Allykittencat

Just saying hello! Sarahg.2009 (talk) 16:52, 21 February 2012 (UTC)

Welcome

Ally,

Welcome to Wikipedia. I am an Online Ambassador and I will be working with your class. I will be available (on Wiki time, i.e., usually within 24 hours) to answer questions. I may also offer suggestions and/or make gnomish edits to your work. You can leave a message for me on my talk page, or you can send me an e-mail using the link on my user or talk page. -- Donald Albury 13:50, 12 February 2012 (UTC)

Aweer people

I was just looking at your edit on Aweer people. I elaborated on the citation. You provided enough information to allow me to find the source, which is the important part. When sources are not available on the Internet, however, you will need to be more specific: author's name, title of article or book, journal or newspaper name, if appropriate, date of publication, etc. Don't worry too much about the formatting for now, other editors can help with that. What is important is that whatever is added or changed in an article can be verified from a reliable source.

I do have some concern with the material you added. While it is not word-for-word a direct copy of the source, it is a fairly close paraphrase. The question of how close a paraphrase is to a copyrighted source is a matter of judgement, but I suspect most Wikipedians who pay attention to copyright violations would regard your edit as insufficiently different from the source. I suggest that you go back and try rewriting the material again in your own words. -- Donald Albury 15:54, 19 February 2012 (UTC)

Again, don't worry too much for now about the details of style and formatting. The ideal is to be using several reliable sources, writing in your own words a summary of what those reliable sources say, avoiding any violation of copyright, and not creating a "novel synthesis", i.e., going beyond what is stated in the sources. I know that at times it is hard to think of a way to state something that doesn't seem inferior to the wording of the source, but we do need to avoid copying even short phrases.

By the way, when you place a comment on a talk page (but not in an article), sign your comment with four tildes (~~~~). This automatically adds a link to your user page and a date/time stamp. There are bots that add signatures to unsigned comments on talk page, but they don't catch everything. Also, remember to sign in before editing. If you edit while not signed in, the IP address you are editing from appears in the page history, rather than your user name (I don't know if you have done this, but some of your classmates have). -- Donald Albury 11:55, 23 February 2012 (UTC)

Welcome to Wikipedia: check out the Teahouse!

Hello! Allykittencat, you are invited to the Teahouse, a forum on Wikipedia for new editors to ask questions about editing Wikipedia, and get support from peers and experienced editors. Please join us! Sarah (talk) 22:46, 27 March 2012 (UTC)