Wikipedia:WikiProject Worcestershire/How to write about places in Worcestershire
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Settlements can often be difficult to write about. Everyone knows his own locality well, but not everyone knows how to write well, and possibly not everyone who wants to improve an article comes from the county, region, or even the country. Some good faith editors may not be aware of the sensibilities of local culture, customs, and language. This page will help editors to gain quick access to some of the more important tips and recommendations for article composition and anyone who is not from the country, may wish to read this in more detail, as it will differ slightly from other English speaking parts of the world.
Location, location, location
editBecause the Worcestershire project is more about articles about places than anything else (schools and people come closely afterwards), a recommended list of the items to include in the page format is shown below, but contributors of major chunks and /or creations of new articles should take time to read the complete UK geographypage - especially the closing section that contains all the prerequisites for GA, and in particular the notes pertaining to Notable People, and the use of adjectives and adverbs such as recent, recently, current, currently, as the content gets out of date very quickly.; and avoid weasel words, such as "it is believed that", "is widely regarded as", "some have claimed". (GA criteria); and avoid peacock terms, such as "beautiful", "famous", "popular", "well-known", "significant", "important" and "obvious". (GA criteria) There is also a tendency that should be avoided, to speculate on future events and area planning - Wiki is not a crystal ball and only deals with things that exist or existed.
Writing about the smallest of settlements in the UK can be difficult due to the lack of source material, especially when compared with the country's major metropolises. Some of the UK's smallest settlements may form part of a civil parish or council ward. Country hamlets and villages may mention significant places that might not be considered part of the village, but which lie within the parish or ward. Hamlets that are within another parish or council ward could have their own articles, but if there is no more than a couple of paragraphs that could be said about the hamlet it may be best practice to merge the articles[1].
Pronunciation
editThe IPA rendering of the place names in the UK may have been written by non-English editors and may therefore not accurately reflect the general British English or RP pronunciation of a place. On-going discussions on Wikipedia have not (by Feb 2010) reached a consensus as editors from various parts of the English speaking parts of the world do not share the same opinions. Some may insist that the IPA for British place names should show American English pronunciation, while others maintain that the IPA should show the local accent, and others would prefer the most widely understood RP.
If you come across an IPA spelling that does not represent the normal or standard pronunciation of the name of your settlement, in order to avoid an edit war, discuss your proposed change on the article's talk page where you can enlist either support or opposition for it.
Parishes
editA lot of debate about the unusual WP:GA article Malvern ( situation could have been spared by reading this first:
For civil parishes or community council areas in England and Wales, the Template:Infobox England and Wales civil parish has been developed. Please note that where the article discusses a parish-level entity containing a series of settlements (e.g. Ingatestone and Fryerning or Askam and Ireleth), this infobox is suitable as the only template. Where the article discusses a civil parish with a single major settlement, please use Template:Infobox UK place in the lead, but consider using the parish infobox in the Governance section. Where the parish entity is coterminate (or near-coterminate) with a settlement, use Template:Infobox UK place.
Format
editGenerally, the page format should follow this sequence. Not all headers/sections are required and headers should not have blank content. One-line section content should be merged into another relevant, hierarchical section. One-line paragraphs should be avoided in any section..
- Infobox: See Wikipedia:WikiProject UK geography/How to write about settlements#Infobox*
- lead, aka :introduction, lede See Wikipedia:WikiProject UK geography/How to write about settlements#Lead*. See also WP:LEAD).
- Toponymy: history of the settlement's name. See Wikipedia:WikiProject UK geography/How to write about settlements#History*.
- History (pre history; Middle Ages; 20th century; 21st century)
- governance (county; district; civil parish; ward) See Wikipedia:WikiProject UK geography/How to write about settlements#Governance*.
- Geography (more about where it is, and geophysical features, mountains,rivers, etc. See Wikipedia:WikiProject UK geography/How to write about settlements#Geography*.
- Demography (population statistics and growth; type of population - if important) See Wikipedia:WikiProject UK geography/How to write about settlements#Demography*.
- Economy (the general trade(s) mainly practiced in the area; large firms, famous firms. See Wikipedia:WikiProject UK geography/How to write about settlements#Economy*.
- Culture and community (local customs, traditions, landmarks, media, #amenities (large sports facilities, theaters, cinemas), where standalone sections are not appropriate.
- Amenities (large sports facilities, theaters, cinemas,
- Transport: (current access by road/rail/air) See Wikipedia:WikiProject UK geography/How to write about settlements#Transport.
- Education: secondary schools, colleges & universities (primary school a re not notable, but their number can be mentioned) See Wikipedia:WikiProject UK geography/How to write about settlements#Education.
- Places of worship (churches, mosques, synagogues, religious meeting places, etc. See Wikipedia:WikiProject UK geography/How to write about settlements#Religion.
- Sport (large facilities and/or complexes. Notable permanent teems. See Wikipedia:WikiProject UK geography/How to write about settlements#EcSport.
- Notable residents/people connected with… (All persons under this section must satisfy Wikipedia:Notability (people).) See See Wikipedia:WikiProject UK geography/How to write about settlements#Notable people.
- See also - links to any relevant Wikipedia articles.
- Compass (a template with compass directions for nearby and no so nearby settlements, with clickable links to their Wiki Cpages.
- References (No bare URLs. Must show : date accessed in British English, e.g.: Retrieved 12 February 2010. - no commas).
- Further reading (books. Should follow the recommended syntax for citations or use a book citation template. Don't list books that have already been cited in the references section.
- External links (Wiki is not a link farm - other editors are very quick to delete any that are not appropriate).