Wikipedia:Ambassadors/Resources/Discussion 2

Goals: To introduce students to the basics of Wikipedia editing and Wikipedia policy.

Note: Students have previously created accounts and edited userpages.

Part 1: Five pillars
What are the five pillars and what do they mean?

Link to the 5 pillars presentation: https://prezi.com/secure/d276e9e6c9f7b717e430db0a836a87e754c2a203/


 * WP is an encyclopedia
 * WP has a NPOV (e.g. Evolution)
 * WP is free content - they give up their rights to their work
 * WPians should interact in a civil and respectful manner
 * WP does not have firm rules

Reliable sources

 * Peer-reviewed, academic journals
 * University presses
 * Large presses
 * Major newspapers (when is this primary?)
 * White papers (when is this primary?)
 * Government publications (when is this primary?)

When to cite?

 * Controversial material (e.g. Homeopathy) The more controversial something is, the more citations it has.
 * Likely to be challenged - In practice, most everything is cited. Wikipedia's legitimacy comes through citation.
 * Material about living people
 * Quotations
 * Statistics
 * "first", "best", etc.

No original research

 * Wikipedia is a tertiary source - it summarizes secondary sources.
 * Wikipedia is fundamentally conservative - it does not report NEW research or ground-breaking discoveries. It is not cutting edge. Everything in Wikipedia has already been reported/published elsewhere first.
 * Verifiability, not truth: Wikipedia aims to report what has been published about a topic, not what is true.

Part 3: Editing skills
Prologue: Demonstrate WHERE TO FIND HELP

Sandbox

 * Create a SANDBOX
 * Add some text (lipsum.com) - 10 paragraphs
 * Preview
 * Edit Summary

Headers and signing

 * Add HEADERS (level 2 and level 3) to organize articles
 * Preview
 * TOC generated automatically after 4 headings added
 * Edit Summary


 * Headers on TALK PAGES, also
 * Use of talk pages…
 * Leave message and SIGN NAME

Sections and lists

 * Editing Page vs. Editing Section


 * Edit section - make a list with 1 "enter" keystroke between items
 * Preview - not a list - because of LINE BREAKS
 * Edit - with 2 "enter" keystrokes
 * Preview - looks good
 * Edit Summary


 * Turn that list into a BULLETED LIST
 * Preview
 * Remove extra spaces between some items to demonstrate
 * Change bullets to NUMBERED LIST
 * Edit Summary

Links

 * Link to another Wiki page
 * Preview - link displays blue
 * Make a typo in the Wiki page name
 * Preview - link displays in red
 * Fix the typo
 * Edit Summary


 * Create EXTERNAL LINKS section at bottom (level 2 heading)
 * Add a URL, no brackets
 * Preview - see URL displayed
 * Beneath that, add a URL in brackets with a label
 * Preview - see label displayed
 * Edit Summary

History

 * Click "View History"
 * Displays a list of the Edit Summaries - that's why they're valuable

If time....

 * Adding image
 * Adding infoboxes/navboxes
 * Tables
 * Indent
 * Special characters