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Hello, Immcarle37, and welcome to Wikipedia! My name is Ian and I work with the Wiki Education Foundation; I help support students who are editing as part of a class assignment.

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If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to contact me on my talk page. Ian (Wiki Ed) (talk) 05:32, 19 January 2017 (UTC)[reply]

please use an edit summary

Hello. Thank you for your contributions to Wikipedia.

==

When editing Wikipedia, there is a field labeled "Edit summary" below the main edit box. It looks like this:

Edit summary (Briefly describe your changes)

I noticed your recent edit to Microbial symbiosis and immunity does not have an edit summary. Please be sure to provide a summary of every edit you make, even if you write only the briefest of summaries. The summaries are very helpful to people browsing an article's history.

Edit summary content is visible in:

Please use the edit summary to explain your reasoning for the edit, or a summary of what the edit changes. You can give yourself a reminder to add an edit summary by setting Preferences → Editing → Prompt me when entering a blank edit summary. Thanks! --Wuerzele (talk) 20:09, 16 February 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Microbial symbiosis and immunity

Hi, and welcome to Wikipedia. I see you're already being offered armfuls of "useful advice". I would hesitate to add to this, but you have started making very large changes to the article "Microbial symbiosis and immunity", and it will require quite a lot of tidying up. Perhaps we could start with the citations: please provide the author and the page or pages you used whenever you cite anything. I'll attempt to simplify and clarify the article by copy-editing, and then we can take it from there. Hope this will work for you. Please discuss major changes with other editors, such as the people who have edited here on your talk page; and we'll try to get the article into shape as you learn the ropes. Chiswick Chap (talk) 16:47, 25 February 2017 (UTC)[reply]

With respect to the lead section, remember that the lead is supposed to provide a summary of all the main points in the article. Take a look at pages 7-9 in the Editing Wikipedia brochure. Ian (Wiki Ed) (talk) 21:35, 28 February 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Bear in mind that it isn't an introduction - it isn't the place to set the stage or define terms. It should start with a statement of the topic of the article as succinctly as possible. Unfortunately, "microbial symbiosis and immunity" isn't the ideal title for an article, but something along the lines of (please note that I'm suggesting form here - the content should be yours and should reflect the content of the article as accurately as you possibly can).

Microbial symbionts can play a role in role in the development of a host's immune system by...

Material that isn't covered in the body of the article shouldn't be in the lead. For example, you say

These bacteria can have almost any kind of relationship with the host, including mutually beneficial in a host's gut, or parasitic.

but as far as I can tell, this isn't mentioned anywhere in the body of the article. To be in the lead, it has to be covered in more depth in the body of the article. Ian (Wiki Ed) (talk) 21:49, 28 February 2017 (UTC)[reply]