Wikipedia:Meetup/Online edit-a-thon SDGs September 2020/Tasks



This pages provides detailed information on how to carry out tasks to volunteer in the Online edit-a-thon for SDGs in September 2020.

Content related information
You can find SDG content-related tasks here on the talk page of this event. For example, we have listed some recent reports about the SDGs which could be utilized to enrich Wikipedia articles.

Editing Wikipedia articles
The table below shows you what you can do to help to improve Wikipedia articles. It might look a bit scary but you can easily select just one, two or more tasks that are suitable for your abilities and background by clicking on the sorting arrows at the top of the table.

Applying standard outlines for the 17 individual SDG articles
Proposed standard section headings for the 17 SDG articles are shown below:
 * The lead
 * Background
 * Targets, indicators and progress (with some example maps from SDG Tracker website)
 * Overall progress and monitoring
 * Links with other SDGs and other issues
 * Organizations or Activities of organizations
 * Reception (or controversies)
 * Society and culture
 * See also
 * References
 * External links
 * Categories

More information is available in the "how to" table below. Many of the SDG articles are now already in reasonable shape (and can serve as examples), for example: SDG 6 and SDG 5.

Wikipedia articles that are SDG-related and need to be improved
The SDG-related Wikipedia articles that require improvement are listed below. The terms were selected by reviewing the targets and indicators of the goals (some of the terms appear for several SDGs), see List of SDG targets and indicators. The terms that are shown in red don't have a Wikipedia article yet.

To sort the list by view rates, click on the arrows in the table headers. The view rate figures are the average number of views each day, for several years up to July 2020.

Articles relevant for all SDGs
Country articles to improve further:
 * Sustainable Development Goals and Australia
 * Sustainable Development Goals and Ghana
 * Sustainable Development Goals and Iran
 * Sustainable Development Goals and Lebanon
 * Sustainable Development Goals and Nigeria

Goal 13
If you have an in-depth interest in climate change, take a look at the "To-dos" compiled by members of the WikiProject Climate Change here.

Adjust your "Preferences"

 * Go to Wikipedia.org and login.
 * Click on "Preferences" at the top right of the screen and adjust your preferences.
 * These five tabs are especially important:
 * Editing: Use the pull-down menu next to "Editing mode" and select "show me both editor tabs." (Click here to learn about the difference between "edit" and "edit source.") Most novices use "edit" because it's just like editing a Word document then. For some functions and for advanced users, the "edit source" button needs to be used (for example to set up a page redirect, a reference list or to insert an image from Wikimedia Commons).
 * Watchlist: Tick boxes to assure that pages you create, edit, or upload will be on your watchlist.
 * User profile: Tick the box "Email me when a page or a file on my watchlist is changed."
 * Notifications: Tick boxes to tell Wikipedia what type of e-mail notifications you want to receive.
 * Gadgets: Have a look and see if you want to tick or untick any of the boxes

Read and write on the talk pages
The Talk tab is located at the top left of any Wikipedia article. It takes you to the page where people talk about the article. How to use the talk pages:
 * Ask (and answer) questions related to the Wikipedia article.
 * Add your question or answer to the bottom of the page to make reading the running dialogue easy.
 * At the end of what you write, insert four tildes ( ~ ) and the system automatically "signs" with your username and the date.
 * For more information: Talk page guidelines.

Use the "edit" or the "edit source" tabs to edit
The "Edit" or "Edit source" tabs at the top take you to the page where you can make changes to the article. There you can:
 * Use the editing ribbon just as you do for editing documents: Bold, Italic, font size, numbered list, etc.
 * Hover over the icons and you will find ones for adding hyperlinks, images and references.
 * If you don't have both buttons visible, you need to adjust your Wikipedia Preferences at the top right (scroll up a little on this page to see where this is explained)

Saving or publishing your edits
The "save" button has recently been renamed to "publish changes" and is located at the top right.
 * Make sure you save your edits often (this protects yourself in case your internet connection gets lost; also it helps others to follow your progress (via the edit summary fields); also it avoids editing conflicts if someone else is working on the same page at the same time). Saving your edits is done by clicking on the button "Publish changes" at the top right.
 * Fill in the "Edit summary" box so others can see the reasoning behind your changes.
 * The "Watch this page" box is already ticked by default.

A "search for help" tip

 * To search for something inside of the Wikipedia system (i.e. the "internal" pages), simply put "WP:xxx" into Wikipedia's search field at the top right. This will search Wikipedia's guidance and help pages for the search term xxx. For example: "WP:adding images" will bring up the Wikipedia guidelines on how to add images. Or if you put "WP:Manual of Style" into the search box of Wikipedia, it will take you to the internal Manual of Style pages of Wikipedia.

Browse Wikipedia help pages

 * Ten simple rules for editing Wikipedia
 * Avoiding common mistakes
 * Tutorial
 * Policies and guidelines
 * The Five pillars of Wikipedia
 * Dos and dont's pages in Wikipedia
 * Manual of Style - a helpful guide on how to write a Wikipedia article
 * Verifiability - what to keep in mind regarding the verifiability of information being added to Wikipedia
 * Neutral point of view - about Neutral point of view (NPOV) on Wikipedia, what it is and why it is so important
 * What Wikipedia is not - what Wikipedia is NOT, always important to keep in mind.
 * Talk page guidelines.

Tutorial videos
Take a look at short introduction videos (created by EMsmile and other Sanitation Wikipedia volunteers in 2017): Youtube Playlist. The three videos include: More videos created by EMsmile explaining various editing tasks in Wikipedia are available in this playlist.
 * How to make your first edits in Wikipedia: https://youtu.be/e-pK3aByl6U
 * First steps in Wikipedia editing: talk pages, editing, watchlist, preferences, history... https://youtu.be/_Z7F9pbYIx8
 * How to insert references and images to Wikipedia articles: https://youtu.be/qgd9UM_eCzk

Improve the quality of the first thing readers read
What Wikipedia calls the "Lead" appears first - just before the table of contents and the first section of every article. We want those leads to be the highest quality possible.

The lead should:
 * be like an "executive summary" for the article (similar to an abstract for a journal paper)
 * have up to 4 paragraphs (each paragraph no longer than 6 lines).
 * include hyperlinks for key words (so readers will click and go to other Wikipedia pages).
 * use short clear sentences of no more than 15-20 words.

More information about the lead is here. An example of a good lead in terms of length is the one for pit latrine.

Improve the "readability" of the entire article
Simple edits you can do will improve the readability:
 * Replace long words with short words whenever possible.
 * Replace passive voice with active voice
 * Make long sentences shorter or break them into two sentences.
 * Reduce paragraph lengths to 4-6 lines.

You can check the impact of your work by using this tool (webfx) or this tool (online utility) which gives you various readability scores for either a whole website or just a block of text. Paste in the web address of the revised article to get the new readability score. The Hemingway App is also a useful tool for improving readability. Do you want more tips on improving readability? See here.

Adding citations

 * Find articles that need a citation. Here you can search for articles needing a citation based on the list of articles related to SDG.
 * Search the literature to see if there's more current information available than is currently cited in the articles.
 * Find citations for assertions not referenced, or delete unsupported assertions. Adding references (or citations) is explained here.

Adding images and world maps

 * Search the literature and internet to see if there are more maps, schematics and alike that could be added to the articles (they need to be under the open access licence CC-BY SA).
 * How to add images is explained in detail here.
 * Useful world maps for the SDG articles, and especially their indicators, are available on the SDG Tracker website which is part of Our World in Data. And the best thing: they are under an open access licence so we can directly use them, and most of them have already been imported to Wikimedia Commons. From there, you can copy the link to insert the map with just a few mouse clicks. See e.g. here for SDG 1: SDG Tracker maps for SDG 1. You can find those maps in the category "Our World in Data" within Wikimedia Commons here.

Work offline: no need to learn the Wikipedia editing system

 * Copy the lead or the article you want to work to Microsoft Word or any other word processor and make your changes with the "track changes" function turned on.
 * Email your document to wikipedia@susana.org, and we'll input your changes into Wikipedia.

Example to-do list from WikiProject Climate Change
Active Wikipedians have set up a To-Do list for Climate Change topics here. Equivalent to-do's exist on a range of SDG-related topics.

Where to get help
Want to ask a question? You have several options:
 * Send an e-mail to wikipedia@susana.org. A person will respond within 24 hours.
 * Click on the "talk" tab at the top of this Meetup Page, and type in your question, followed by the 4 tildes: ~ (you need to have a Wikipedia login, and be logged in, to use a talk page)
 * Write on the talk page of the event coordinator User:EMsmile here.
 * If you work on articles related to SDG 6 you can also post your question on the SuSanA discussion Forum. Click SuSanA Discussion Forum.

Do's for brand new editors

 * 1) Do get a Wikipedia user name (think about real name versus non-real name, see Username policy).
 * 2) Do adjust your "Preferences" within Wikipedia - see here how it's done: Finding your way around Wikipedia (for novices).
 * 3) Do add at least a little bit of information on your user profile. This reduces the chances that your edits will be reverted. See for example the user profile of Elisabeth here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:EMsmile
 * 4) Do edit Wikipedia only after logging in (sometimes one forgets that one isn’t logged in which results in “anonymous” edits). The easiest method is to just tick the box “Keep me logged in (for up to 365 days)”
 * 5) Do save your changes frequently, always clicking on “Publish changes” and adding a short edit summary each time that you have made a change.
 * 6) Do write in simple, easy to understand language (think of your parents when you write - anyone should be able to understand it). Wikipedia is for laypersons and it is read by people who don’t have English as their first language.
 * 7) Do always cite the source(s) of your statements and content. See here what constitutes a reliable source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Reliable_sources
 * 8) Do put the reference directly after the fullstop, not before. Do put all references at the very end of the sentence, not in the middle.
 * 9) Do paraphrase sentences that you wish to include from elsewhere. Paraphrase and provide the sources. If paraphrasing is not possible you could use quotation marks for some statements but this should not be done too often. The reasons for paraphrasing are: 1) to make the sentences understandable for laypersons - short sentences, simple language, no jargon; 2) to avoid copyright problems as most of the publications that you find on the internet (particularly those from the UN) are actually "all rights reserved", sadly. If they were open access then we could directly copy content, except for the reasons described under Point 1.
 * 10) Do familiarise yourself with Wikipedia’s copyright policy which is very strict! Copying material without the permission of the copyright holder from sources that are not public domain or compatibly licensed (unless it's a brief quotation used in accordance with Wikipedia's non-free content policy and guideline) is likely to be a copyright violation. See here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Copyright_violations

Don'ts for brand new editors

 * 1) Don’t edit Wikipedia while not logged into your Wikipedia account, as it makes it harder for others to react to your changes; also your edits would not be counted towards the editathon (and you could not win any of the prizes).
 * 2) Don’t start editing if you haven’t yet registered yourself for this editathon (after logging into Wikipedia) here
 * 3) Don’t copy whole sentences or even paragraphs across from another publication or website for several reasons: (1) the language is likely to be unsuitable for Wikipedia readers who are laypersons - language needs to be simple and easy to understand; no jargon. (2) it is likely not written in an encyclopedic style; (3) the document is likely under copyright and not open access;.
 * 4) Don’t add content to Wikipedia if you think that doing so may be a copyright violation.
 * 5) Don’t include anything in Wikipedia that hasn't been already written elsewhere. Unless it's something completely plain and obvious, such as "the sky is blue". In Wikipedia language this is called “no original research”. Wikipedia does not publish original thought. All material in Wikipedia must be attributable to a reliable, published source. Articles may not contain any new analysis or synthesis of published material that serves to reach or imply a conclusion not clearly stated by the sources themselves. See here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:No_original_research
 * 6) Don’t add your own personal opinions, knowledge etc. - unless this information has been published somewhere already; then you can cite it. Blog posts count as a reference, so do newspaper articles, or opinion pieces. See here what constitutes a “reliable source”: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Reliable_sources
 * 7) Don’t engage in an “edit war” (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Edit_warring). If someone has reverted your edits, try to talk to them about it by mentioning them on the talk page of the article (they will be notified by e-mail or your mention).
 * 8) Don’t get upset or disheartened when a more experienced Wikipedian “scolds” you for something or reverts your edit. If you experience any problems, simply approach the event coordinators or any other experienced Wikipedia editor that you know.
 * 9) Don’t add external links into the Wikipedia article. The only place where you can add external links is under “External links” at the very end (that list should be short).
 * 10) Don’t use bold or any other formatting in a Wikipedia article. The only bold text that is allowed is the first few words of the very first sentence of the lead.

Do’s for intermediate editors

 * 1) Do try to include information from several different sources, particularly if the sources look at the topic from different angles and might even reach different conclusions.
 * 2) Do always maintain a neutral and objective point of view. Try to always look at it from all angles If there are opposing views, present both, without making a judgement - unless that judgement has also been published somewhere.
 * 3) Do keep in mind that we are writing an encyclopedia for the general public. We want to present them with all the available information in easy to understand language.
 * 4) Do use American English for this entire edit-a-thon (in particular for all the SDG articles and any new articles). However, for existing well-established articles, continue in either American or British English, whichever the article is using so far. See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Manual_of_Style#Retaining_the_existing_variety
 * 5) Do use talk pages frequently to discuss upcoming changes to an article. Do always sign your statements with the four tildes (~). This is Wikipedia’s convention and converts into a “date and person” stamp when you click on “publish changes”.
 * 6) Do give full details for each reference, i.e. not just a link to a website but rather title of page, title of website, publisher; not just a link to a pdf file but author, year, title, publisher. More dos and donts about references are here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:References_dos_and_don%27ts
 * 7) Do add the page number to your reference when it’s a big report and the source of your statement is hard to find (this looks like this in source editor:  for page 2.
 * 8) Do remember that consensus is Wikipedia's fundamental model for editorial decision-making. See list with dos and donts about consensus here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Consensus_dos_and_don%27ts
 * 9) Do experiment with the tabs “edit” versus “edit source” because each has its usefulness for different things. The main editor you will probably use most of the time is the “editor” (see the button labelled “edit”) which is “what you see is what you get” (WYSIWYG)
 * 10) Do add internal links (wikilinks) to other Wikipedia articles but do follow the guidance provided here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Linking_dos_and_don%27ts
 * 11) Do browse Wikipedia guidelines for greater insights: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Wikipedia_guidelines

Don'ts for intermediate editors

 * 1) Don’t write like an opinion piece or essay, using wording like “we need to keep in mind that…”. “It is unfair that…”.
 * 2) Don’t use expressions that may introduce bias, lack precision, or include offensive terms. Use clear, direct language. Let facts alone do the talking! Wikipedia calls this “words to watch”, see here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Manual_of_Style/Words_to_watch#Unsupported_attributions
 * 3) Don’t write “Smith and Miller stated that poverty is a problem”. Simply write: “Poverty is a problem.[2]” and then put the reference by Smith and Miller at the end of your statement.
 * 4) Don’t create a new Wikipedia article unless absolutely necessary. Often the same article already exists under a similar title. For the purposes of the edit-a-thon we recommend to check with Elisabeth (User:EMsmile) before starting a new Wikipedia article.
 * 5) Don't put a wikilink to a non-existing Wikipedia article (it shows up in red), unless you have a valid reason (see here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Red_link).
 * 6) Don’t make the lead longer than 4 paragraphs (the lead is the part at the start, before the table of contents, and is meant to be a summary of the article). For more dos and donts for the leads see here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Lead_dos_and_don%27ts
 * 7) Don’t delete other people’s content of articles unless you have a very good reason. It’s best to discuss it first on the talk page or to at least explain it in your edit summary.
 * 8) Do not make big changes to an article in one go without explaining to people on the talk pages what you are planning to do. Sometimes it’s best to spread out big changes over 2-3 days so that other people have time to react.
 * 9) Don’t use bullet point lists unless they are really needed. Prose is usually better.
 * 10) Don’t repeat references more than once in the reference list. The same reference can be used many times in the article but it should appear only exactly once in the reference list. You can just copy and paste it inside the article. For example, the little a, b, c in the reference list indicates that this reference is used three times in the Wikipedia article: a b c Andersson, Kim; Dickin, Sarah; Rosemarin, Arno (2016). "Towards "Sustainable" Sanitation: Challenges and Opportunities in Urban Areas". Sustainability. 8 (12): 1289. doi:10.3390/su8121289.

Links to other edit-a-thons to learn from

 * Wikipedia writing challenge to improve the coverage of women on Wikipedia, April 2020 (online), high impact
 * COVID 19: Health and Gender Editathon, June 2020 (online)
 * WikiGap Nigeria Online Challenge, May 2020 (online)
 * African Climate Change edit-a-thon, Aug 2019 (in person)
 * Sanitation Wikipedia edit-a-thon, November 2017 (online)
 * Training: Running Editathons and other Editing Events