Wikipedia

User:Ocaasi/The Wikipedia Game/Level 6

< User:Ocaasi | The Wikipedia Game

LEVEL 6

Dialogue 1

Welcome back! You've learned so much already. Now you get to start putting it to use. Let's see what's going on by checking your talk page. Looks like you have a new message.

Action 1 - You have new message

Click new message or My talk to access them

Message 1

Hey, it's me again. Did you find out anything about sources? I really want to make the Earth article great and think it will need some good sources to become a truly useful article. I've put some sources on the article's talk page but I have no idea which ones are good. Maybe you can help? Thanks again. --GaiaGirl1988

Dialogue 2

Oops, almost forgot about that message. So much going on here it's easy to get sidetracked ;-) . Let's write back a quick note and go check out the sources collected on the article's talk page.

Action 2 - Select a talk response
  • Sorry it took so long. I found out that we need good published sources like books, newspapers, and magazines. I'll be right over.
  • One word, Verifiability.
  • You're really persistent... I hope I will be as dedicated as you are one day. I'll check out the sources as soon as I can. Have a great afternoon!

Action 3 - Add chosen message

Dialogue 3

Remember the steps. Add you signature (~~~~), add an edit summary ("published, reliable sources"), Show preview, and Save.

Action 3 - Edit summary, Show preview and Save
Dialogue 4

Now let's get to the article. You can use the link on your talk page this time.

Action 4 - Highlight Earth link on talk page

Click here to go to the article

Action 5 - Load Earth article
Dialogue 5

Ok, the article looks the same as when we left it last. Oh, the editor said they put sources on the article's talk page. How do we get to that? It's similar to getting to your user talk page, except instead of a link at the top right of the site, there's just a link at the top left of every article. The tab says 'Discussion', but editors usually call it the talk page.

Action 6 - Highlight Discussion tab link

Click here to go to the article's talk page

Action 7 - Load talk page
Message 2

Is this earth? -unsigned message

Sources about Earth:

--GaiaGirl1988

Dialogue 6

They sure did some interesting research. Okay, let's put the verifiability policy to use. We want published, reliable sources which have a reputation for fact-checking and accuracy, which are authoritative and independent. Sources we can trust. Have any ideas which one we should use?

Interface 1

Choose a source from the 3 on the talk page

Dialogue 7

CNN. Good choice. The blog is way too personal. We want to know what experts and professionals write about a subject, since those sources are best for an encyclopedia. The children's book is probably a fun read, but it's a bit too simple for our use. The wrong audience, even though I love kids! Now that we have the source, what can we do with it? First, let's leave a note on the talk page telling GaiaGirl1988 our opinion.

Dialogue 8

To add a reply, you can click the [edit] box next to her post. Don't forget to indent (:) so it shows up as a reply. Choose a response that is friendly but informative.

Interface 2

Choose a response to GaiaGirl1988

  • You dummy! You can't use blogs and kids books. Everyone knows that!!
  • I have a feeling our best choice is the more newspapery one, ya know. Let's maybe use that maybe... I think?
  • CNN is a source with a good reputation. I think we can trust it for this article. Nice research!
Dialogue 9

You picked a good choice. Communication should be polite but clear. Being too harsh and rude or too vague and wishy-washy makes it hard for other editors. Now about using that source. Let's take a look at it and see if it has any information we can use.

Article 1 - 'Earth in the balance of history', CNN

Manhattan - NYC Every time around the spring I like to look out my window at the smog-choked street and recall a few scientific facts about our precious planet. Where else would you like to spend a few decades than here? Here's what we know about this great place:

  • Science shows that the Earth formed around 4.5 billion years ago.
  • The things that live on Earth have completely changed its air (atmosphere); this is called a biosphere.
  • About 71% of Earth's surface is covered in salt water oceans. Earth is the only place in the Solar System where liquid water is known to exist at present.
  • The other 29% is made of rocky land in the shape of continents and islands.
  • Earth interacts with other objects in the Solar System, particularly the Sun and the Moon. The Earth orbits or goes around the Sun roughly once every 365.25 days. One spin is called a day and one orbit around the Sun is called a year. This is why there are 365 days in a year.
  • Earth has only one moon, known as the Moon.

That's all for today folks. I have to go take a brisk walk to the men's room. I'll see you here again next March. Same worn-in desk, same worn-through chair, same Johnny Chewedpencil charm. Happy Springtime!

Dialogue 10

That's a good article. We can trust Johnny C. to do his research. Now we can pick one of those facts and add it to the article. And then... we can cite the article so readers and other editors know where we got the information from. Exciting!! Ahem, sorry. I get carried away with this whole project sometimes. Isn't it cool? Ok, back to the source. Let's use that great fact about 71% of Earth being covered in water. To add it to the article, click this magic link which will copy and paste it into the editing box in the right place.

Action 7 - Add content to article

Click here to add the sentence from Johnny Chewedpencil's article to the Earth article

Action 8 - Load editing page with added text; highlight text
Article 2

The Earth is the third planet from the Sun. It is one of the four terrestrial planets in hour Solar System. This means most of its mass is solid. The other three are Mercury, Mars. The Earth is also called the Blue Planet, "Planet Earth", and "Terra".

The Earth is home to millions of species of plants and animals, including humans. Earth is the only planet in the galaxy known to support life. Earth has many places that are suitable for humans to live in, although some areas of the planet can be very dangerous, too.

About 71% of Earth's surface is covered in salt water oceans. Earth is the only place in the Solar System where liquid water is known to exist at present.

Dialogue 11

Let's add that and see how it looks. Edit summary ("add info about water on Earth"), Show Preview and Save

Action 9 - Edit summary, Show preview and Save
Dialogue 12

Well, that was fast. Somebody already came by and left a cleanup tag on what we wrote. Hmph! Okay, chin up. Here's what happened and what we do about it. Some editors spend all their time on Wikipedia making sure that the content is in top shape. There's a lot to look at, so when they see something with a problem, they add a tag to the page so editors know to fix it up and readers no to be careful with that information. Hopefully they also leave a note on the article talk page explaining what they think was wrong. Let's check there now.

Action 10 - Highlight article Talk page link

Click here to access the talk page

Message 3

The info you added doesn't even have a source. Does anyone know where this came from???? --Taggy McTaggerstein

Dialogue 13

Okay, stay cool, stay calm, don't get frustrated. Deep breaths, deeeep breaths, deeeeeeeep breaaaaths. Aah. Sorry, I just get a little worked when I don't have time to make improvements before others point it out. But back to you. What would you like to say to this editor so that he knows you understand sourcing policy and were on your way to adding the source (as soon as you learned how).

Interface 3

Choose a response to Taggy McTaggerstein

  • A source? No, but at least I have a life! Sheesh.
  • You're pretty quick there Taggy. I'm glad people like you are looking out for readers. I'll add a source as soon as I get a chance.
  • Hi, um Taggy is it? We need to have a little heart to heart about your 'messages'. I don't like them, not one little eensy weensy bit.
Dialogue 14

Good choice. Staying calm and clear-headed even when others are not so friendly is always the best policy. Stay civil. Be respectful. It pays in the end. Most editors really are friendly and just trying to help improve the encyclopedia. The worst thing to do with a difficult editor is to drop to their level. You took the high road. Congrats. Now let's add that source.

Action 11 - Highlight Edit tab link

Click here to edit the page and cite a source.

Dialogue 15

Citing a source means saying where you found the information in an article. A source used to support information is called a reference, so I'm going to show you how to add a reference in the article and how to do it using an in-text citation. We put the citation in the text so that readers know exactly which sentence the source backs up. Here's how you do it:

  • Find the source - a reliable, published source, and add information from the source on the editing page
  • Place the mouse after the end of the sentence you want to source.
  • Click [Cite] in the editing toolbar
  • Select the type of source (book, web, tv, etc.)
  • Fill out the fields you know about the source (author, date, title, publication, etc.)
  • Click Add Citation
  • Add an edit summary, show preview, and save

It looks like a bunch of steps but it's really easy and once you've done it one time you can do it a thousand times. Trust me. Let's add the in-text citation now.

Action 12 - Citation template walkthrough
  • Highlight cursor after end of sentence - Click after the period to move the cursor
  • Highlight [Cite] in the editing toolbar - Click Cite to add a reference
  • Highlight [Cite Web] in the citation template -Click Cite Web to add a web-based reference
  • Fill out the fields from the source:"Planet Earth in the Balance of History". Chewedpencil, Johnny "newsdesk". CNN Science. March 21, 2010. http://cmm.com/Johnnycig/Earthinthebalance. Retrieved {two weeks ago}
    • Title: Planet Earth in the Balance of History
    • Author last name: Chewedpencil
    • Author first name: Johnny
    • Publication: CMM Science
    • url: http://cmm.com/JohnnyC/Earthinthebalance
    • publication date: March 21, 2010
    • access date: today
Dialogue 16

That's enough for now. The goal of adding more than just a link to the website is so that anyone can find the article, even if they're not on a computer! Gasp. But it happens. And unfortunately internet links can go bad or 'rot', so the more information the better. Let's see how it looks by clicking Add Citation, and then Show Preview.

Action 13 - Show Preview
Dialogue 17

So that's what it looks like. The reference will just show up as a number inside the article, after the period and superscripted up above the line. At the bottom of the page I'll show you how to make the references automatically show up in full there. You can even click on the numbers to take you directly to the full link at the bottom of the page. It's neat. Okay here's how you make them show up.

  • Click the Edit tab. You're going to make a new section at the bottom of the page. Sections are created by placing == on both sides of the section title, in this case 'References'. So it would be ==References==.
  • Underneath the section title, also called a 'header', type {{reflist}}. Reflist will make all of the sources format in a pretty and organized way.
  • Add an edit summary ("added reference, see discussion on talk page"), Show Preview, and Save

Okay, let's do it.

Action 14 - Edit summary, Show Preview, and Save
Dialogue 18

Look at that! It's like a magic trick. Gosh that gets me every time. I just take so much pride in my--I mean your references. How do you feel about it? Do you feel good? You should, because you're learning. In the next mission, we'll go deeper into the maze. This is fun.

Action 15 - Break or Continue?
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