Also, when you post on
Pesky (talk …stalk!) 10:48, 20 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Hi Minutepm, I thought I'd drop a few notes on your talk page with some help on writing articles :o)
First of all, it may be best for you to do a bit of reading, starting with the
Second, I recommend you make a user sandbox - which is just an area you can use to practise in, and to make notes in, and to get things ready in. If you click this red link: user:Minutepm/Sandbox, that will let you create that page (it gives you an edit window to start work in). Anything, anywhere, on the help and information pages which gives you an example, try it out in your sandbox until you're familiar with it.
For your article, the next thing you want to do is start collecting as much information as you can about it. Google searches (particularly in Books and Scholar) will be your best friend for this! Once you've found the information, the next most important thing is to start writing up each fact in your own words (very important, this), and make a note at the same time of exactly where that information came from. Build in the references as you go along; I'm going to copy in, down below this, a whole heap of help on doing references, which was produced by one of our best teachers (Chzz).
Here's another place that you'll find incredibly useful -
Hopefully this will give you a good start and make life easier for you.
One last thing to keep as a motto: "It's better to write one good, well-referenced, nicely-presented article than it is to create fifty unreferenced one-line stubs!" Pesky (talk …stalk!) 10:48, 20 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]
These require two parts;
Chzz is 98 years old.<ref> "The book of Chzz", Aardvark Books, 2009. </ref> He likes tea. <ref> [http://www.nicecupofteaandasitdown.com Tea website] </ref>
== References == {{reflist}}
(an existing article is likely to already have one of these sections)
To see the result of that, please look at user:chzz/demo/simpleref. Edit it, and check the code; perhaps make a test page of your own, such as user:Minutepm/reftest and try it out.
Chzz was born in 1837. <ref name=MyBook> "The book of Chzz", Aardvark Books, 2009. </ref> Chzz lives in Footown.<ref name=MyBook/>
Note that the second usage has a / (and no closing ref tag). This needs a reference section as above; please see user:chzz/demo/namedref to see the result.
You can put anything you like between <ref> and </ref>, but using citation templates makes for a neat, consistent look;
Chzz has 37 Olympic medals. <ref> {{Citation | last = Smith | first = John | title = Olympic medal winners of the 20th century | publication-date = 2001 | publisher = [[Cambridge University Press]] | page = 125 | isbn = 0-521-37169-4 }} </ref>
Please see user:chzz/demo/citeref to see the result.
For more help and tips on that subject, see user:chzz/help/refs.
Hi there Minutepm! I've just come across one of your articles, and noticed that you had to create titles for your url links manually, or were using bare urls as references.
You might want to consider using
If this is the first article that you have created, you may want to read the guide to writing your first article.You may want to consider using the Article Wizard to help you create articles.
If this is the first article that you have created, you may want to read
You may want to consider using the Article Wizard
A tag has been placed on
If you think that this notice was placed here in error, contest the deletion by clicking on the button labelled "Click here to contest this speedy deletion". Doing so will take you to the talk page where you will find a pre-formatted place for you to explain why you believe the page should not be deleted. You can also visit the page's talk page directly to give your reasons, but be aware that once tagged for speedy deletion, if the page meets the criterion, it may be deleted without delay. Please do not remove the speedy deletion tag yourself, but don't hesitate to add information to the page that would render it more in conformance with Wikipedia's policies and guidelines. If the page is deleted, you can contact one of these administrators to request that the administrator userfy the page or email a copy to you. Pesky (talk …stalk!) 11:16, 20 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]