Lowell Boggs

Essenes

This is a pretty good series of edits. Welcome to Wikipedia. Just note though that e.g. Josephus would be counted a primary WP:source wheras footnotes are really for secondary sources, a scholar saying "...because Josephus says...." etc. Cheers. In ictu oculi (talk) 09:51, 18 June 2011 (UTC)

Thanks! By "primary source", I assume that you mean that the reference to the author, book, and section should be included in the body of the article. Is that correct? I am no expert in editing, so any advice is appreciated. --Lowell Boggs (talk) 16:15, 18 June 2011 (UTC)

Hi, sorry I should have made it more clear, "primary source" is Wikipediaese I guess. Wikipedia:No_original_research#Primary.2C_secondary_and_tertiary_sources basically distinguishes between actual primary (Johnson's diary, the Bible, Josephus, Jefferson), and secondary (a scholar mentioning Johnson's diary, the Bible, Josephus, Jefferson), and tertiary, a dictionary or encyclopedia gathering many scholars' consensus. The edits you made were primary sources (Josephus), but in your hands ended up looking like tertiary, and that's not too common, which is why I complimented you. Too often edits in a subject like Essenes are just some guy/girl spouting his own opinions (what Wikipedia calls WP:OR), which is why secondary and tertiary sources get needed. Welcome again. In ictu oculi (talk) 17:48, 18 June 2011 (UTC)