Wikipedia:WikiProject Guild of Copy Editors/Backlog elimination drives/July 2010


 * The following event has concluded. Please do not modify this page. Comments should be made on the talk page.

This Copyediting Backlog Elimination Drive is a one-month-long effort to reduce the backlog of articles that require copyediting, signified with the copyedit tag. Please make sure that you know how to copyedit and that you are familiar with the Wikipedia Manual of Style before you begin copyediting. The coordinator for this drive was ɳorɑfʈ  Talk! and he was assisted by Diannaa  TALK and S Masters (talk). If you have any questions, leave a message in the drive's talk page. This drive began on 1 July 2010 00:00 UTC and ended on 31 July 2010 23:59 UTC.

The goal of this backlog elimination drive was to bring the number of outstanding copyedit tags to below 6000 and completely clear 2008 from the backlog queue. Awards will be given out to those individuals who help reduce the size of the backlog.

The backlog elimination drive is open to all, and you do not need to be a member of the Guild of Copy Editors to participate. However, you may want to consider joining as membership has its benefits. For example, you can place a special "page in use" tag when you are copyediting, and another on the talk page when you finish. Please visit the Guild for more information.

Instructions for participants

 * 1) Note the article's wordcount before you copyedit it. You will need it to get credit for the copyedit. There is an automated word counting script available at User talk:Dr_pda/prosesize.js. It is VERY easy to install and you don't need a shred of technical ability! If you can follow a recipe for making a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, you can install this script. Instructions are below. If you get anxious, ask  ɳorɑfʈ  Talk! for help.
 * If, even with this script, you forget to click the 'Page size' tool before beginning your copyedit session, you may still be able to retrieve the correct initial page size information (in Firefox, anyway), by right clicking the tab you are editing and selecting 'open a duplicate tab' from the drop-down menu, and then on the duplicated page, click your 'Back' button as many times as needed to flip the duplicate back to its unedited version. From there, you can click the 'Page size' tool, copy that word count number, and edit your 'working' line here (below). Then, close that tab, and continue copyediting on the original tab, right where you left off.  Yay!  Problem solved.  If you've already saved copyedits when you realize your gaff, you may be able to do the same thing from a diff of the article as it existed immediately prior to your edits; so still, probably no problem.


 * 1) Log completed copyedits in the Running Totals section. If you complete a copyedit for an article, don't forget to list it so that you can get credit for the edit. Also don't forget to remove the tag from the article itself.
 * 2) No rubber-stamping of articles. Be thorough and complete in your copyedits, and make sure all the i's are dotted and the t's crossed. The prose in copyedited articles should comply with the Manual of Style and be free of grammatical, punctuation, and spelling errors.
 * 3) Don't create extra work. Participants should not copyedit any article they themselves added a tag to during the months of June or July.
 * 4) Have fun. We're here to help bring these articles up to their fullest potential and hence improving the overall quality of the encyclopedia. If you do not enjoy doing that, then there is no motivation to improve these articles and the encyclopedia as a whole.

Finding articles
Some copyeditors enjoy taking a random dip in Category:All articles needing copy edit and learning about something completely new along the way. Others prefer editing articles in a field they already know about. Such articles can be found using categories:

This example will find articles tagged with copyedit in Category:Books, as well as its sub-categories, sub-sub-categories, and so on down to sub-sub-sub-sub-sub-categories.


 * You can also crossreference to a wikiproject talk page banner. Click here to see the completed form for this example.

For new copyeditors
The July 2010 elimination drive welcomes and encourages those who have not yet tried their hand at copyediting, or those who haven't done so in some time, to join the drive, even if only to copyedit one or two articles. If you want someone to check over your edit and make sure that it's good, the drive coordinator ɳorɑfʈ  Talk! will gladly assist.

Useful tags
While we try as far as possible to copy edit articles, this is not always achievable where the text is confusing or in need of content expertise. We are then forced to use a tag to attract such help for the article. Some useful tags are:

off-topic ~ Expand ~ Expert-verify ~ Expert-subject ~ contradict ~ confusing ~ refimprove ~ nofootnotes ~ notability ~ original research ~ crystal ~ POV ~ unreferenced

See WP:TC for a full list of cleanup template messages.

Progress




Total word-count awards
Awards will be given out at the conclusion of the backlog elimination drive as follows:

At least 4,000 words: The Modest Barnstar.

At least 8,000 words: The Working Man's Barnstar.

At least 12,000 words: The Cleanup Barnstar.

At least 20,000 words: The Tireless Contributor Barnstar.

At least 30,000 words: The (old school) League of Copyeditors Barnstar.

At least 40,000 words: The (modern) Guild of Copy Editors Barnstar.

At least 60,000 words: The Barnstar of Diligence.

At least 80,000 words: The Order of the Superior Scribe of Wikipedia.

At least 100,000 words: A special, VERY exclusive award created just for these few, these happy few, this band of brothers: the Most Excellent Order of the Caretaker's Star.

Leaderboard awards
The prestigious Guild of Copy Editors' Gold Star Award will be awarded to the copy editor with the highest total article count, the copyeditor with the highest total word count, and the copyeditor with the most articles of more than 5,000 words.

A special leaderboard award will be presented to all editors who make the top 5 leaderboard in each category.

Unfortunately, because of financial limitations, we are not able to give away Segways at this time.

And remember, the ultimate winner here is Wikipedia.

Other awards
Anyone that copy edits at least one individual article of more than 10,000 words will receive The 10k Copyedit Barnstar.

The person who edits the most articles on the first day of the drive will win an Original Barnstar.

There will be an award for the largest single article that is copy edited.

Running total
You can still join! Feel free to put your name down at any time. Read the directions, and then add your name in Totals below. Returning Editors: If you edited in the May 2010 GOCE Backlog Elimination Drive, your word totals are cumulative for barnstars (not the leaderboard). Add your May 2010 totals as shown below. If you use or, it is expected that you begin copyediting immediately after "claiming" the article. Articles may not be "saved for later."

Directions
Please log entries in the following format:

=

 * 1) John Doe (765)
 * 2) Example (440)
 * 3) Jane Doe (2,330)
 * 4) Example B (673)


 * Total articles: 3
 * Total words: 3,535
 * May 2010 words (if you participated): 10,906

The numbers in parentheses are the word counts of the articles before copyediting. Do not include the May 2010 words line if you did not edit in the May 2010 drive.

Will look like:

ɳorɑfʈ Talk!

 * 1) John Doe (765)
 * 2) Example (440)
 * 3) Jane Doe (2,330)
 * 4) Example B (673)


 * Total articles: 3
 * Total words: 3,535
 * May 2010 words: 10,906