their thinking. In this sense, wiki can help to widen the lens and maximize the amount of information, for it gives a stage of contributing and sharing among all learners of the class. We all know, once the destination is settled, the route will be clearer and easier. Then on this path of writing the thesis, students can set up blocks of their theme and notify every member of the group about the development of their part, while other groups are encouraged to offer advice and make contribution as well. If any part proves diversion from the trunk, within a short while, it might be corrected before going too far as many minds are attentive to this process. I myself have had such experience and know well how frustrated you will be when a certain step is mistakenly made and caused the whole building collapse. Wiki then can be and is a great help in realizing a more efficient work. Once the topic selection and drafting are completed, revising and proofreading may be much better facilitated, since wiki opens a channel for open-editing.

In short, if wiki can be designed to fit into the setting of the course and the pedagogical pattern, it can indeed prove to be an easy creation of big work.