User talk:Jjwiki14

Hi Jjwiki14,

Welcome to Wikipedia!

I'd be happy to be your mentor. First lesson: you can sign your name to posts on talk pages by typing four tildes, ~~~~, there's also a button, of a pen signing, at the top of the edit window which you can click. It's considered good etiquette to do this when you leave a message somewhere.

The campus ambassador should have distributed lots of introductory materials, I'd suggest you read them. You've obviously successfully created an account and made a couple of edits, now you need to understand what a good encyclopedia article is, and its particular style. The best way is to read the best articles on wikipedia, known as featured articles. They have been tested against the featured article criteria. You should browse areas which you know a-lot about, and critically rate their quality. Once you drift outside of the featured article set, you'll find one which are of much more dubious quality: it is from these you will pick articles to work on for your class.

You could also make some small edits to article on books or films you know alot about. Maybe, add and reference a point made in a review about the work.

The best thing is to get started and come to me with any questions, no matter how silly. A convenient guide to the wikicode (syntax for formatting wikipedia) is here: WP:Cheatsheet. Remember that most statements need to be referenced, as in an academic essay (See :Wikipedia:Citing sources)

Best wishes and good luck,--Ktlynch (talk) 11:52, 26 January 2011 (UTC)

Hello, this is me sending you as a classmate a message. How goes it? BrickWallBartholomew (talk) 20:10, 26 January 2011 (UTC)

Writing on talk pages

Hi Jjwiki14, I noticed your message to User:JPurdyWNC, and have redone it to demonstrate a few things. First, when your message relates to a new topic on the talk page, click the "Add topic" button at the top of the page. This created a new, separate section, properly formatted. If you're responding to a previous post, indent your text using a colon.

Like this

To go to a new line, simply press return.

Finally, remember to sign your posts on talk pages using four tildes (~~~~) or the signature butto. This is better than typing your name since it creates an hyper-link and time-stamp (like mine at the end of this message).

Otherwise, how are you finding it?

Best, --Ktlynch (talk) 13:56, 27 January 2011 (UTC)

Hello,

Hope you are doing well. Writing to complete an assignment. Have a good day.

```` — Preceding unsigned comment added by Jch127 (talk • contribs) 19:10, 27 January 2011 (UTC)

Wiki Assignment 2/3/11

3 Potential Topics

       -North Carolina Environmental Law
       -North Carolina Election Law
       -North Carolina Department of Public Instruction
       -North Carolina State Board of Education Policy on Teaching Certification

Critical Evaluation of a Wikipedia Article

The wikipedia page for the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction is very short. It only consists of three sentences. "The North Carolina Department of Public Instruction (NCDPI) oversees the public school system in the U.S. state of North Carolina. The DPI is headed by the State Superintendent and the North Carolina State Board of Education. It is headquartered in Raleigh(Wikipedia NCDPI, 2011)." Other topics and categories that could be included are, the NC Standard Course of Study; the different subjects taught and offered; Best Practices; and NC Teaching Standards. The NC Department of Public Instruction could also be joined with the North Carolina State Board of Education page which also could use improvement. This page does not do the State Board justice. More information can be provided on the power and governance of the State Board.Jjwiki14 (talk) 05:04, 4 February 2011 (UTC)

I've created a page especially for your assignments (User:Jjwiki14/Assignments) and formatted the above post in the wikipedia-style. Click "edit" to see the wikicode and how I did it. For the next assignment, just create a new section by typing ==Assignment 2 ==. I hope this helps, Ktlynch (talk) 18:46, 6 February 2011 (UTC)

Hi, I fiddled with your page again, just to demonstrate the best way to format things, I've always found it makes more sense. Here is the change, please let me know if this is annoying. Ktlynch (talk) 13:15, 10 February 2011 (UTC)

Hey, no problem. I really appreciate the help. Did I do my referencing right?Jjwiki14 (talk) 01:22, 11 February 2011 (UTC)

You haven't really done any referencing yet because you haven't made any edits to articles. Those were just some links to the websites of the bodies of the subjects of the articles. It should be noted that these websites, though useful, are not adequate sources for an article. Wikipedia articles use secondary sources. For Wikipedia's explanation of how to reference see here: WP:cite, and this is a great video tutorial : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Citing_sources_tutorial,_part_1.ogv. The topics you have chosen seem to be very niche to me, and perhaps good secondary sources will be scant; though of course you know the material better than me. Writing an encyclopedia article is akin to writing a literature review in academia: you are not asked to include you own opinions or analysis, it's not an original thesis. --Ktlynch (talk) 14:58, 11 February 2011 (UTC)

Linking to another wikipedia site

KT, I have added a list of schools to my sandbox page and would like to link them to their school wikipedia sites. How would I go about doing that? Thank you.

Hi JJ, you just put the name in double square brackets "[[" [[Like this]]. See also here: WP:EGG for linking using other words or phrases.--Ktlynch (talk) 12:58, 7 March 2011 (UTC)

moving from sandbox to main space

KT: Got the links to work. Thank you. We have been asked to move our sandbox page to the wikipedia main space. I am not done with the page but I assume I can keep editing it after its been moved. How do I move it to the main space? Thanks for your help.Jjwiki14 (talk) 03:03, 10 March 2011 (UTC)

Hey, of course you can keep editing, that's the whole point! It's pretty simple, click edit in the sandbox, highlight all you want to copy, and copy-paste it over to the main article page. Make sure you mix it properly with other material that might be there. What is the exact name of the page you want to move it to. --Ktlynch (talk) 19:30, 10 March 2011 (UTC)

Some comments on getting the article into "wikipedia style"

Hi JJ,

I've just done some tidying up on your article, from a point of view of formatting in the house style it was looking pretty horrible to be honest. You've necessarily less experience with the wikicode syntax since you came in working on a specific project, try having a look at Help:Wiki markup. A few points:

1. Don't make spaces to the left of words, all text should be flush against the box, the software then formats it when you click save.

2. Use an asterisk to make a bullet point.

3. Add the bibliography, there are page references but not publications.

4. There needs to be a lead section (WP:lede), which is both a summary and introduction to the article.

5. Wikipedia is not a how to, so cut the instructions on how to apply. Much better to link to their official website at the bottom of the page.

6. I'm also a little unsure about the inclusion of the list. it might be better to separate it into a stand alone list with a link on this page.

7. A Did You Know is a special snippet on the main page. See WP:DYK how on how to nominate. I've just done my first one myself and the rules are quite strict, read over them and we'll prepare it on your sandbox.

Overrall, though you should concentrate on the content and especially having strong sources and I can tidy up some of the formatting.

Any questions, please ask.Best, --Ktlynch (talk) 11:42, 29 March 2011 (UTC)

KT, First of all, thanks for all your help. This is like learning a new language and I couldnt do this without you. I put everything up against the left of the box, fixed the asterik's, and started a lead section. We have to nominate our article for DYK but I'll keep working on the article before I do it for real. If you think the article is ready just let me know and we will work on it. I also will try to organize the history section a little bit a make it easier to read. Take care.Jjwiki14 (talk) 01:04, 2 April 2011 (UTC)

North Carolina State Board of Education Teaching Certification

Hello, Jjwiki14. A user recently placed a possible copyright violation notice on North Carolina State Board of Education Teaching Certification because text was copied and pasted from here which is a website that has non-commerical copyright terms. Aside from small quotes, text can only be reused on Wikipedia if it is licensed CC-BY-SA or public domain. See WP:COPYRIGHT for more info on licensing. Also, you copied and pasted a significant amount of statutes into the article which is unnecessary for an encyclopedia. I removed that section, it is better explained in a shorter version and using prose to explain the current statutes. I removed the steps on getting a certificate section as well, per WP:NOTHOWTO. Overall, I think you have a good history in this article and I think it would benefit Wikipedia if you merged that all into a Education in North Carolina article (non-existent now). There, education can be covered in general along with the history of teachers. Right now, that article is very detailed on a small subject when the larger and more broad one, of education, is hardly covered. If you have any questions, let me know.--NortyNort (Holla) 02:52, 15 May 2011 (UTC)