User:AlecMichaels/sandbox

How to Write a Sports Article
This assignment included writing a set of instructions on how to write a Wikipedia article of a certain genre. In this assignment, we reviewed a featured and good article of the same genre, and had to compare and contrast these. We also looked at other things such as the Featured article criteria, Wikipedia articles, and other sources to help guide us write these set of instructions.

According to Good Article Criteria, Wikipedia articles in general should be well written, and easy to understand. The article must be verifiable with multiple credible sources, including no original research or opinion. The article must be written from a neutral point of view, including no bias. The article should be relatively stable, with not many major unnecessary revisions. The article should be set up in chronological order as the sections follow in the rest of this article.

Lead Section
The lead section of an article introduces main ideas of the article, and helps readers get a broad understanding. This can be completed by strictly focusing on main points in the lead section, and not getting too in-depth about things that are not important. Often, readers use Wikipedia to gain basic information on a topic. The lead section may be all the reader reads; therefore, the lead section must be broad and accurate. As we see in Baseball and American football, the lead section is the first piece of text in the article, located directly above the table of contents box. The average lead section word length for the two articles I examined was 380 words, indicating a good target for the length of lead sections. Another good measure for length of lead sections can be found below. This breaks down how long the lead section should be, according to number of characters the article has. ( lead section )

Table of Contents
This area should be a box under the lead section, which indicates the order of the article's sections and are hyperlinked to each section. According to the Baseball and American football articles, sport articles should have contents of about 12 Section headings, as well as sub-headings. Each section heading needs to be hyperlinked to the section indicated, so the user can click a section in the table of contents and it will take you directly there. This is the case for all Wikipedia articles, making it fairly simple to navigate the article. The table of contents will appear automatically as section headings are added, and involves no manual action. Table of contents boxes are similar throughout almost all Wikipedia articles, as content and number of section headings are usually the only main differences.

Body Sections
Body sections are obviously a big chunk of the article, and they contain every topic that is being discussed throughout the article. The body sections should be well written, stay on task with main ideas, and be full of information. The body sections of such sports articles should contain information really describing background, game-play, and other things that are important to the sport. The Baseball article that I examined had the following headings along with subheadings added in:
 * History
 * Rules and Gameplay
 * Personnel
 * Strategy and Tactics
 * Distinctive Elements
 * Statistics
 * Cultural Impact and Popularity
 * See also section (other Wikipedia articles on the topic)
 * References (in-text number citations)
 * Sources ( Reliable sources used in writing article)
 * Further reading (Related articles or books related to topic)
 * External Links (Other useful resources about topic)

Section Headings
Section headings indicate the subject of each section in the article. When examining my two articles, I counted that each contained 12 headings, which I think is a reasonable amount, all depending on the length and content in the article (Baseball, American Footbal l). These headings will appear in the table of contents in chronological order, as well as throughout the article above each section. Each section header throughout the article will stick out as they are bolded and underlined, and are a bigger font than all other text. The order of body sections can be referenced in the section above on section headings.

Include lots of Media
Sports articles in specific, but all articles should include things like images, videos, info boxes, and other options to enhance viewer experience, and visualize the subject. Images chosen should relate to the article, enhancing viewer comprehension of the subject. Pictures usually have captions below them describing the picture or how it relates to the topic. The two articles that I examined had an average of 16 images throughout that were helping the reader better illustrate what was being said in the text. Another media option that is available is called an info box. Info boxes give a quick snapshot about each sport giving important dates, background information, and more. There is usually only one info box per article, and it is commonly located near the top right of the article, next to the lead section or table of contents. The last major media option that you have is videos. Videos imported can help readers comprehend flow of a game, show a highlight, or special moment in history. The Baseball featured article that I examined included a video in the middle of that demonstrated how to properly swing and bunt; two concepts of baseball. This can really help show how baseball works to someone that is unfamiliar to the sport, or someone that does not know how to play properly.

Reference Section
The Reference section commonly follows the see also section in a Wikipedia article, and contains numeric footnotes relating and giving more information on unfamiliar things used for reference. Each reference should be formatted in the same way, and should move chronologically from beginning to the end of the article. References may repeat through an article, but need a new number each time that they are referenced. This section makes it easy for readers to make sense of and know everything being referenced through the article, resulting in better comprehension.

Citations/Sources
The citations or sources section of the article should be following the reference section, and should include formal citations of all sources used throughout the article. These sources could be pictures, sources used for references, or any other outside source used for information. Every citation in this section should be formally written, as well as correctly and consistently formatted. All sources that are cited should be credible, un-biased sources that are used throughout the article. The two articles I examined had an average of 46 sources, and there should roughly be about one source for every 250 words in an article. (Hence a 10,000 word article would have around 40 sources (10,000/250=40). Credible sources for sports articles can be found on websites like ESPN and YAHOO sports, as well as in publications such as books or rule-books. Credible sources for sports articles are different for most other types of articles, as a credible source can be giving statistics, records, or even a small book containing rules of the game.

Article Length
The article's length all depends on the complexity of the topic, but the article should stay focused on the main topic almost all the way through the article. Going off about things that are not the main topics cause many issues of biased, and opinionated statements. The average word count for the two articles that I examined was about 10,000 words, giving a good target for articles of this type. Article length can depend on the deepness of the topic, what information the article wants to portray, and who the audience is. Overall, article length is subjective; but the article should be a reasonable length so that it covers the broad topics well enough, and does not go too in depth on unnecessary topics.

Lead Section Fix
Original:

'''Business service management or business studies and management (BSM) is an approach used to manage business IT services. BSM promotes a customer-centric and business-focused approach to Service Management, aligning business objectives with IT or ICT from strategy through to operations.'''

'''A BSM approach is most commonly applied in an Information and communications technology (ICT) environment, positioned above IT Service Management (ITSM) (which is often exercised according to guidance such as ITIL). BSM is distinctive in ensuring that business and customer objectives provide an input which is considered when defining the IT Service Management approach and the business services to be offered by the IT Service Provider (whether an internal IT department or an external service provider).'''

According to the 2011 edition of ITIL, business service management is "the management of business services delivered to business customers. Business service management is performed by business units."

'''ITIL, according to the ITIL books themselves, is "a set of best-practice publications for IT service management". ITIL does not, therefore, give guidance on Business Service Management or Service Management outside of the IT domain.'''

'''A BSM approach can be used to understand the impact of business needs on IT Services and infrastructure, helping in the process of planning to ensure the portfolio of Business Services and IT Services aim to support these changing needs and objectives. This approach also helps to understand how technology, including incidents, changes and new developments, impact the business and customers. BSM can provide a dynamic method for linking key service components and capabilities to the goals of the business. It can help prioritize the activity and response of IT staff and service providers based on business priorities, and identify the impact and cost of service outages.'''

'''Advocates of BSM often use it to support a cultural change from one which is very technology-focused to a position which understands and focuses on business objectives and benefits. Rather than supporting an internalized technology view, there is a shift to recognize and support customer needs and the delivery of value to business stakeholders including shareholders. A BSM initiative often underpins a shift in maturity for an IT department or service provider towards a more proactive and predictive operating model rather than the reactive and fire-fighting behavior which has been common in many IT operations. IT departments and Service Providers who reach this level of maturity often report improved relationships with their customers and business colleagues, being recognized as 'Trusted Business Partners' and 'Competent Suppliers' who deliver added business value rather than being considered a commodity or 'Necessary Evil'.'''

The benefits of adopting a BSM approach will vary for different organisations, but typically include: improved relationships with customers, suppliers and colleagues; service quality improvements; cost reductions through improved efficiency; and a reduction in service outages and the impact of outage.

Based on industry best/good practice, standards, guidance and methodologies such as ITIL and ISO/IEC 20000, a BSM approach can [speculation?] ensure ICT departments and Service Providers operate in a more efficient and effective manner to underpin business objectives.

New Lead section:

Business service management or business studies and management (BSM) is an approach used to manage business IT services. BSM promotes a customer-centric and business-focused approach to Service Management, aligning business objectives with IT or ICT from strategy through to operations.

A BSM approach is most commonly applied in an Information and communications technology (ICT) environment, positioned above IT Service Management (ITSM). BSM is distinctive in ensuring that business and customer objectives provide an input which is considered when defining the IT Service Management approach and the business services to be offered by the IT Service Provider (whether an internal IT department or an external service provider). It can also be used to understand the impact of business needs on IT Services and infrastructure, helping in the process of planning to ensure the portfolio of Business Services and IT Services aim to support these changing needs and objectives.

This approach helps to understand how technology, including incidents, changes and new developments, impact the business and customers. BSM can provide a dynamic method for linking key service components and capabilities to the goals of the business. It can help prioritize the activity and response of IT staff and service providers based on business priorities, and identify the impact and cost of service outages.

Many software vendors offer products which aim to support ITSM and/or BSM. These tools are often described as BSM tools, but they should not be seen as BSM in themselves. The tools may underpin and support a service management capability which includes people who execute service management, their portfolio of services and the process framework. BSM, ITSM, and Service Management in general, are not a set of software tools or products

The benefits of adopting a BSM approach will vary for different organisations, but typically include: improved relationships with customers, suppliers and colleagues; service quality improvements; cost reductions through improved efficiency; and a reduction in service outages and the impact of outage.