Wikipedia:WikiProject U.S. states/Archive1

Welcome to the U.S. states WikiProject!

First, an important note for everyone to remember:

A few Wikipedians have gotten together to make some suggestions about how we might organize data in articles about states, cities and towns. These are only suggestions, things to give you focus and to get you going, and you shouldn't feel obligated in the least to follow them. But if you don't know what to write or where to begin, following the below guidelines may be helpful. Mainly, we just want you to write articles! -

Title

 * WikiProject U.S. States

Scope
This WikiProject aims primarily to coordinate content about all of the 50 U.S. States, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and other dependent territories. The project scope includes other Subnational entities typically counties, cities and regions and the maintenance of The United States Portal.

Similar Wikiprojects

 * WikiProject French départements

Participants

 * BenBaker
 * Brion VIBBER
 * Christian_Historybuff
 * ClairSamoht
 * CQ
 * Lou I
 * Lbr123
 * Neutrality talk
 * Ram-Man
 * sfmontyo
 * Simon J Kissane
 * Stilltim
 * Tedernst
 * Trimalchio
 * Vaoverland
 * Toussaint
 * IronCrow
 * (state government)
 * - Templates and Categories.
 * - Templates and Categories.

Structure
There shall be an article called U.S. state, which shall discuss U.S. States in general, as opposed to any particular state, and provide a list of U.S. states. It shall also list the current U.S. Federal Territories, and explain the difference between a state and a Federal territory. It shall also include a listing of U.S. states in order of admission to the Union, including the date on which it was admitted.

Each U.S. state shall be called by the common name of the state, e.g. Texas, California. An exception to this rule is Georgia (U.S. state), since it has the same name as Georgia (country), an independent country in the Caucasus; means must be found of distinguishing between the two. A template article can be found at the bottom of this page. The article on each U.S. State shall include the following information: ''NOTE: Please only create these headings when there is more than a couple of sentences worth of information for an area. There is no need at all for an "introduction" heading.'' ''NOTE: Where possible use both metric and English measurements, except in the tables where being simplified is important. Metric measurements should be used if only one is available because of its global use.''

The rest of the article should consist of a few short paragraphs. These paragraphs should give an outline of the history/politics/etc. of the country and link to a full article on them. If any section becomes too detailed, it should be split off into a separate article with more detail as follows:

The heading should look like:

Geography
Main article: Geography of Pennsylvania

A notice should be placed on each temp page that should read:

''This temporary page is being used to expand and convert the article _ over to the new format agreed to at WikiProject U.S. States. Please feel free to add or edit anything on this page to help in the conversion process.''

Don't forget to replace the "_" with the name of the article being converted.


 * A table describing some of the important facts of the state. This table should look similar to the table used in WikiProject Countries. An example is included with the state template below. The table will include the following:
 * State flag and the state seal. The state coat of arms may be substituted for the state seal if it is not available.  NOTE: In some states, use of these symbols is prohibited without permission from the state.  If such is the case, a picture of each state-designed quarter could be used as a replacement.
 * The state nickname. The state motto may be substituted if the nickname is not available.
 * The state's capital city.
 * The state's largest city.
 * Area statistics including the total area (not land area or water area) and percent of total area that is water, and the ranking among states. All areas should use square kilometers. The English measure should be reserved for the articles to keep the table simplified.  If this is a U.S. territory or non-state, the rank may be omitted.  Existing values are maintained at List of U.S. states by area.
 * Population statistics including the total population, the population density (using square kilometers), and the rank among states. Add the year when the census was taken for the total population.  Ranking may be omitted if it is a U.S. territory or non-state.  Existing values are maintained at List of U.S. states by population.
 * For the first 13 states, add "Order of ratification of the Constitution." Add the order and date of admittance into the Union. Include any events that caused the admittance (may be omitted).  For the seceding states of the Confederacy there should also be "seceded on" and "readmitted in" dates.  For a territory or non-state, an appropriate date, such as annexation dates, can be used instead.
 * The time zone(s) of the state. Include the name of the timezone (e.g. Eastern) followed by the UTC numbers.  Also include information on Daylight Saving Time.
 * Latitude and Longitude range
 * The parallels that bound the state's eastern and western most parts.
 * The longitudes that bound the state's northern and southern most parts.
 * Width, Length and Elevation
 * The greatest width of the state
 * The greatest length of the state
 * Elevation
 * The highest elevation in meters
 * The mean elevation in meters
 * The lowest elevation in meters

For all lists, Use small font and two columns were appropriate (i.e. if list is 6 or greater and does not have lengthly descriptions ). Pages on U.S. Federal Territories are to have the same format as U.S. States above, changed as needed.

Please try to avoid including trivia in the articles for U.S. States, unless you consider the trivia especially interesting.

Hierarchy Definition

 * No classifications of U.S. States has been defined (Do we need to classify them into groups somehow?). User:Manning Bartlett's example has ways of dividing a topic into a hierarchy.

Subpages

 * List of.
 * /General • archived discussions up to June 2005

Worksheets

 * /PPP • U.S. state worksheet - Projects, Portals and People
 * /state templates U.S. state worksheet templates (includes territories)
 * /Matrix • page for coordinating:
 * Portal:United States
 * WikiProjects
 * List_of_WikiProjects
 * List_of_WikiProjects
 * ...others
 * Version_1.0_Editorial_Team
 * Version_1.0_Editorial_Team/Work_via_Wikiprojects
 * Version_1.0_Editorial_Team/WPPlaces
 * Version_1.0_Editorial_Team/Core topics
 * ...others
 * U.S. Wikipedians' notice board
 * ...others

Infobox

 * US state

Don't forget to replace the "_" with the name of the article being converted. For the table, replace the X's with the proper information. -- ''This temporary page is being used to expand and convert the article _ over to the new format agreed to at WikiProject U.S. states. Please feel free to add or edit anything on this page to help in the conversion process.'' -- See implementations at Ohio, Texas, New Jersey, New York, Virginia...


 * Introduction: brief statement that it is a state of the United States, (note internal link to U.S. state), the U.S. Post Office abbreviation for the state, (e.g. MA, TX, etc.), the official (long) name of the state (e.g. "Commonwealth of Massachusetts"). Add "Order of entry into Union" and for the first 13, "Order of ratification of the Constitution."
 * State symbols: add each state's motto, song, tree, bird and other official items to a table. When available, add a picture of each state-designed quarter. (See: Pennsylvania)

Body of article
The following are suggestions for some standard sections that can be developed for each state. It is not an exhaustive list. The precise order in which these sections appear has not been discussed at any great length and the order presented here should not be contrued as consensus for re-ordering sections in existing articles to match.

Etymology

 * Origin of state's name

Geography
Main article: Geography of _ See also: List of _ counties


 * Geography
 * Physical geography (mountains, rivers, plains, elevation, area, that sort of thing)
 * National parks, etc.
 * adjacent U.S. states, oceans, Great Lakes, Canadian provinces or Mexican states
 * List of counties (if someone wants to go to the trouble) (the list itself makes for a good subpage)

Thumbnail version of the large (>1 Mb) state map from commons:Category:PD Atlas with the name "Map of state_name NA.png".

History
Main article: History of _


 * History
 * prehistory
 * history prior to joining the United States
 * when first came under U.S. control (if it was a territory prior to being a state)
 * When it attained statehood
 * Major historical events that occurred in state

Demographics
Main article: Demographics of _


 * Demographics
 * state population
 * racial/ethnic makeup of state
 * religious makeup of state

Economy
Main article: Economy of _


 * Economy
 * State income
 * Major industries/products
 * state taxes

Transportation
Main article: Transportation in _
 * Transportation topics
 * Highways and bridges (include tunnels, etc.)
 * Local public transportation (transit, commuter rail, etc.)r
 * Intercity bus
 * Rail (passenger and freight)
 * Air (include major airports)
 * Ports and waterways

Politics and government

 * Main articles: Politics of _, Government of _, Law of _


 * Structure of government
 * highlights from Government of _
 * governor -- current, previous governors
 * legislature -- bicameral or unicameral? names of houses?
 * structure of state judiciary
 * information on state constitution
 * Laws
 * highlights from Law of _ particularly in relation to other states and federal law
 * does it have referenda? propositions?
 * Politics
 * highlights from Politics of _
 * conservative, liberal, third parties' role
 * major issues in the past, present

Important cities and towns

 * Important Cities and Towns

Education

 * Education. Elementary upwards.

Colleges and universities

 * Colleges and Universities. A list of the colleges and universities in the state, or See also List of colleges in _

Sports
Main article Sports in _
 * Sports. A discussion of sports in the state, including professional and amateur team sports, national and international sports events, and other notable sports activity such as non-team sports.

Miscellaneous topics

 * Miscellaneous topics.

Tools

 * Main tool page: toolserver.org


 * Reflinks - Edits bare references - adds title/dates etc. to bare references
 * Checklinks - Edit and repair external links
 * Dab solver - Quickly resolve ambiguous links.
 * Peer reviewer - Provides hints and suggestion to improving articles.