User talk:KathyQX94

Welcome
Hello, KathyQX94 and welcome to Wikipedia! It appears you are participating in a class project. If you haven't done so already, we encourage you to go through our training for students.

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We hope you like it here and encourage you to stay even after your assignment is finished! Fiddle  Faddle  21:41, 17 September 2014 (UTC)

Hi KathyQX94! Not sure what we're supposed to write but you have to respond to this so what's your favorite color?

Alexliow (talk) 01:09, 1 September 2014 (UTC)
 * Hello Alexliow! Nice to meet you, my favorite color is pink. How about you? KathyQX94 (talk) 13:21, 2 September 2014 (UTC)

Hi!
Hi Kathy! It's nice to meet you. I hope you're excited to learn how to edit Wikipedia! What else are you excited about for this semester? --Lhe3460 (talk) 17:20, 2 September 2014 (UTC)
 * Hello! I'm excited about getting involved on campus, what about you?KathyQX94 (talk) 12:57, 4 September 2014 (UTC)

Hi Kathy! Your user page is awesome and so are you. How was your day? Mwong850 (talk) 03:03, 4 September 2014 (UTC)
 * Thank you! You are pretty amazing yourself, I'm doing well, how are you?KathyQX94 (talk) 12:57, 4 September 2014 (UTC)

Hello there!
Hi Kathy, see you in class tomorrow! Tkw32 (talk) 03:20, 4 September 2014 (UTC)
 * Hello, See you soon!KathyQX94 (talk) 12:57, 4 September 2014 (UTC)

Welcome!

 * Hi KathyQX94: per your post at WikiProject Food and drink's talk page, rather than discussing the article here on your talk page, I have posted some comments at Talk:Spam (food). NorthAmerica1000 00:42, 18 September 2014 (UTC)

Welcome
Hello, thanks for introducing yourself -- and welcome to Wikipedia. I think there is one key thing to keep in mind when working on Wikipedia: we really take very seriously the notion that Wikipedia is an encyclopedia, and try to make it the best encyclopedia possible. This means good writing, good sources, tight editing.

In terms of behavior here, one thing that might be hard to get used to is the "bold, revert, discuss" cycle. That is, if you think you can improve it, be bold: go ahead and edit the article. If other editors think the edit is of low quality (for whatever reason), they will feel free to remove or edit the material (revert). If they edit, don't be offended: no one owns the article, everyone is trying to improve it. If they remove it, again, don't be offended: if you don't understand (and agree with) their Edit summary, discuss the matter on the Talk page.

Food history is a tricky topic for several reasons. First of all, there are a lot of sources of dubious quality: most cookbooks and newspaper features don't do much serious research, and often repeat nonsense. Secondly, a lot of food history is poorly documented. Third, in the case of commercial products like Spam, the manufacturer or trademark owner will often concoct stories or images which have little or nothing to do with the actual history. For example, the producers of Uncle Ben's Rice claim that "Uncle Ben was an African American Texan rice farmer known far and wide for producing high-quality premium rice", honored by the developers of converted rice in the 1940's. How likely is this? Well, first question: how far back can we trace this story? Not sure, but it seems pretty recent. Can the Uncle Ben's company produce any contemporary documentation of this? We shouldn't take the brand's word for self-serving claims like this.

One thing that is very different between writing for WP and writing for a term paper is that we frown on "original research" (WP:OR). A good term paper on Spam might research magazine ads for it in the 1950s and analyze the portrayal of women and the symbols of domesticity in them. Could be very interesting, but that would not be good material for WP. On the other hand, if you can find a published article in a reputable place (scholarly journal etc.) along those lines, that could be worth citing.

As for sections, yes, of course, the production process should have its own section, as should the history.

Hope this has helped a bit. --Macrakis (talk) 05:02, 20 September 2014 (UTC)

Talkback
NorthAmerica1000 03:22, 25 September 2014 (UTC)