Wikipedia talk:Co-op/Neel06

Welcome to the Co-op! We have a mentor for you.

Hello, Neel06! Thank you for your interest in the Co-op. You've been matched with Anne Delong, who has listed "writing" in their mentorship profile. Your mentor will be contacting you soon to get things started. HostBot (talk) 05:55, 3 August 2015 (UTC)

Hello, Neel06. You have written that you are interested in making sure that articles are accurate and well-sourced. That's great! I see that you have been adding to the Carmel Junior College article. Some of the news articles there aren't really about the school, and just mention it in passing. However, I have picked out some that are about school events and made "citations" next to information in the article. You can see how I did it when you click on the "edit" button. Having a reference right next to a specific sentence makes it easy for others to check the accuracy of the information and improve it if necessary.

I also see that you have added the names of student editors. Adding the names of specific students (or even teachers) isn't appropriate unless they are famous or have founded the school or something like that. Also, these names will change with time and the encyclopedia will become out of date. Also, adding your own name or those of your friends is called "conflict of interest", and will give you a bad reputation among the other Wikipedia editors, since all editors are supposed to maintain a neutral point of view. You should remove those names, or someone else will do so.

How can you tell if a published source is reliable? One of the best ways is to see if it has an editor. The editor is supposed to check all facts before a book, magazine or newspaper is published. If there is no editor (for example, a personal blog, website or facebook page), it may be someone's opinion or even imaginary creation, and should not be used. Also, web sites that anyone can edit, such movie databases, forums, and even Wikipedia itself, shouldn't be used because they may not be accurate, and in some cases it's difficult to tell where the information came from or whether the person writing it had checked the facts.

I hope this helps. Please feel free to ask questions here.—Anne Delong (talk) 12:15, 3 August 2015 (UTC)