User talk:Delancy

Welcome!

Hello, Delancy, and welcome to Wikipedia! Thank you for your contributions. I hope you like the place and decide to stay. Here are some pages that you might find helpful:

I hope you enjoy editing here and being a Wikipedian! Please sign your name on talk pages using four tildes (~~~~); this will automatically produce your name and the date. If you need help, check out Wikipedia:Questions, ask me on my talk page, or place {{helpme}} on your talk page and someone will show up shortly to answer your questions. Again, welcome! Camillus (talk) 10:04, 27 November 2006 (UTC)[reply]

McCall Smith

Thanks for your input on "The Number 1 Ladies Detective Agency". I agree that the original editor is to be commended on his or her attempt, but that the "essay style", with personal impressions and opinions, is not appropriate. It's a great book, and deserves a good article.

Hope you enjoy working on Wikipedia! Camillus (talk) 10:04, 27 November 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Citing published sources

Hello, Delancy! I've added a response to your comment on the Discussion page for The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency. Go right ahead and edit the pages accordingly; anything suitable for consultation with other Wikipedia editors can be raised on the Talk page for the article in question. If you do cite published sources, you can use citation format for a particular quotation. Otherwise, add a Level 2 heading, References (just above External links, if any) and start the entry for each source with an asterisk. You'll find guidelines in the Manual of Style, or you can "borrow" the format you see on any well-written page of a similar work of fiction. Feel free to contact me on my User Talk page for particular questions. I'm fairly new myself, but would be glad to help you learn the ropes of Wikipedia editing. -- Deborahjay 19:37, 24 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Hello, Delancy. You have new messages at Magicpiano's talk page.
You can remove this notice at any time by removing the {{Talkback}} or {{Tb}} template.

Harvard-style references

In response to your question on the help desk;

I'll use an example of a 2007 book written by someone called "Bergreen" (surname of author). The first time that you reference a certain page or pages from a book, you put something like this after the fact;

<ref name="Bergreen25">{{Harvnb|Bergreen|2007|p=25}}</ref>

You have a 'normal' references section, after the body text, and this entry appears there;

== References ==
{{reflist}}

If/when you use the same book and the same page again (in the body of the article), you just put the short form;

<ref name="Bergreen25"/>

(This is the same principle as 'named references')

To reference a different page in the same book, you would put - for example;

<ref name="Bergreen42">{{Harvnb|Bergreen|2007|p=42}}</ref>

Then, immediately following the references section, you have a section called "Bibliography", which has the full details of the book, like this;

== Bibliography ==
*{{citation|last=Bergreen|first=Laurence|authorlink=Laurence Bergreen|
title=Marco Polo: From Venice to Xanadu|year=2007|publisher=Quercus
|location=[[London]]|isbn=9781847243454}}

Note that the last name of the author and the year in the {{Harvnb}} must match the bibliographic entry, otherwise the link will not work.

The short-form in the references will appear in the form, "^ Bergreen 2007, p. 25", and clicking on it shows (and highlight) the associated bibliographic entry.

The result of this sample can be seen in user:chzz/demo/harvref.

It may seem a little complex, but this is the 'recommended way' to do really good referencing - and is used on a great many featured articles. Hope that helps. Chzz ► 03:50, 10 December 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Reference style in the Ethan Allen article

(In reply to your question on my own user talk page - normally, I'd reply over there, but in this case I think it might be easier for you to have the information here)

Hi. I'm very sorry; I must admit, I didn't look at Ethan Allen, and now I have, I see that it does indeed use a different method; the {{Harvnb}} which I mentioned is just one of many ways of doing it.

To explain that other technique, I first have to explain a couple of other things;

You may already know about "piped links" - you can link from some text to an article of a different name. For example, putting I am a [[Dentistry|dentist]] makes the word "dentist" link to our article entitled "Dentistry", like this: I am a dentist
You can also link to a specific part of a page, using a hash symbol. Usually, that's to point to == Sections ==. For example, on this page, there is a section entitled "McCall Smith", so a link [[#McCall Smith]] will take you up to that section: #McCall Smith. (You can use the same thing to link to a specific section of an article, for example Sausage#History).
Citation templates such as {{Cite book}} can have a 'ref=' parameter, which then creates an "Anchor" - that is, a target that can be linked to.

For example, the article contains this reference;

<ref name="B8">[[#Bellesiles|Bellesiles]], p. 8</ref>

And, in the ==References== it has;

{{Cite book|authorlink=Michael A. Bellesiles|last=Bellesiles|first=Michael A|title=Revolutionary Outlaws: Ethan Allen and the Struggle for Independence on the Early American Frontier|location=Charlottesville|publisher=University Press of Virginia|year=1993|isbn=9780813916033|oclc=32287980|ref=Bellesiles}}

The part I have put in bold is the target for that 'short link'. So, the text that appears in the "Notes" section for that reference is "Bellesiles, p. 8" and it links to the target "#Bellesiles", which is an anchor created by that "Cite Book" template.

I hope that makes sense!

You should generally try to use the same referencing style that is used in any article. People can get annoyed if you start changing the reference style; although it's possible to start a discussion about it on the talk page of an article, to propose change.

So, in your specific case, I suggest you add information in the same style that they have. Taking the specific book you mentioned, you could add things such as;

This is something referenced on page twenty-two of that book.<ref name="Randall22">[[#Randall|Randall]], p. 22</ref>

This is something referenced on page four of that book.<ref name="Randall4">[[#Randall|Randall]], p. 4</ref>

This is another thing which is also on page twenty-two.<ref name="Randall22"/>

...

==References==

...

*{{Cite book|authorlink=Willard Sterne Randall|last=Randall|first=Willard Sterne|title=Ethan Allen: His Life and Times|location=New York and London|publisher=W. W. Norton|year=2011|isbn=9780393076653ref=Randall}}

I have created that example; see User:Chzz/Example/Randall.

Apologies again for any confusion; you've picked a complicated topic for a beginner editor! Please don't be afraid to try things; if it goes wrong, it can be 'Undone'. That's the good part about a wiki! Chzz ► 05:47, 10 December 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Ethan Allan

Welcome to Wikipedia. Your recent edit appears to have added incorrect information and has been reverted or removed. All information in this encyclopedia must be verifiable in a reliable, published source. If you believe the information that you added was correct, please cite the references or sources or before making the changes, discuss them on the article's talk page. Please use the sandbox for any tests that you wish to make. Do take a look at the welcome page if you would like to learn more about contributing to our encyclopedia. Thank you. TEDickey (talk) 00:38, 12 December 2011 (UTC)[reply]