Wikipedia:Ambassadors/Resources/Discussion 2
Appearance
Goals: To introduce students to the basics of Wikipedia editing and Wikipedia policy.
Note: Students have previously created accounts and edited userpages.
Part 1: Five pillars
[edit]What are the five pillars and what do they mean?
Link to the 5 pillars presentation: https://prezi.com/secure/d276e9e6c9f7b717e430db0a836a87e754c2a203/
- WP is an encyclopedia
- WP has a NPOV (e.g. Evolution)
- WP is free content - they give up their rights to their work
- WPians should interact in a civil and respectful manner
- WP does not have firm rules
Part 2: Sourcing and no original research
[edit]- Peer-reviewed, academic journals
- University presses
- Large presses
- Major newspapers (when is this primary?)
- White papers (when is this primary?)
- Government publications (when is this primary?)
- Controversial material (e.g. Homeopathy) The more controversial something is, the more citations it has.
- Likely to be challenged - In practice, most everything is cited. Wikipedia's legitimacy comes through citation.
- Material about living people
- Quotations
- Statistics
- "first", "best", etc.
- Wikipedia is a tertiary source - it summarizes secondary sources.
- Wikipedia is fundamentally conservative - it does not report NEW research or ground-breaking discoveries. It is not cutting edge. Everything in Wikipedia has already been reported/published elsewhere first.
- Verifiability, not truth: Wikipedia aims to report what has been published about a topic, not what is true.
Part 3: Editing skills
[edit]Prologue: Demonstrate WHERE TO FIND HELP
Sandbox
[edit]- Create a SANDBOX
- Add some text (lipsum.com) - 10 paragraphs
- Preview
- Edit Summary
Headers and signing
[edit]- Add HEADERS (level 2 and level 3) to organize articles
- Preview
- TOC generated automatically after 4 headings added
- Edit Summary
- Headers on TALK PAGES, also
- Use of talk pages…
- Leave message and SIGN NAME
Sections and lists
[edit]- Editing Page vs. Editing Section
- Edit section - make a list with 1 "enter" keystroke between items
- Preview - not a list - because of LINE BREAKS
- Edit - with 2 "enter" keystrokes
- Preview - looks good
- Edit Summary
- Turn that list into a BULLETED LIST
- Preview
- Remove extra spaces between some items to demonstrate
- Change bullets to NUMBERED LIST
- Edit Summary
Links
[edit]- Link to another Wiki page
- Preview - link displays blue
- Make a typo in the Wiki page name
- Preview - link displays in red
- Fix the typo
- Edit Summary
- Create EXTERNAL LINKS section at bottom (level 2 heading)
- Add a URL, no brackets
- Preview - see URL displayed
- Beneath that, add a URL in brackets with a label
- Preview - see label displayed
- Edit Summary
References
[edit]- Create a REFERENCES section above External Links section
- Add <references/> tag
- Preview - can't see the tag
- Go into text and make up a reference
- <ref>Reference details go here</ref>
- Preview - see "1" inline and listed in Reference section
- Edit Summary
- Shortcut for code and style: reference TEMPLATE
- My Preferences >> Gadgets >> Editing gadgets >> refTools >> Save
- In WYSIWYG editor, demo "Cite" tab
History
[edit]- Click "View History"
- Displays a list of the Edit Summaries - that's why they're valuable
If time....
[edit]- Adding image
- Adding infoboxes/navboxes
- Tables
- Indent
- Special characters