User talk:Lizziemac

Hello, and Welcome to the Wikipedia, Lizziemac! Thanks for the contribution over on the Autism article. Here are a few perfunctory tips to hasten your acculturation into the Wikipedia experience:

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And some odds and ends: Cite your sources, Civility, Conflict resolution, How to edit a page, How to write a great article, Pages needing attention, Peer review, Policy Library, Verifiability, Village pump, and Wikiquette; also, you can sign your name on any page by typing four tildes: ~~~~. Best of luck, Lizziemac, and most importantly, have fun! Ombudsman 05:02, 19 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Sex ratio

G'day,

I removed the statement you placed in the introduction about autism being more common in males. If you look at the epidemiology section, there's a discussion of the sex differences, and it takes the point of view that sex differences vary by severity of diagnosis, making simple statements about gender variability difficult. If you think there should be more information about the sex differences, this'd be the section to put it in. Also, if you are adding a reference to the information, in an article like autism where the references occur in the form of footnoes, it's best to bracket the reference with <ref></ref>, where the text in between is your reference. Like this: <ref>Johnson, D. (1999). Autism makes people sad. ''Journal of Autism, 6,''p. 34-907.</ref> Once you've done so, a small marker will appear next to the text that looks like this: ^[1] as long as there is a bit at the bottom that looks like this: <references/>. Thus, my made up Johnson reference looks like this in the text:^[2] with a thing at the bottom that looks like this:

Footnotes

^ Johnson, D. (1999). Autism makes people sad. Journal of Autism, 6, p. 34-907.
^ Johnson, D. (1999). Autism makes people sad. Journal of Autism, 6,p. 34-907.

Happy editing,

WLU 13:06, 19 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks, but I have to differ. The occurrence of autism being more likely in males is not merely an epidemical issue. Indeed, it is one of the few "facts" of autism and therefore should appear in the introduction. I am so new at all this wiki editing, that it is scary, but I am studying autism and I am a parent of a child (boy) with dx that falls under the Autism Spectrum Disorder - PDD NOS category of the DSM -IV. I will endeavor to lean more about appropriate and applicable wiki-ing and appreciate your advice.— Preceding unsigned comment added by Lizziemac (talk • contribs)

If you refer to the section in the article, it does discuss the sex ration - more boys at the milder diagnosis, equal at the more severe end. Overall it might be more common in boys, but with severity of diagnosis as an independant variable the line becomes a curve. If you have references to back up a different point, try putting them in and see what happens, or post a message on the autism talk page (the discussion tab at the top of the page - apologies if I offend, I don't know how new you are). Right now the reference that discusses sex ration is a peer-reviewed scientific journal, while the reference you put in was to website for a support page - generally peer-reviewed publications trump most of the other sources. Also, the information on the wikipage contradicts the information on the autism society page - wikipage, source CDC, says between 2-6/1000, AS says 6/1000. Wikisource is the original source for the AS page, but is more accurate since it gives the range. I'm not trying to be pedantic, I'm giving you the reasoning why I removed the reference so you don't think I'm just being a dickhead. But by all means put it in, see what other people do with the info. Wikipedia is a learning process.

Wikiediting shouldn't be scary - there's always people monitoring the autism page in particular, it's very high traffic with a lot of vandalism so it gets a lot of reverts. If you make an edit that people don't agree with, it'll get changed or removed. If you feel strongly about it, best thing is to talk on the individual pages of the contributors, or on the article talk page if it is reverted by several different people.

Anyway, it's ultimately just my opinion, and there's always WP:BITE - those with more experience love to lord it over the newbies. It's sad, I feel ashamed. I'm mostly trying to pass on what I've learned in the few months I've been on wikipedia, what I found the most useful bits. Also, if you are having a dialogue with a person, it's better to reply on their talk page (in my case, user_talk:WLU) 'cause when I log in, I get a message saying someone has written me a new message. Otherwise I have to monitor your talk page and I'm less likely to reply. --WLU 12:26, 20 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

You're welcome

Not a problem. Last piece of advice, always sign! It's pretty handy and avoids this: —The preceding unsigned comment was added by WLU (talk • contribs) 15:16, 29 December 2006 (UTC).[reply]

[1] Johnson, D. (1999). Autism makes people sad. Journal of Autism, 6, p. 34-907.

[2] Johnson, D. (1999). Autism makes people sad. Journal of Autism, 6,p. 34-907.

[1]

[2]