Wikipedia:WikiProject Guild of Copy Editors/Blitzes/December 2023


 * The following event is now closed. Please do not modify this page, unless you are a participant adding your final statistics within 24 hours of the closure. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate talk page.

This Copy Editing Project Blitz was a one-week-long effort of the Guild of Copy Editors to reduce the backlog of articles that require copy editing; those carrying the copyedit tag or listed on the GOCE Requests page. It began on 10 December 2023, at 00:00 (UTC) and ended on 16 December 2023, at 23:59 (UTC).

The themes of this blitz were:
 * The articles from our backlog: September, October, and November 2022
 * New Wikipedia copy editors (welcome!) are advised to focus their efforts on these backlog articles.
 * All requests; GANs and FACs should be copyedited by experienced editors.
 * Please note: it is very important that articles listed on the Request page are skillfully and fully copy-edited; many of these will be reviewed for Good Article or Featured Article status. If you have any questions or comments about the article you're copy-editing, please ask on the blitz's talk page.

Blitz participants could earn barnstar awards based on the number of articles—and the word counts of the articles—they copy edit. Awards will be given out once the blitz has finished.

The blitz was open to all; you don't have to be a member of the Guild of Copy Editors to participate. You must, however, be competent in your use of English grammar, spelling and punctuation. We strongly advise you to read Wikipedia's guide to basic copy editing before you begin working. If you're unsure about spelling, grammar or punctuation, consult the Wikipedia Manual of Style. Skilled use of English is especially important for articles listed on the Requests page.

Blitzes are under the purview of the Guild's coordinators. The blitz's lead coordinator is Dhtwiki (talk), who is assisted by Miniapolis (talk) and Zippybonzo (talk). If you have any questions, leave a message on the blitz's talk page.

For brief instructions on how to record your work, see below. For full instructions, visit the main blitz page.

Full instructions, tips, and awards
Full instructions for participants, tips, help for new copy editors, useful tags, and details of the many barnstars available for the blitz can be found on the main blitz page. Please read this page carefully before you begin. To sign up, please use the form in the Signing up section below.

Reviewing
GOCE coordinators and other experienced Guild members will carry out random checks to ensure that copy edits are of a satisfactory standard. If you are willing to help with reviewing, please sign up below.

10% of each participant's copy edits from the backlog should be checked, and all copy edits from the Requests page should be reviewed, time permitting. Please choose articles at random and do not inspect your own copy edits. After checking articles, place a checked template after the article on the listing and sign your username with four tildes ( ~ ). If a rough consensus finds that a copy edit is not of an acceptable standard, the tag will be re-added and the word count of the reviewed article will be deducted from the editor's total. The reviewer may give advice on how the edit could have been improved without penalizing the editor. Please raise any questions on the Coordinators' talk page.

Signing up
Rollover totals from the previous blitz can be found here.

Totals
How to record articles you have copy edited:
 * Remove any extant copyedit tags from the article.
 * When you sign up, your section is automatically populated with and :
 * Article titles go in wikilinks . List the article's full title, not an abbreviated version.
 * Article word counts go in round brackets : use this script to get the page's word count. Count the words in the version of the article that existed before you started editing. These brackets should not contain anything other than this number.
 * Place the article you are editing on the Working line. Only work on one article at a time. When you've finished your copy edit, change Working to Completed.
 * Place any comments between the article title and the word count.
 * Do not list articles on which you have placed GOCEreviewed instead of copy editing them, or which needed no copy editing.
 * If you want your work checked, you can request this on the blitz talk page.

Properly completed records look like this in the edit window:

and like this on the rendered page: