User talk:1812Soldier

Referencing help
Hi! I'll try to help then. There are two parts to the most basic reference formatting. First: you add the reference inside the text, at the point where you want the link to the footnote ( [1] ) to appear, between the &lt;ref&gt; and &lt;/ref&gt; tags. Second: at the end of the article, where you want the references you added inside the text to be listed, you add the section == References == and underneath it either reflist or &lt;references /&gt;. I personally prefer the {{reflist}}. And that is basically it!

Another topic, of course, is what information to include in the reference. In the Colonel William Dudley article I see that you have provided plain links to the websites. That is certainly OK and already provides a useful reference. However, the pages on the internet are often not too stable. Either the material is moved, the content changes or the material is removed altogether. For this reason it is highly recommended to also provide at least the title of the specific page or article you are linking to and the date the page was accessed.

For easier and more useful referencing I have another recommendation, that is by no means necessary, but makes referencing much easier for me. Go to "my preferences" (at the top of the page); In there, to the "Gadgets" section; Turn on the "refTools" gadget. After this, next time you edit an article, the buttons above the edit box should now include a new button with the label "CITE". When clicked and after choosing the type of reference (Web, Book, Journal...), you are given a simple form into which to add the information about the reference (such as the link, title, author, etc.). Then click "Add citation" and the reference is added where your cursor is. This way you will end up having have consistent and well looking references.

Hope this helps and that I have not made this any more confusing than this already was. If something is still confusing or you have any other questions, feel free to ask! —Quibik (talk) 12:51, 24 October 2009 (UTC)


 * Thank you so much! I'm going to go and fix that article right now. I owe you big time!

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