User talk:Symons2

Welcome!
Hello, Symons2! My name is Sonia, and I'm one of the online ambassadors. On behalf of the community, welcome to Wikipedia! As you become a Wikipedian, your contributions will join ours in expanding the amount of free knowledge available to readers around the world. You don't need to read anything before you start editing; you can just jump right in and try to improve Wikipedia. If you find that you need help, you can talk with us right now, or leave me a message via my talk page or email. Here's a few pointers to refer to as you get involved:


 * Please sign your name on talk pages, by using four tildes ( ~ ). This will automatically produce your username and the date, and helps to identify who put a certain post on a talk page. Please do not sign any edit that is not on a talk page.
 * Check out some of these pages:
 * Find the page for your course
 * Introduction to Wikipedia
 * The simplified ruleset for Wikipedia
 * A quick editing cheatsheet
 * Below are the answers to some frequently asked questions about editing Wikipedia.

{{Hidden|style=width: 50%;|contentstyle=text-align: left;|1=How do I insert a reference into an article?|2=For inline references:
 * 1) Go to your preferences, and click on the "Gadgets" tab.
 * 2) Check the box by "RefTools" under "Editing gadgets", and save your settings.
 * 3) When editing an article, click to place the cursor where you want to insert a reference, then click on "cite" in the tool bar.
 * 4) Under the dropdown labeled "Templates", select the template that fits the source you are citing.
 * 5) Fill in all the blanks that you can.
 * 6) If the article does not already have it at the bottom, add

Help with Listing Articles
To list the articles, you need to put double brackets around the title of the article. The brackets will create a link to the article. Marlenefine (talk) 20:59, 14 February 2011 (UTC)

Responses to Article Selections
Hi Emma. Most of the articles you've selected are too broad, e.g., Education in the United States, US Welfare State, and some aren't directly related to US public policy, e.g., Western Catholic Education Association seems more of a description of an association than a public policy related issue. You did, however, identify two stub articles that have potential. If you can find some sources on either California Dream Act or Early Childhood Education Act, then you've got an article that works for the project. Both of these articles need additional information.Marlenefine (talk) 18:03, 17 February 2011 (UTC)


 * Hi again! I've taken a look at your list of articles, and a few caught my eye.
 * The Early Childhood Education Act article would be an excellent one to improve and get up to a good standard- plenty of room for expansion, and it has a very specific definition.
 * Individuals with Disabilities Education Act: Hawaii has room for work as well, but would probably be more difficult to work on. The article as it currently stands would probably have to be completely rewritten in order to comply with Wikipedia's standards, so what exists now wouldn't be a good base to work from.
 * Likewise, Dyslexia support in the United States is something that has a lot of potential, but is perhaps less easily defined than some of the other potential articles.
 * These are the type of article that would probably be best to work on- plenty to write about. Let me know what you decide. (Also, I made a small change to the list on your page by adding * in front of each article name-- this, as you can see, creates bullet points. To create numbering, you can use # instead.)
 * I'd also like to encourage you to get out there and make a couple of small edits to articles– it's really not hard to try things out. Getting used to editing articles will be helpful when it comes to improving your selected article. This was my first edit to an article- a correction of a spelling error. From there I grew more and more confident and began doing bigger and better things, and I hope you will too!
 * I see you've already made a sandbox- that's a great start. If you need help with your draft bibliography, feel free to ask! Cheers, sonia ♫  08:34, 18 February 2011 (UTC)

Choosing an Article
Emma--you need to select an article at this point or you're going to fall behind. I suggested that you do the Early Childhood Education Act (and your mentor agreed). I also suggested the California Dream Act. You just need to decide. You also haven't done any editing of articles. Your mentor suggested that you try and you were supposed to complete that assignment last week. Please do it!Marlenefine (talk) 16:21, 25 February 2011 (UTC)

Well done
Firstly, I'd like to apologize for missing your earlier messages- I am accustomed to checking only the bottom of my page for new sections and did not think to read further up. That's a habit I'll need to change.

The content and sources you have added have significantly improved the California DREAM Act article. The text you've added is very objective and readable, although it could be copyedited slightly for style. All in all, you've done well.

Others have rated your article with regard to trustworthiness, objectivity, breadth of coverage, and quality of prose. You can see these ratings in the page ratings box at the bottom of the page, if you click on "view page ratings". This feedback may be useful. sonia ♫ 22:11, 29 April 2011 (UTC)