User talk:Questingbeast

Welcome to Wikipedia

Hi, a warm welcome to Wikipedia. Thank you for your contributions to David Lodge and Sebastian Faulks. You have added valuable content. The Faulkes article was fully stripped in 2010 as it turned out that most of the content had been cut and pasted whole from assorted sources. It is important that you source all your additions and that formatted inline citations are used. This page describes how to properly embed cites. If sources are not added, to David Lodge for example, there is a good chance that they will be reverted. It was not always policy for all new content to be sourced, which is why you will see a lot of unref'd material on Wikipedia. Now sourcing is required, especially in biographies of living people. These links may help you to find your way around:

The five pillars of Wikipedia
Help pages
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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

If you have any questions, please feel free to ask for help on my talk page. Happy editing and best wishes Span (talk) 16:47, 18 March 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Hi, some more pointers: headings and subheadings are used in this style ==Early career== so that each section is hyperlinked from the contents box at the top of the page. This means the reader doesn't have to scroll down. MOS:HEAD has more on this. Please do add edit summaries so that all the editors watching the article can understand the reasoning behind your edits. Cheers. Span (talk) 16:55, 18 March 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Hello Quester, thank you for all your new additions to the article. Would you mind fixing up the inline citations? It's probably easier for you as you're going along. I can go through after if it seems all too much. The article is really shaping up. Thank you for your time. Best wishes Span (talk) 21:19, 19 March 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Of course. Just to be clear: you mean where I've linked to, say, a Guardian article, having the footnote say 'The Guardian, May 26 2010' rather than the web address? Questingbeast (talk) 21:44, 19 March 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Citations

....Ah, sorry, yes. There are two main ways to add citations. (Many editors prefer the second, but both manual and template are fine). Using the example of embedding a reference to a webpage: You might want to add a reference to show that: "In 2009, the Large Hadron Collider set a the world record...".

The syntax would look like this: <ref>[http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8385891.stm "Large Hadron Collider sets world energy record"], ''BBC News'', November 30, 2009. Retrieved on November 30, 2009.</ref>

This would appear in the ref section of the article as <ref>"Large Hadron Collider sets world energy record", BBC News, November 30, 2009. Retrieved on November 30, 2009.</ref>

The other way is to use a template which you can insert using the 'cite' button just above the little screen you edit in (the far right button of the row of 25 little squares). You click the button and then fill in the details. For example:

<ref>{{cite news |last=Rincon |first=Paul |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8385891.stm|title=Large Hadron Collider sets world energy record |work=BBC News |date=November 30, 2009 |accessdate=November 30, 2009}}</ref>

this would appear in the article, after the edit was saved as:
<ref> Rincon, Paul (November 30, 2009). "Large Hadron Collider sets world energy record". BBC News. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8385891.stm. Retrieved November 30, 2009.</ref>

For books or other sources you can choose the appropriate book template with the cite button or write cites in manually, for example

<ref>Smith, John. ''Fluffy the cat'' , Cambridge University Press, 2009, p177 ISBN 09769887690</ref>

Citations for books typically include the name of the author(s), the title of the book (in italics), the volume if applicable, the city of publication (optional), the name of the publisher, the year of publication, and the ISBN number (optional), written using the syntax described at WP:ISBN.

That's probably a lot to take on board. Good referencing is what turns a bad article in a really useful piece of work that readers can cross check or follow to find out more about the subject. It is the main way that WP is using to try and ensure the quality of its work. Citations were not required in articles till a few years ago, which is why you see so many pages with nary a cite in sight. Armies of eds are trying to change that. Btw, if you want to find out more about the guidelines on WP, noticeboards, antivandalism groups etc - the internal workings behind WP - you can usually find it by typing in [[WP: ...]] For Example, WP:RELIABLESOURCES, WP:HEADINGS, WP:Help desk, WP:Requests for page protection. It's how any of us have a clue how things work and what's going on. I hope that all makes some sense. Please don't let all this info put you off. I think you will make a great editor, a valuable asset to the community. It does take a while to get in the swing. If you have any questions or comments, please do ask, either here or on my talk page. Best wishes Span (talk) 23:14, 19 March 2012 (UTC)[reply]

I see you figured it out already. Lol. Have a good evening. Span (talk) 23:17, 19 March 2012 (UTC)[reply]

No worries. Span (talk) 23:41, 19 March 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks

		A beer on me!
		Thanks for all the new good content you recently added. It's much appreciated. Span (talk) 00:08, 27 March 2012 (UTC)[reply]

A barnstar for you

		The Modest Barnstar
		You are among the top 5% of most active Wikipedians this month! 66.87.2.119 (talk) 16:05, 31 March 2012 (UTC)[reply]

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