Wikipedia:Workshop/Sample exercises
Draft new page in progress - feel free to help
Below are exercises which workshop participants may copy to a sandbox and edit. (Sandboxes may be created from a user page or a Wikipedia:Sandbox may be used.)
If you are new to Wikipedia, start from the first exercise. If you have some experience, skip the parts you already know. If you are familiar with everything, study the Wikipedia:Cheatsheet and follow links to study whatever subject you need to brush up on.
Save an edit
Per Wikipedia:Tutorial/Editing type several lines of text, write an edit summary, preview your work, and save it.
Apply bold and italics
Per Wikipedia:Tutorial/Formatting use three apostrophes for bold and two apostrophes for italics. Use five for bold italics, though that is seldom used.
This whole sentence should be bold. This whole sentence should have italics. Leave this part alone but put the last four words in bold. Now put the first three words of this sentence in italics. Make this whole sentence bold and italics. But italics on the names of books and bold the names of individuals. Gone with the Wind. Janet Jackson. Green Eggs and Ham. King Tut. Bhagavad Gita.
Create section headers
Per Wikipedia:Tutorial/Formatting. Hint: Section titles starting with a * have two = (equal) marks (remove the star when you add them); those without a star have three. Do this section in a separate sandbox so you can see how the table of contents looks.) The topic is the history of the United States.
- Colonial period
After a period of exploration by people from various European countries, Spanish, Dutch, English, French, Swedish, and Portuguese settlements were established.
Spanish colonization
Spanish explorers were the first Europeans to arrive in what is now the United States with Christopher Columbus' second expedition, which reached Puerto Rico on November 19, 1493
Dutch colonization
New Netherland was the 17th century Dutch colony centered on New York City and the Hudson River Valley, where they traded furs with the Native Americans to the north and were a barrier to Yankee expansion from New England.
French colonization
New France was the area colonized by France from 1534 to 1763.
British colonization
The first successful English colony was established in 1607, on the James River at Jamestown.
Political integration and autonomy
Following Britain's acquisition of French territory in North America, King George III issued the Royal Proclamation of 1763 with the goal of organizing the new North American empire and stabilizing relations with the native Indians.
- Formation of the United States of America (1776–1789)
The Thirteen Colonies began a rebellion against British rule in 1775 and proclaimed their independence in 1776 as the United States of America.
- Early national era (1789–1849)
George Washington—a renowned hero of the American Revolutionary War, commander-in-chief of the Continental Army, and president of the Constitutional Convention—became the first President of the United States under the new Constitution in 1789.
War with Britain
In response to multiple grievances, the Congress declared war on Britain in 1812.
Abolitionist movement
After 1840 the growing abolitionist movement redefined itself as a crusade against the sin of slave ownership.
- Civil War era (1849–1865)
Compromise of 1850
The issue of slavery in the new territories was seemingly settled by the Compromise of 1850 brokered by Whig Henry Clay and Democrat Stephen Douglas.
Secession
After Abraham Lincoln won the 1860 election, eleven Southern states seceded from the union between late 1860 and 1861, establishing a new government, the Confederate States of America, on February 8, 1861.
Civil war begins
The Civil War began on April 12, 1861, when Confederate forces attacked a U.S. military installation at Fort Sumter in South Carolina.
Casualties
Based on 1860 census figures, about 8% of all white males aged 13 to 43 died in the war, including about 6% in the North and approximately 18% in the South, establishing the American Civil War as the deadliest war in American history.
Wikipedia article links
Per Wikipedia:Tutorial/Wikipedia_links properly format all the important subjects in the sentences below so they link to the appropriate event, entity, person, organization, etc. which has a Wikipedia article - and Wikipedia does have an article on almost everything! (You can search either words or phrases you are in doubt about; if there is not and article it will show up in red when you click "Show Preview.") If you see a phrase below in (parenthesis) this is the name of an article which goes before the appropriate phrase in a WP:piped link. Over time you will learn how to find the name of relevant articles to create such piped links. See the relevant paragraphs in the History of the United States article to check what you missed.
The history of the United States traditionally starts with the (United States Declaration of Independence) Declaration of Independence in the year 1776, although its territory was inhabited by (Native Americans in the United States) Native Americans since prehistoric times and then by (European colonization of the Americas) European colonists who followed the voyages of Christopher Columbus starting in 1492. The largest settlements were by the English on the East Coast, starting in 1607. By the 1770s the Thirteen Colonies contained two and half million people, were prosperous, and had developed their own political and legal systems. After the American Revolution the (United States Constitution) Constitution became the basis for the United States federal government, with war hero George Washington as the first president.
The (women's suffrage in the United States) women's suffrage movement began with the 1848 Seneca Falls Convention, organized by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott, and the Declaration of Sentiments demanding equal rights for women. Many of the activists became politically aware during the abolitionist movement. The women's rights campaign during "first-wave feminism" was led by Mott, Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, among many others. The movement reorganized after the Civil War, gaining experienced campaigners, many of whom had worked for prohibition in the Women's Christian Temperance Union.
Around 1912 the feminist movement began to reawaken, putting an emphasis on its demands for equality and arguing that the corruption of American politics demanded purification by women, because men could not do that job. Protests became increasingly common as suffragette Alice Paul led parades through the capital and major cities. Paul split from the large National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA), which favored a more moderate approach and supported the Democratic Party and Woodrow Wilson, led by Carrie Chapman Catt, and formed the more militant National Woman's Party. Suffragists were arrested during their "Silent Sentinels" pickets at the White House, the first time such a tactic was used, and were taken as political prisoners. Finally, the suffragettes were ordered released from prison, and Wilson urged Congress to pass a Constitutional amendment enfranchising women.