User:Ryan McGrady/spring2014/com257/resources

General help
Tutorial is a good place to start. Also Help:Contents. If you can't find what you need, you can contact those at Help desk or contact me.

Your first article is a good explanation of just that.

Wikitext / WikiMarkup
For most basic tasks, see The Wikipedia Cheatsheet.

Also see the Editing Wikitext Wikibook.

Finding an article

 * Requested articles - categorized list of articles people have requested
 * Most wanted articles lists the most commonly linked to pages that don't exist
 * Category:Stub categories is a categorized list of stubs (very short articles that could use elaboration)
 * Category:Top-level_stub_categories
 * Most wanted stubs functions like the Most Wanted Articles list, but is for stubs not non-existent pages
 * WikiProject Missing encyclopedic articles - goes through other encyclopedias and reference works to find topics they cover that do not have a corresponding article on Wikipedia. Lots of potentials which will mostly satisfy notability requirements.
 * National Register of Historic Places listings in North Carolina - It's very rare that something listed on the National Register of Historic Places wouldn't be considered notable. I've linked to the listings of North Carolina here since it seems most likely to include places you may already know something about, but through that page (or through Google) you should be able to access lists for all 50 states.


 * You could also find an appropriate WikiProject or WikiPortal. These are specialized groups or content hubs who maintain lists of certain types of articles.
 * Directory of WikiProjects
 * List of portals
 * for example: WikiProject Media

Images
Images are required for the final draft. You are responsible for beginning work looking for them early. If you wait until the week before the final draft is due to email an organization requesting permission to use an image and they take more than a week to get back to you, that's not a good excuse. Search now.

How to add images to an article
Picture tutorial is dedicated to the question of how to add pictures to your page.

Important policies and instructions on image use
Image use policy - Important: You cannot link to or display images from other websites. The Wikimedia Commons is a website dedicated to hosting media files for use by Wikipedia. An image must be uploaded there to use. The Commons is a sister site of Wikipedia, so your account will work there as well. You are free to upload your own photos (as in, pictures you took yourself), but there are copyright issues with uploading some random image you found on Google Image search, on another website, etc. The image must be free to use or you must have written permission in order to do so. Also see Requesting copyright permission. Basically, if the image was published prior to 1923, it is out of copyright. Everything else requires proper licensing.

Finding images
First, see the finding images tutorial.

A few places to look

 * Google Advanced Image Search -- under "Then narrow your results by:" change the item "Usage rights" so that it says "free to use, share or modify, even commercially."
 * Wikimedia Commons
 * Some Wikipedia editors maintain a list of sources which offer free copyright-free (public domain) images at Public domain image resources. The quality of these sites varies significantly, and the list is subject to frequent nonsense being added (e.g. people creating a WordPress, adding 2 photos, declaring them public domain, filling the site with ads, and trying to get people to visit), but most are good.

Uploading your own images
Uploading your own work is encouraged. For those of you working on local subjects, it may be far easier to simply take your own photo than to search for one and ask for permission.

Uploading images contains instructions for how to upload images.

Finding sources
Checking the following should be a given:
 * Google
 * Google Books
 * Google Scholar
 * NCSU Library book/article search

The basics
Per the verifiability policy, any statement that is or could reasonably be contested should be accompanied by one or more reliable sources to back it up. Likewise, all sources quoted, referenced, or otherwise utilized in the writing of an article must be properly cited. There are a couple ways to do this, but the citation style should be consistent throughout each article.
 * If contributing to an existing page, use whatever style is already in place or start a discussion on the talk page explaining why you'd like to change it.

General information about citing sources on Wikipedia

 * Wikipedia:Verifiability
 * Help:Introduction to referencing

ProveIt
I recommend you use ProveIt, a tool that makes the citation process a bit easier. Go to Special:Preferences, go to the Gadgets tab, and check the appropriate box to enable ProveIt.

While editing with ProveIt enabled, you will see a toolbar in the bottomright part of your browser with two tabs: "References (#)" where # is the number of references currently on the page, and "Add a Reference."

Detailed instructions are available here but basically you just click Add a Referenc and fill in as many fields as appropriate -- including a unique " name." When you're done filling in information about the source, click in the edit box, placing your cursor where you want the citation to go, and click "Insert into edit form" at the bottom of the ProveIt "Add a Reference" tab.

To reuse a reference, click the "References (#)" tab and click the reference you want to reuse. It will first highlight the citation in the edit box. Click in the edit box to place the cursor where you want the additional use of the citation. At the bottom of the "References (#)" tab click "Insert this reference at cursor."

To edit a reference you've already added, select the "References (#)" tab, click the reference you want to edit, select "edit this reference," and save when done.

ProveIt has some quirks that may prove annoying. A good practice is to save the page any time you make a change, then edit the page again to allow ProveIt to refresh.

In-text citations
Although Wikipedia does not specifically mandate it, footnotes are preferred--and far more common--than parenthetical citations in-text. For most people, this is probably the biggest difference between citing sources on Wikipedia and doing so in an academic research paper. Footnotes are handled through the tags and in almost all cases should be placed at the end of a sentence after the ending punctuation.

What goes between the tags is either a full or short citation, but use of one or the other should be consistent throughout the article.
 * A full citation is equivalent to what you would see in a Works Cited list: it should be formatted in a standardized citation style like APA or MLA, all citations should follow the same citation style, and it should provide as much information as possible to allow a reader to find the source (a hyperlink is ideal).
 * A short citation is equivalent to what you would see in a parenthetical in-text citation, the exact details of which depend on the citation style you choose for the article (APA, MLA, etc.). It contains basic information that can be cross-referenced with a separate list of sources.

Reference list
The kind of reference list you use partly depends on the kind of in-text citations you've chosen.
 * If you've used full citations in the text, you simply need a separate section called "References" at the end of the article which will contain all of the full citations.
 * If you've used short citations in the text, you will need two separate sections at the end of the article:
 * a "Works Cited," "Bibliography," or "References" section which will contain a list of full citations (kind of like a Works Cited section of a research paper). None of the footnotes link to this section.
 * a "Notes" or "References" section that contains all of the short citations. It is this section the footnotes will link to, which the reader can then cross-reference with the other section above.

Examples of articles using the "full citations with references" method

 * Florida Atlantic University
 * Hurricane Nora (1997)
 * Cultural impact of the Guitar Hero series

Examples of articles using the "short citations with bibliography and references" method

 * The Origin of Birds (book)
 * Argentodites

Relevant wikimarkup to use when citing sources
The easiest way to figure out how references are managed is to see how they've been done in the past. Edit a page that already uses them (preferably a Featured or Good article) and compare the wikimarkup inside to how the page looks.

Add a reference by using the tags. Just put your citation in between them and it will appear in the references list at the bottom.

If one doesn't exist, you'll need to include the tag at the bottom of the page in a separate section called something like "Notes" or "References."

If you want to reuse the same source, give the tag a name. For example,. Later, if you simply put it will refer back to the citation above without having to duplicate the citation itself.

Wikipedia norms, etiquette, and style

 * Most policies and guidelines can be derived from The Five Pillars.
 * What Wikipedia is NOT
 * Citing Sources and Verifiability
 * Notability - I strongly recommend you familiarize yourself with this one before creating an article
 * Neutral Point of View
 * Manual of style
 * Reliable sources
 * Assume good faith
 * Conflict of interest - in case you're thinking about writing an article about a person or organization you're personally connected to


 * Not sure about how certain policies are enforced? See the noticeboards and various records below. Note: These can be pretty overwhelming to new editors.
 * Reliable sources/Noticeboard
 * Conflict of interest/Noticeboard
 * Neutral point of view/Noticeboard

WikiProjects
Articles almost always fall under the domain of one or more WikiProjects. These are groups of editors who have declared a common interest and commitment to improving articles relevant to that interest. Figuring out which make sense for your article is expected, but the extent to which you engage with those groups is up to you. WikiProjects may be a good resource if you're looking for help, sources, ideas, direction, or even people who may be able to help you improve your article. See WP:WikiProject directory for a list of all WikiProjects.