User talk:ChemPunk

Welcome!

Hello, ChemPunk, and welcome to Wikipedia! Thank you for your contributions. I hope you like the place and decide to stay. Here are some pages that you might find helpful:

The five pillars of Wikipedia
Tutorial
How to edit a page and How to develop articles
How to create your first article (using the Article Wizard if you wish)
Manual of Style

I hope you enjoy editing here and being a Wikipedian! Please sign your messages on discussion pages using four tildes (~~~~); this will automatically insert your username and the date. If you need help, check out Wikipedia:Questions, ask me on my talk page, or ask your question on this page and then place {{helpme}} before the question. Again, welcome! LadyofShalott 21:06, 22 September 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Suggestions for classwork

Great to have your course involved with Wikipedia! We have much much experience with classes using Wikipedia in this way. You and your students can learn a lot. Here is my advice:

Involvement of faculty is super-critical. Students will contribute substandard material if left to themselves. So we hope that you will help them do cleanup before allowing them to post.
Dont get hung up on formatting for Wikipedia, that aspect is easy for experienced editors and detracts from the students' focus on content.
See WP:Secondary. Anyone can find primary literature by Googling or surfing. Students lack perspective (that is why they are students!) and tend to be impressed by journal references. Quite the opposite in Wikipedia: The explicit preference is for references to texts, monographs, and reviews. More than 200 articles appear in chemistry journals every day. Wikipedia does not aspire to be a mini-Chemical Reviews.
Avoid complete overwriting an existing article, instead revise.

Here is my own editing interest: Students (and some faculty) tend to hype "potential applications" (drinking the academic Kool-Aid) and understate prosaic commercial successes, which are more broadly influential to the readership of Wikipedia. Academicians (and academic wanna-be's) write about other academicians, but often overlook content is important and relevant in the real world.

Good luck and ask for help if you need it. --Smokefoot (talk) 00:33, 23 September 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Hi, I was interested to read at WT:CHEMISTRY about your class project, and had a look at Jacobsen catalyst - you are right, that article needs expansion. I just noticed that Jacobsen epoxidation also needs some work, if someone were interested in providing suitable diagrams and prose. I have just cleaned up some of the references, but there remains plenty to do. The mechanism diagram, in particular, needs work. Just a suggestion. :) EdChem (talk) 11:43, 26 September 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Warm Welcome

Thank you everyone for the warm welcome and suggestions. I have high hopes for this class project and look forward to making some substantive contributions to inorganic chemistry on Wikipedia. ChemPunk (talk) 19:29, 27 September 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Welcome 2012

Off to a good start again this year. As I have mentioned these before, the preference in Wikipedia is for secondary references per WP:SECONDARY - books and reviews. Journal articles, especially those selected by students, do not provide the perspective sought in an encyclopedia. In principle, primary journals are cited when they are of historic value or, more commonly, when nothing better is available. BTW, as instructor, you might consider copy-editing your students' articles. Even strong students make naive statements that only a more senior person is likely to catch.--Smokefoot (talk) 12:47, 20 October 2012 (UTC)[reply]