User talk:ProfKerry

Important Tips Before Editing Articles

Please review the following to get a better idea of what you should add to this article:

1. Please document your source by citing a reference to prove your text is verifiable.
2. Please add text that has a neutral point of view instead of sounding like an advertisement.
3. Please read the "Editing, Creating, and Maintaining Articles" chapter from the book Wikipedia : The Missing Manual, ISBN 9780596515164.

I sometimes place this text in talk sections of various articles. This is not meant to target anything specific about you, but instead as a time saver for me. • Sbmeirow • Talk • 08:17, 3 August 2012 (UTC)

One further tip, look at other "big" college articles for layout and content ideas, because some of them are quite extensive and very well written. Examine Wikipedia:College and university article guidelines. • Sbmeirow • Talk • 08:24, 3 August 2012 (UTC)

You can download a FREE copy of Wikipedia: The Missing Manual at Book:Wikipedia:_The_Missing_Manual. This is based off "live" edits, which is newer than the printed book. • Sbmeirow • Talk • 08:40, 3 August 2012 (UTC)

McPherson College

Instructions for notable people sections

When you add a name in this section, it's YOUR responsibility to ensure all of the following for each person:

1. Insert person into list sorted by class year and/or last name (surname).
2. Each person MUST meet Wikipedia:Bio requirements to ensure notability (see Wikipedia:Notability).
3. Each person MUST meet Wikipedia:Verifiability requirements to verify their notability and prove they attended the school.
4. If the person has a Wikipedia article, then wikilink the persons name to the correct wikipedia article, otherwise add citation reference(s) to prove notability and attended the school (see Wikipedia:Citing sources).

I don't "own" any of these articles, but I do watch over most Kansas related articles for vandalism and try to help correct problems.

"My affiliation with the college precludes me from editing under wiki rules." comment from User:ProfKerry

I don't think it means that you can't make any edits, but instead likely targest people who adds a large amount of text to an article. Those types of "rules" were likely created to slow down self-promotion or promotion of something very close to themselves, like a business or something they created. You are more than welcome to edit the article, but PLEASE add references so I or other people can validate the text.

• Sbmeirow • Talk • 05:13, 3 August 2012 (UTC)

The McPherson College article is in dire need of references to "validate" the text. If the article gets updated with a lot of references, then we can remomve the "references" part of the banner. • Sbmeirow • Talk • 08:12, 3 August 2012 (UTC)

Happy to add sources, but I have a question about archive material: Records in the college archive support a number of items in the history of the college section (date and names of founders, for example). They are not published, but the archive is open to the public. The page/talk on Original Research didn't seem to offer a clear answer there. Wikipedia seems to diverge from academic standards in my field in this regard, so I'd appreciate any advice. ProfKerry (talk) 12:22, 3 August 2012 (UTC)ProfKerry

I assume that a lot of early history is listed in the 2 books in the McPherson_College#Further_reading section. You can reference printed books, if the information doesn't exist anywhere online. I've done it when I expanded the Peabody, Kansas article, since their centennial book isn't online; though I've added additional references to anything that I can find online. There is lots of information in old Kansas history books too, see archive.org. Anything older than January 1, 1923 is NOT covered by copyright laws, so you can scan documents, put them online, then reference those documents. • Sbmeirow • Talk • 18:05, 3 August 2012 (UTC)

I searched archive.org for McPherson related documents and found the book listed in this article. I added a link to the free PDF, see McPherson_College#Further_reading section. • Sbmeirow • Talk • 18:34, 3 August 2012 (UTC)

I have been collecting ebook links for Kansas historical books, and have some of them listed on one of my personal wiki sub pages, see User:Sbmeirow/Books. • Sbmeirow • Talk • 18:54, 3 August 2012 (UTC)

Please don't cite head of departments in the article, unless that person is considered notable in Wikipedia. Those details are important for college web pages, but not Wikipedia. This is not just a notability issue, but employees come and go thus hard to keep articles accurate over long periods of time. Thanks. • Sbmeirow • Talk • 12:23, 9 August 2012 (UTC)

Please examine Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Words to watch to ensure this article doesn't get too "fluffy". I'm kind of busy this week, so I'll have to go back and read everything in detail later. There are some other good points in that article, like not using relative uses of time, ... • Sbmeirow • Talk • 12:33, 9 August 2012 (UTC)

"don't cite names of departments": I'm guessing you mean not to list department -heads-? Also I'm pretty much at the end of material the college has published or is on education sites. ProfKerry (talk) 01:08, 10 August 2012 (UTC)ProfKerry

yes, my typo, fixed it. • Sbmeirow • Talk • 04:35, 10 August 2012 (UTC)

For great college examples, look at links on this page: Wikipedia:College_and_university_article_guidelines#Example_articles I'm sure the longer articles have a lot of active people editing and enhancing them. The most important thing to take away from these examples is IDEAS....what have they included or not included and how they have approached the article layout....no different than learning anything else in life. • Sbmeirow • Talk • 04:35, 10 August 2012 (UTC)

Welcome to Wikipedia: check out the Teahouse!

Hello! ProfKerry, you are invited to the Teahouse, a forum on Wikipedia for new editors to ask questions about editing Wikipedia, and get support from peers and experienced editors. Please join us! hajatvrc @ 07:01, 4 August 2012 (UTC)