Wikipedia talk:United States Education Program/Courses/Adolescent Literature Spring 2012 (Adrianne Wadewitz)

Welcome to the talk page
This is a place where you can ask questions, talk about problems, and discuss the Wikipedia assignment with classmates and other Wikipedians.--Awadewit (talk) 20:50, 1 January 2012 (UTC)


 * New messages should go at the bottom of talk pages. -- Ssilvers (talk) 04:10, 9 April 2012 (UTC)

Additional ambassador
Hello, students. Please let us know if you have any questions that we can help you with! -- Ssilvers (talk) 21:46, 7 February 2012 (UTC) (Online Ambassador)

Opinions in Articles
What constitutes an editors opinion vs. the understood opinion of the narrative of the book. For example: A novel sets up a character with a negative persona and the narrator of the book dislikes them. How do you present that character in a character list with out putting a personal opinion of that character in? Does that even make sense?? It seems like a fine line so how do we peer review for that when we're copy editing? Thanks! Veganchic (talk) 03:23, 9 April 2012 (UTC)


 * Good question. I like to keep the character list very concise.  For example: Harry Potter (a student at Hogwarts).
 * The plot synopsis should tell all of the important actions of the character, and an "analysis" or "themes" section can discuss how the character is important thematically or in other ways. My suggestion: if you want to indicate, for example, that Valdemort is evil, you can simply describe (in the plot synopsis) some of the things that he says and does that show that he is evil. Or, you can use a direct quote: Then Professor Dumbledore says, "Voldemort is evil, Harry – he's as evil as can be."  Or, you can just say, Professor Dumbledore warns Harry that Voldemort is evil.  Or, in an analysis section, you can have a paragraph about how good and evil interact in one of the books, and quote book reviews that discuss and analyze this dichotomy.  A really high quality discussion of a book will use the major book reviews and criticism about that book, biographies of the author, books and articles about the genre and other major sources of information about the book.   -- Ssilvers (talk) 04:09, 9 April 2012 (UTC)

Good Wikipedia examples
Here are examples of very good Wikipedia articles about novels and stories: The Red Badge of Courage, The Sun Also Rises, To Kill a Mockingbird, "The Open Boat", Louis Lambert, Mary: A Fiction, and The Monster. -- Ssilvers (talk) 04:09, 9 April 2012 (UTC)


 * For an example of a very good Wikipedia bio article about an author, see J. K. Rowling. -- Ssilvers (talk) 20:26, 20 April 2012 (UTC)

LAST MINUTE HELP
What do I do if I have some stuff in my article that important but I can't really get it to flow with all of the stuff I have to add to that section? Thanks! -- Veganchic (talk) 01:16, 20 April 2012 (UTC)


 * Well, first of all, you could put the proposed information on the talk page of the article, and also here, and ask people for ideas on how to integrate that material into the article.  I took a look at your article (I fixed some formatting), and you seem to have some useful sources, but you have not put nearly enough information from them into the article.  You need to add lots more information about his work:  You should discuss each of his major works, noting the year in which each was released, a little bit of information about their stories and themes and how they have been received by the critics and the public, and whether any of his works are related to any of his other works.  A good source for this sort of information is reviews of those works by critics.  If he has had an influence on graphic novels, or literature, you should discuss this.  You should also discuss his speaking engagements.  What does he talk about in his speeches?  Where and when have his most important speeches been made?  Also, mention in the Career section his high school teaching, and any other significant aspect of his career.  You need to go through the published sources, newspaper reviews, etc. and extract from them more facts about his career, then summarize the information in your own words, and give citations showing in which source you found each fact.  I hope this helps.  Happy editing!  -- Ssilvers (talk) 02:10, 20 April 2012 (UTC)


 * Yeah, I haven't finished editing yet. The work section is actually the section I'm having a little trouble merging with the stuff that I have to still put in.  Most of that section was already there but the rest of it, I have pretty much rewritten entirely.  I'm going to create a whole separate section about each of his books.  I just haven't gotten that far yet. ;)  I think that's a good idea about his speaking engagements.  I'm having trouble finding more than one or two useful items from each of my secondary sources, though.  Almost everything I have found has been a book review or some one recommending his book be taught in the classroom.  I have a few more things to comb back through.  Thanks!  Veganchic (talk) 18:51, 20 April 2012 (UTC)


 * Generally, you should not create a bunch of short sections. Each section should have probably 3 or 4 or 5 paragraphs in it, so the descriptions of his books should all go in the Career section - there could be a subsection called "books" or "graphic novels".  See J. K. Rowling for an example of a high quality article about an author.   If you have not discussed sources in class yet, please read this guideline: WP:Reliable sources - all of the sources that you use must meet the criteria of this guideline.  -- Ssilvers (talk) 20:24, 20 April 2012 (UTC)