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
See Wikipedia:Tutorial/Wikipedia links and the video. Properly format all the important subjects in the sentences below so they link to the appropriate event, person, organization, entity, 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 or don't bother to link it if you are in doubt. Someone will come along and link it at some point.
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.
Wikipedia category links
Per Wikipedia:Tutorial/Wikipedia links, at the bottom of every article is a list of category links which shows what categories the article is in. So at the bottom of an article on Bird you will find the following categories listed: Birds - Animals - Biological pest control - Dinosaurs . Open the articleBird and you will see near the bottom how a list of categories is added. If you create a new article, find the categories similar articles are in. Otherwise, this is something you will become more knowledgeable about and interested in adding.
External links
Wikipedia:Tutorial/Citing sources shows how to make external links which are both for citing sources and any "External links" section of an article. Copy this section to your sandbox and make some like the simple examples you'll see in the editing screen. (The asteriks are for making bullet marks on lists.)
- Cornell Lab of Ornithology
- The Institute for Bird Populations, California
- Early 20th century USA High Quality photographs
- http://www.bsc-eoc.org/avibase/avibase.jsp?lang=EN&pg=home The World Bird Database
- http://www.birdlife.org/ Birdlife International
- Bird biogeography http://people.eku.edu/ritchisong/birdbiogeography1.htm
- Birds and Science http://www.audubon.org/bird/index.html
- http://www.birds.cornell.edu/ Cornell Lab of Ornithology
Citing sources
Wikipedia:Tutorial/Citing sources has a lot of information about formatting references to create footnotes and you'll see people do it in a variety of ways, including using "templates." But all you have to know for now is how to make a simple link like the below.
- <ref>[http://www.nytimes.com/article_name.html Article in The New York Times]</ref>
Make such simple links for all the references below, putting the various words and phrases in the appropriate order. Don't forget your Wikilinks to famous people, books, periodicals, etc. But do NOT try to put them inside your external links. Format the references also. In general book, movie and album titles are italicized and articles have quotation marks around their titles; so make those formatting changes too. Some editors italicize publication names, others do not. Adding ISBN to book numbers is helpful but not required.
Make sure you copy this whole section separately to a sandbox and include the "references" section at the bottom so you can see how your footnotes look after you save your page.
You should now be in an editing screen in a sandbox looking at this model: [1]
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1278863/Richard-Kay-17-May-2010.html "Watch out, boys. . . Liz Taylor's coming home" Daily Mail May 17, 2010.
http://www.times-series.co.uk/news/topstories/8927698.Dame_Elizabeth_Taylor_dies_aged_79/ by Alex Hayes "Hampstead Garden Suburb born Dame Elizabeth Taylor dies aged 79" Times of London March 24, 2011
http://books.google.com/books?id=ScE8F_pMuAAC Elizabeth by J. Randy Taraborrelli Grand Central Publishing 2006 ISBN 9780446532549
Alexander Walker ISBN: 978-0802113351le 1990 Elizabeth: the life of Elizabeth Taylor G. Weidenfeld Publishers p. 22.
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/thr-chief-film-critic-todd-170552 Chief Film Critic Todd McCarthy Remembers Elizabeth Taylor Todd McCarthy March 23, 2011 The Hollywood Reporter
by Associated Press http://www.cnn.com/2007/SHOWBIZ/12/02/elizabeth.taylor.ap/index.html Striking writers give Elizabeth Taylor a pass December 2, 2007
by Times staff An update on Elizabeth Taylor's four children http://www.tampabay.com/news/humaninterest/qampa-an-update-on-elizabeth-taylors-four-children/1064792 January 12, 2010 St. Petersburg Times
http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D9M70HVO0.htm Taylor estate will earn dollars from scents by Ryan Nakashima March 26, 2011 Bloomberg Businessweek
References
- ^ Name of author(s), "Title of article", (News paper or The New York Times, (Volume, Number etc. if appropriate), date (usually is available), (add page number if appropriate), ISBN: #
Editing talk pages
Per Wikipedia:Tutorial/Talk pages, look at the following talk pages as examples of how editors communicate. Note editors don't always follow formatting rules for talk pages. [[Talk:Talk:History of the United States]] - Talk:Bird -Talk:Elizabeth Taylor
Then copy the conversation below to a sandbox and format it, including using astericks (*) for bullet points and number signs for numbered lists (#)
I think this article about this wealthy family is very confusing. What can we do about it? [Signed User:#1]
I agree! This is a list of what I think should be done:
Make the lead shorter.
Put the sections in chronological order. I don't know what order they are in now!
Make it clear what the relation of all these family members are.
Include family member birth dates where appropriate.
What do you think? [Signed User:#2]
I wrote this article and I thought it was fine like it is, except for spelling mistakes. But I'm beginning to see your point. [Signed User:#3]
I think the chronological order should be as I have it numbered below:
The parents meet and are married and slip deep into poverty.
The children are born and inherit the fortune from the uncle who hated the brother.
The widowed aunt bribes authorities and gets legal guardianship of the children and moves to England.
The children come of age and move back to Argentina.
The parents win the lottery.
The children are embarrassed by the parents being so "nouveau rich" and move back to England. The parents follow them back and become famous.
How does that sound? [Signed User:#1]
OK, you caught me. I just read a couple articles and got confused myself. Sounds like you read a lot more about this family. Let's do it!! [Signed User:#3]