User:ParlorGames/aboutWiki

(This page I, Orngjce223, release into the public domain (for anyone's use anywhere). Attempts to remove this notice will be met with reversion.)

Using Wikipedia: a guide for students

Draft.

Students use Wikipedia quite often. Yes, that Wikipedia, you know, the one with the puzzle globe in the left-hand corner. You, when you use Wikipedia, are always taking on a risk - like that of vandalism which made some random earl "The ****", or more subtle problems, like unreferenced material. Why? Open a Wikipedia page and look at the array of tabs above the title. Read them: "article", "discussion",..."edit this page". Because just about anyone can edit just about any page (excepting protected pages), there is a very large problem that looks much like a security hole. Many school IPs (stands for Internet protocol, a unique identifier of a network) have been blocked several times for vandalism. But "Edit this page" is also the strength of the Wikipedia. Anyone is invited to fix a spelling error, or contribute to a discussion, or even write an article from scratch. This text is about how to use Wikipedia to the benefit of all, including you, the students, the others who read Wikipedia, and the Wikipedians who write and edit for Wikipedia.

1: Vandalism and How to Remove It
So you scroll down a page and you see that someone has inserted some text (that shouldn't be in an encyclopedia) into a Wikipedia page, made it completely blank, or, worse, added some inappropriate picture. First, click "Edit this page". Then, inside the big text box on the page (that is, if you aren't blocked), you can edit the text that goes into the page. Inside, the square brackets hold links or pictures and the hold templates. You don't need to worry about exactly what they are yet, just delete the offending text if you can see it. If you can see something that looks like or such, if it's the bad image, it can be taken out too. Be careful not to take out real content or images. Then put "Reverting Vandalism" into the skinny text box just under "Edit summary", click "Show preview", check that you're doing the right thing, and then scroll down to the textbox below the preview and click "Save page". If you get something that says "Edit conflict", someone else probably did this faster (there are lots of editors and even a few computer programs that can revert vandalism too.

What if you can't find it? Ask someone at the Wikipedia Help Desk by clicking on the link given, then clicking "Click here to ask your question" (which is inside that pale blue box), putting the name of the offending article into the skinny box above the edit box, and putting some description of what you were trying to do inside the big edit box. Then scroll down to the gray-bordered box below the "Edit summary" box and the bold warning about the GFDL, click the four squigglies after "Sign your username" once (while your typing cursor is still inside the box at the end of your sentences) and it will automagically sign your username for you. Someone will be around shortly to help. Check back by scrolling down to the bottom of the Help Desk until you find the description you put in, and read the answer (which should teach you something, too).

2: Fixing Things and Adding Things
If you see some typo in an article, just click the [edit] link aligned with the section title, then (again) use the edit box to find the typo and fix it. If you have something of your own to add, go ahead, as long as it is actually adding real information. Make sure you cite notable (non-trivial) sources, and if possible, use the cite web template.

To learn more about adding things (if you are AT ALL interested), look at Introduction.

3: Making your own article
Before you even try to make your own article, you need to register an account. To do so, just follow the link and choose the option to "register". Make sure the name you choose is not really long, really dumb, or really offensive. For various reasons.

I can't do this any better than the folks at Your first article. But the point is that you really should make sure that it's definitely notable, put references so that it's verifiable, and make it a concise, well-written paragraph (at least 3 sentences) to avoid people deleting it. Put some links in there for good measure, or otherwise someone might slap a wikify tag on it.

4: Citations on and of Wikipedia
or, How to cite Wikipedia

Wikipedia can be cited using the normal formats, but before you do so, please remember that most teachers frown on using a freely edited encyclopedia at all, least of all Wikipedia, as a source for most school projects.

That said, use the format that you generally use to cite things (MLA or APA). Be sure not to paraphrase or plagarize anything.

When adding things to Wikipedia, you need to use citations. If you're adding something that might be challenged (check the "discussion" (talk) tab on top to see- you got it- discussion about the article), or something that is about someone still alive, or something you quote from some other source, or even uploading an image ( Image upload wizard is where you do that), please, please, PLEASE cite what you're trying to say.

The page Citing Sources says, on March 11, 2008, "Full citations for books typically include: the name of the author, the title of the book or article, the date of publication, and page numbers. The name of the publisher, city of publication, and ISBN are optional. ... Citations for newspaper articles typically include the title of the article in quotes, the byline (author's name), the name of the newspaper in italics , date of publication, page number(s), and the date you retrieved it if it is online. ... Page numbers should be included whenever possible in a citation that accompanies a specific quotation from, or a paraphrase or reference to, a specific passage of a book or article. The edition of the book should be included in the reference section, or included in the footnote, because pagination can change between editions. ..."

Thus you need to provide as much information as is practical. Less is not more in this case. Use whichever citation format you can, but using the (new) cite template. You do that as follows:

Yes, that was a lot, but you might want to know that the original template has no less than 24 parameters. Fill in whatever you can. Now if you can't, those parameters are all "optional". Don't fill in what you don't need.