Talk:Tobacco in Alabama

Wikipedia Ambassador Program assignment
This article is the subject of an educational assignment at Troy University supported by WikiProject United States Public Policy and the Wikipedia Ambassador Program&#32;during the 2011 Spring term. Further details are available on the course page.

Above message substituted from on 14:14, 7 January 2023 (UTC)

DYK
This article should be eligible for appearing on the main page as a "Did you know" entry, if it is nominated it soon; it is supposed to be nominated within 5 days of being created or significantly (5x) expanded.

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--Sage Ross - Online Facilitator, Wikimedia Foundation (talk) 16:06, 27 April 2011 (UTC)

Bejinhan's comments
Bejinhan  talks  07:40, 28 April 2011 (UTC) Bejinhan  talks  13:14, 28 April 2011 (UTC)
 * The article needs a lead section. The lead section is a summary of everything important mentioned in the article. At such, the lead does not need sources as whatever in it should be in the article (and cited).
 * I moved the article title to Tobacco in Alabama. Since there is no obvious connection between Tobacco Free Alabama and the article, it sounds like a "campaign" of some sorts.
 * I removed the list in the Statewide smoking bans section as it isn't necessary.
 * References should always be placed after periods and not the other way.
 * When using a cite web template, put in the URL as well. If possible, add the publication date if it is available. Right now, all the refs are not complete without the URLs.
 * I will be copyediting the article in various stages. Check my edits via the article history.
 * When using information from a source, always paraphrase it. Never copy+paste nor change only a few words because these constitute copyright violations and Wikipedia takes copyright violations seriously.
 * If there's any questions, please do not hesitate to ask. I am here to help you improve the article. :)
 * In the History of tobacco section, please put in tobacco history which is related to Alabama. For example, growth of tobacco in Alabama, the manufacturing of tobacco in Alabama, and etc.
 * There was a source titled Smoking Ban In Alabama. I searched for a link of it in Google but could not find one. Can I have the link?

Comments from Chzz
Hi there.

The above comments are great suggestions; here are a few more;

Plagiarism

 * - and don't just change a few words, either.

To do so is a copyright violation, which absolutely is not permitted. We want references, of course - but you have to use your own words.

Two specific problems I found were;
 * Article: The Youth Empowerment Program is a peer-teaching model that provides anti-tobacco messages to more than 58,000 teens according to Alabama's state health officer...
 * Source: the Youth Empowerment Program, which is a peer-teaching model that provides anti-tobacco messages to more than 58,000 teens.

You can quote from a source - in quotation marks, and giving a direct reference immediately afterwards - but a) quotations should not be excessive, and b) you must make it clear that you are quoting.
 * Article: A national study shows that Alabama’s economy suffers $5.6 billion a year in direct costs because of smoking, which also includes more than $1 billion in lost workplace productivity and $1.7 billion in direct medical expenditure
 * Source: Last year, a national study on smoking showed that Alabama's economy suffers $5.6 billion a year in direct costs because of smoking, including more than $1 billion in lost workplace productivity and $1.7 billion in direct medical expenditures.

This is Close paraphrasing, and I simply cannot emphasize this enough; copyright violations are nor permitted.

Please, take great care, and remove any such copied information.

Named references
You can 'name' references that you use more than once, to save repeating them. For example,

Chzz was born in 1837.

Chzz lives in Footown.

Note that the second usage has a / (and no closing ref tag).

Please see user:chzz/demo/namedref to see that example.

Reliable sources
As Bejinham noted above, the references need more details; they should have enough information so that the reader can find them. They also need to be reliable sources - that is, with a 'reputation for fact-checking and accuracy' and 'editorial control'.

Good sources include books, and newspapers. Some websites are OK - for example, CNN News, or BBC News. Most websites are not reliable sources. Consider if you would trust the information you read on the website. If in doubt, check by asking on the Reliable sources/Noticeboard.
 * http://academic.udayton.edu/health/syllabi/tobacco/history.htm does not seem to be a reliable source.

Note, sources do not have to be available online - but they do have to give details. It's not enough to say "Teen Smoking. Times Daily." - I cannot locate that article. There are lots of publications around the world called 'Times Daily'. You need to state the publisher, their location, the author, the date, and preferably the ISSN and page number. If there is a legal, online copy (which usually means the website of the publisher), then you should include the link, and the date you accessed it.

One way to do that is, to use citation templates - see User:Chzz/help/refs and.

Balance
Please try to present a fair reflection of all sides of the issue. I assume there have been, or are, protests about the smoking ban - so the article should cover that; see WP:WEIGHT. We shouldn't provide excessive coverage of any one incident, but we do need to provide an overview. It would help, I think, to use facts from newspaper articles.

Best of luck, and please feel free to ask me questions, any time.  Chzz  ► 01:20, 29 April 2011 (UTC)