User talk:Nleslie123

This user is a student editor in Wikipedia:Wiki_Ed/University_of_Guelph/Pet_Nutrition_(Fall).
Student assignments should always be carried out using a course page set up by the instructor. It is usually best to develop assignments in your sandbox. After evaluation, the additions may go on to become a Wikipedia article or be published in an existing article.

Welcome!

Hello, Nleslie123, and welcome to Wikipedia! Thank you for your contributions. I hope you like the place and decide to stay. Here are a few links to pages you might find helpful:

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Please remember to sign your messages on talk pages by typing 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 for help on your talk page, and a volunteer should respond shortly. Again, welcome! -★- PlyrStar93. _{→Message me. ←} 17:30, 14 October 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Welcome!

Hello, Nleslie123, 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.

I hope you enjoy editing here. If you haven't already done so, please check out the student training library, which introduces you to editing and Wikipedia's core principles. You may also want to check out the Teahouse, a community of Wikipedia editors dedicated to helping new users. Below are some resources to help you get started editing.

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If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to contact me on my talk page. Ian (Wiki Ed) (talk) 02:27, 17 October 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Starting a page

If you want to start a new topic, the first step is to make sure you have a good overview of the literature. Track it down, read it, see what it says. What's the history of "senior" pet diets? When did they start making or marketing dog food that way? What's in it? Who makes it?

What does the literature say about older dogs? What constitutes a "senior" dog? How do their dietary needs differ? (Again, make sure you're using the best available sources.)

And, of course, remember that you can't give advice on Wikipedia. You should track down reliable counter-arguments. You're documenting what reliable sources say about the topic, not trying to convince people of anything, one way or the other. Ian (Wiki Ed) (talk) 21:09, 23 October 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Template

I'm getting the same problem. The simple solution is to copy the blank template from Template:Infobox dog breed and paste it into your sandbox using the "source editing" option. You can then either use the source editor to fill in the fields you need, or you can go back to the visual editor and use that to fill in the fields you need. Ian (Wiki Ed) (talk) 14:16, 31 October 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Lead

Just remove the top-most section header. Ian (Wiki Ed) (talk) 17:37, 1 November 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Feedback

Nice work on your draft. Some general comments:

References go before punctuation, not after
Only proper nouns should be capitalized. This is true for both the body of the article and for section headers

The lead section of your article should summarize all the major points of our article, in relation to the weight given to them in the body of the article. See pages 7-9 in the Editing Wikipedia brochure for more information. At present, your lead is to short, and spends too much time talking about aging in dogs, which is really just background information here.

Senior dog food diets are pet foods that are catered toward the senior or mature pet population

I recommend that you explain what "senior or mature pet" means in the lead of the article.

Other things that need to be addressed in senior dog foods include nutrients for the maintenance of bone and joint health as well as adding sources of both soluble and insoluble fiber to maintain proper gastrointestinal health.

Need to be addressed by whom?
You can about the role of these nutrients in bone and joint health, but do it in such a way that avoids agenda-driven writing. Sure, dog health isn't a controversial topic, but Wikipedia articles, as a general principle, shouldn't advance a particular agenda.

User:Nleslie123/sandbox#Energy_Demand

As dogs get older, the maintenance energy requirement (MER), or the the energy that is required to maintain normal activity, decreases significantly as a result of lean body mass loss.

Most readers aren't going to read very far into your article, so you need to get the most important information up front. Don't start with "as dogs get older" - move that to the end of the sentence.

User:Nleslie123/sandbox#AFFCO_Requirements

When considering AAFCO requirements it is important to note that there is no distinct profile for senior dogs.

What is the AAFCO, and why should the reader consider them?

User:Nleslie123/sandbox#Protein

In the article, "Nutrition for Senior Dogs: New tricks for Feeding Old Dogs", author Julie A. Churchill recommends a minimum of 2.55 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight daily to ensure that protein requirements are met.

The average reader probably doesn't care about article titles. Talk about the findings, maybe say "according to...", but don't talk about the article unless the article is very important for some reason.

Please apply these principles to the remainder of the article. Ian (Wiki Ed) (talk) 21:58, 20 November 2017 (UTC)[reply]