User talk:Jessicasener

Welcome!
Hello, Jessicasener, and welcome to Wikipedia! My name is Shalor and I work with the Wiki Education Foundation; I help support students who are editing as part of a class assignment.

I hope you enjoy editing here. If you haven't already done so, please check out the student training library, which introduces you to editing and Wikipedia's core principles. You may also want to check out the Teahouse, a community of Wikipedia editors dedicated to helping new users. Below are some resources to help you get started editing. If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to contact me on my talk page. Shalor (Wiki Ed) (talk) 17:27, 14 February 2018 (UTC)

Alice Walker
Hi! I saw that you were editing the article on Alice Walker. I wanted to give you a bit of a head's up with the article. It's currently held under discretionary sanctions because of her advocacy concerning the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. While she's not as major a figure as say, a politician that's more directly embroiled in the conflict, it's still a good idea to proceed with caution. This basically means editing in smaller edits so that if one needs to be undone or if someone wants to protest an edit, it's easier to do this. Edit summaries are also good and I've seen you doing this, so that's good as well. You also want to make sure that you're using the best possible sourcing (ie, academic sourcing, solid primary sources, coverage in trusted, known websites or newspapers like the New York Times) and that you're writing as neutrally as possible, avoiding any writing styles or terms that could be seen as persuasive or inherently non-neutral (ie, passion for, structuring content like an argument). An example of wording that could be seen as a little too much like PR speak is the phrase "committed to feminism". This may not seem all that bad, but the main issue is that "committed to" is very commonly used in marketing and press material, so it's now kind of seen as inherently promotional. I'd recommend something like "Walker is involved with feminism" or "an avowed feminist", as this would defuse that concern. Also, if anyone removes or heavily edits content in a way you disagree with, always discuss it on the article talk page or on the user's talk page - it's something that becomes more important with pages under discretionary sanctions.

I hope this helps! I don't want any of this to scare you off the article - I just wanted to make sure that I gave you a head's up. Offhand I don't see any truly huge issues other than the one I mentioned above, so I wanted to just drop you a note. Shalor (Wiki Ed) (talk) 01:17, 6 April 2018 (UTC)

Hi, Shalor! I did notice there is a warning on her talk page, so thank you for keeping an eye on my edits. I really appreciate all of this great advice; I obviously didn't catch the persuasive tone behind "committed," but it makes perfect sense now that you've explained it. I will definitely go back and fix some of the errors you've mentioned. But do you think my sources are okay? I was cc'ed on the recent emails between you and Dr. Brandt regarding my page, and I noticed you mentioned using Alice Walker's website, but I was under the impression Wikipedia would not like sources written by the subject. I'm also curious because I also deleted some information and sources that used her website... Jessicasener (talk) 14:46, 13 April 2018 (UTC)Jessicasener
 * Primary sources are a bit tricky. They're not the preferred source to use, but they can be used to back up very basic information. Shalor (Wiki Ed) (talk) 17:09, 13 April 2018 (UTC)