Kyalkin

Hello Kyalkin, and Welcome to Wikipedia! Please remember to sign your name on talk pages by clicking or using four tildes (~~~~); this will automatically produce your username and the date. Also, please do your best to always fill in the edit summary field. Below are some useful links to facilitate your involvement. Happy editing! jbmurray (talk • contribs) 09:25, 15 September 2008 (UTC) Getting started Introduction The five pillars of Wikipedia How to edit a page Finding your way around Table of contents Department directory Editing articles How to develop an article Manual of Style Getting help Frequently asked questions Cheatsheet Where to ask a question Help pages New contributors' help page How you can help Contributing to Wikipedia Community Portal Follow Wikipedia etiquette Practice civility

for completeness's sake...

...please also add yourself here. Thanks! --jbmurray (talk • contribs) 09:30, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

As you never officially signed up to WP:NRG, I've just added you. --jbmurray (talk • contribs) 18:59, 30 September 2008 (UTC)

models

To have a sense of what you should be aiming at as you work on your article, you are advised to look at relevant good articles and featured articles. Recent featured articles about novels, for instance, include El Señor Presidente and The General in His Labyrinth. These were written by a UBC class last semester. You may also want to consult the Novels Wikiproject. --jbmurray (talk • contribs) 09:56, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

reminders: regular editing and plan

Two reminders, from our project page:

Over the course of the semester, you need to log in and make at least one edit, again however minor, to your article twice a week.

By September 19, each group should have their plan in place, and have written it up on their article's talk page.

--jbmurray (talk • contribs) 08:08, 17 September 2008 (UTC)

Another reminder about regular editing: So far you have only made two edits. Do get up to speed... If you are having any problems, please drop me a note. --jbmurray (talk • contribs) 19:15, 30 September 2008 (UTC)

October

Kyalkin, I see that you've still only made two edits, and that the last of these was well over a week ago... --jbmurray (talk • contribs) 20:37, 8 October 2008 (UTC)

I added a "List of other works" section to the page, and suggested some if not all of the other famous novels by Julia Alvarez. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Kyalkin (talk • contribs)

It's excellent that you've got moving. However, as I say on the article's talk page...

The problem is that this is not really appropriate for this article, which is on the novel. Look at the models that I've suggested to you: El Señor Presidente and The General in His Labyrinth. They don't have such a section. You should really follow your plan and work with the bibliography of reliable (non-web) sources that you've put together. This list is of course important for the Julia Alvarez article... but you'll see that that already has a list of works. As such, I'm sorry but I'm going to delete this section. If there's anything that can be added to the Julia Alvarez article, I'll add it there.

So keep at it, and don't be discouraged. But do follow your plan, work with the bibliography that you've established, and follow the models I've suggested. Good luck! --jbmurray (talk • contribs) 19:06, 9 October 2008 (UTC)

FA-Team

We have been adopted by the renowned FA-Team! Please add the project page to your watchlists, and feel free to ask FA-Team members if you have any queries or need help. --jbmurray (talk • contribs) 20:17, 19 October 2008 (UTC)

happy face!

You get my happy face for your efforts on How the García Girls Lost Their Accents. Keep it up! --jbmurray (talk • contribs) 23:38, 24 October 2008 (UTC)

removing sections

Heh. We seem to have a minor edit war, as you keep on deleting a section on your article's talk page: This is the most recent instance.

This is just to say that normally what is on talk pages is not deleted. It's a record of all the discussions about a particular article. After a while, it can get archived (and there are some exceptions to this general rule). But on the whole it's good to keep these things as a record. --jbmurray (talk • contribs) 05:05, 27 October 2008 (UTC)

Sorry Jon! I thought since it was a useless section it was worth being removed. I understand how it works now. I'm sill kind of getting used to the whole "Wikipedia World". Kyalkin (talk) 18:06, 27 October 2008 (UTC)

No problem. Yes, Wikipedia has a few conventions that take a little while to get used to. Anyhow, concentrate on the article, not the talk page! That way you get more happy faces! --jbmurray (talk • contribs) 18:20, 27 October 2008 (UTC)

references

It looks as though you're still having problems with references.

All you have to do is add the author, year, and date at the place where you are citing. E.g.

(Smith 1999, p. 20)

And at the bottom, ensure that the entire details are available in the References section. E.g.

Smith, Paul. Fashion through the Ages. London: Big Bad Books, 1999.

OK? Drop me a note if you have any questions. --jbmurray (talk • contribs) 18:31, 28 October 2008 (UTC)

Thanks Jon! I'm just checking...I've used Julia Alvarez's website as a source and now I'm remembering you saying that maybe I couldn't? I pulled information from the "About me" section and have used it in my Background article. How should I cite her website if I can at all? Thanks! Kyalkin (talk) 04:43, 30 October 2008 (UTC)kyalkin

Re. Characters

(copied from my talk page:) Hi. First, you might want to doublecheck once more with similar articles as to the section titles they use; normally it's "Main Characters" rather than "Summariziation of Main Characters." You might also want to look at how they handle this. Again, I've given you a number of examples of Featured Articles on novels: El Señor Presidente and The General in His Labyrinth, for instance, but also look here.

As to the sources, how many have you checked? As Awadewit notes on your article's talk page, at present the article remains rather thin in terms of sources. --jbmurray (talk • contribs) 02:53, 2 November 2008 (UTC)

(copied from my talk page:) Heh. Not exactly "general knowledge"! But a) citations from the book itself are encouraged, too; and b) interpretation should indeed be cited from a reliable secondary source. --jbmurray (talk • contribs) 03:44, 2 November 2008 (UTC)