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User:Smuckola/Essay on biographies

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An editor of an article about a person's life — whether it's a President, a celebrity, a band, or someone who the editor personally cares nothing about — is a Wikipedia biographer. Wikipedia biographers have the singular privilege of publicly reflecting some part of another human being's life. They may be the subject's personal Wikipedian in residence (WIR). The presentation may not be intimate, but it may be popular. It might not even be a good idea. Be sensitive, but neutrally accurate.

Have some empathy, because your words may be the first thing that the world sees about the given subject, when they do an Internet search for the subject's name.

This essay assumes reader competency with the pillars, principles, privileges, and restrictions of Wikipedia.

General

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First, read Wikipedia's essay about why a Wikipedia biography isn't necessarily a good thing.

When writing a biography, it's hard to understand how to target in between a résumé and an advertisement. You want to hit somewhere in the middle, where it's not just a list of events and it's not blatantly promotional. I think that we often have to see our work as an extensive, skeletal, draft for an ideal form which would take a lot more work. It'd take a lot more background synthesis of the collective cultural and scientific significance, and of various outside perspectives looking back in upon it.

Look at other similar articles for examples, and imitate them. Draw upon some as categorical templates; pick some as examples for musicians, for authors, for politicians, for eclectic weirdos, etc. Build an infrastructure for the article, including the following major bullet points. Major sections would include these: Career, Biography, Bibliography, Discography, Videography, and Reception (Critical reception).

Describe the subject's lineage if possible, and how their family was notable and enriched their individual notability through training or other privilege. Describe the person's individual area of expertise, focusing on wikilinks as subtle background and as further reading.

Define the subject's notability. Go through the list of criteria of musical notability and write about each applicable criterion. Describe their titles, awards, and community recognitions in lay terms, so that the uninitiated can basically understand how someone would go about achieving them, what it takes to achieve them, and why they add to the subject's notability. Describe how they have advanced the state of their art. Describe their community of peers, and define how they have become a distinguished, or possibly virtually irreplaceable, element of their community. Think like a Ph.D candidate.

See also: George Hill (chef)

Multimedia

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Upload photographs, audio clips, and video clips to Wikimedia Commons if the image is truly free, and obtain consent if you don't own the copyright. Because it'd be the most free, the media will thus become available to all Wikipedia services, in all languages. Helpfully explain the preferred free licenses to the copyright holder, sending the lay explanation text to them. Respectfully let them know that it is a fact of the modern world, that notable people already have photos floating around the public forever. However, the authenticity and ownership of such haphazard media are rarely traced, permission is rarely solicited for reusing them, and publicity may be given to undesirable (unflattering or low quality) images. Thus, though there are no guarantees, may be to their advantage to curb this chaos with an officially-declared free copyright, and to influence their preference upon the commons.

If you can't obtain copyright permission, then the image is non-free and you may be able to upload it directly to your language's Wikipedia site with the appropriate disclaimer. You can use certain found photographs or album art if they're used for identification purposes. Initiate the upload process for more details.

See also: Wikipedia:CONSENT and Wikipedia:File_Upload_Wizard

Componentry

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  • Wikipedia:Manual_of_Style/Biographies, Wikipedia:WikiProject_Musicians/Article_guidelines
  • Wikipedia:LEAD
    • Name the article for the subject's legal name, maybe with redirects from their best known names. State the subject's entire name as per the article name, parenthetically with nickname, extended name, or native name. Consider whether you need a pronunciation guide.[citation needed] State what their title or position is, using wikilinks. State a summary of what they are most notable for, and best known for. That would be the minimal coverage even for a stub. Think in terms of "the least you need to know" and "why you should continue reading". Your words may be the first thing that the world sees about the given subject, when they do an Internet search for the subject's name.
See also: Walfredo Reyes, Jr.
See also: Category:Date_of_birth_unknown

{{collapse top|left=y|title=The expanded Walfredo Reyes, Jr. discography|bg=#EEEEEE|bg2=#ECFCF4}}<div class="collapse-workaround"> {{Div col|cols=3}} {{collapse bottom}}

See also: Category:American_music_awards_templates

Help

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Finally, request proofreading and copyediting! Check the Guild of Copy Editors, preferably for someone who's interested in biographies. Also see Wikipedia's IRC channels.

To do:

  • create a template 'packet' -- a collection of templates and categories and sections, in one coherent structure, as a prototype of a biographical article wizard
  • some method of genealogical biographies, for notable families or family members. create a new category, etc.
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