User:Bfpage/Being new

A dissertation manual of style describes the referencing and citations formatting that is often required during the writing of a graduate level dissertation. Punctuation errors, especially with comma use may be a challenge. Commas and periods are placed within the quotation marks and colons and semicolons are placed outside of the quotation marks. Commas after the terms “e.g.” and “i.e.”

Author and date
Including an author’s name and the date on which it was published is appropriate. The work that is referenced is usually formatted to include to the date where the content was first mentioned and by who it was delivered. Usually this involves mentioning the author’s surname and the publication year. Suffixes like Esq., Jr., etc. are omitted for clarity. For example: (Shakespeare, 1600).

Quotations
There are many ways to insert quotations directly into a piece:
 * After delivering a complete sentence, the the quotation is paced after placement of a colon.
 * On the other hand a short introductory phrase can be used like: According to, or In the words of, followed by the author’s name, a comma, followed by the quotation.
 * The person’s name along with an adequate verb such as ‘stated’, or ‘proclaimed’, or ‘declared’ followed by the quotation can be mentioned.

Ellipses
Ellipses are appropriate if text has been omitted. It is be understood that ellipses are not required at the beginning of a sentence. Ellipses are used when the writer wants to omit words from the middle of the quotations.

Single Word Quotations
Utilizing quotations as they were used originally is appropriate. If an author's name needs to be mentioned, then the entire quotation where the term was first used can be employed.

Punctuation Marks
Quotations that are well punctuated follow these recommendations:
 * Quotations are appropriate at the beginning and end quotation marks for run-in quotations.
 * When commas or periods are used, they can be placed inside the quotation marks.
 * It is acceptable that all other punctuation marks go outside the quotation marks.
 * When a quotation itself contain another quotation usually the inner most quotation begins and ends with single quotation marks.

Why this page exists
The following essay is not an 'official' Wikipedia policy or guideline. This essay is not part of the encyclopedia. This page has not been endorsed by other people editing articles or creating articles on Wikipedia. This page is a personal essay that I have written.

The purpose of this page is to encourage new contributors and those who have decided to help Wikipedia by editing content contained in this online encyclopedia.

Are you new?
Perhaps you have just arrived on this page because as a new article-creator or as a new article editor because I have left you a personal message on what is called your "Talk page". Your "Talk page" is the page where other people will leave you messages about all sorts of things. If you are reading this essay, then you obviously have figured out how to use your talk page by following the link in my message to you.

First of all, I am not assuming that you are a total idiot or you don't know what you are doing or trying to do. You may already know what you are doing. You may already know all the abbreviations and acronyms used in Wikipedia. Perhaps you have a firm grasp on the policys and guidelines of Wikipedia. You may already have the expertise with Wikipedia and you know exactly what you are doing. If this describes you, then you probably don't have to read the rest of the essay.

I have written this article because I was a new "editor" once. Anyone who makes changes to Wikipedia or creates an article is considered an "editor". When I first became an "editor" and involved with Wikipedia, I found it very difficult to figure out exactly how Wikipedia is organized and why messages keep appearing on my talk page that I did not understand. I received what I considered to be grim threats about deleting my article or that my article was going to be deleted, or something was terribly wrong with my article. I was told once that I was going to blocked (unable to write more articles or edit them) for what I did. I didn't even know that what I did was wrong. I recieved messages from 'bots'. I didn't know what a bot could be. Was it another person with the name 'bot'? Did someone use a 'bot' to find the mistakes thSince at I had made?

I didn't even know how to respond to these messages. Was I supposed to answer these messages? How? What were these strange names used at the end of the messages? Since these messages had the purpose of highlighting the mistakes that I had made, I found them slightly humiliating. The person writing the message to me and/or the messages left for me by 'bots' seemed to assume that I knew what they were writing about. Were these messages going to stay on my 'Talk' forever? Would others be able to indefintely see just how many things were pointed out to me that were wrong? I felt 'bitten'. Being 'bitten' the Wikipedia term for what happened to me.

Being 'bitten' for what I thought was doing the right thing was very discouraging. Fortunately, it also made me somewhat angry. Being angry is what kept me here editing for Wikipedia. I stopped participating for a while until I thought that I could handle another round of criticism. It is a good thing that I didn't give up.

If you have kept reading so far here are some of the things that I learned after I came back to edit on Wikipedia, after I was 'bitten':

I don't have to respond to threats or criticims


 * (to be contined...)