Wikipedia talk:United States Education Program/Courses/Writing As Communication Spring 2012

Welcome to the talk page

This is a place where you can ask questions, talk about problems, and discuss the Wikipedia assignment with classmates and other Wikipedians.--Debaser42 (talk) 18:45, 4 January 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Suggestions

Please have your students:

Review WP:MSH re how to name articles and upper versus lower case. Almost every article title listed here is incorrect; that is something the professor and ambassadors could have dealt with.
Review WP:V; blogs are not typically reliable sources for Wikipedia.
Review WP:MEDMOS, WP:MEDRS and this dispatch on how to locate reliable sources for medical articles if they are engaging medical topics or statements.
Consider whether the content they are adding warrants a new article or belongs in an already established article (mergers are time consuming-- please target the correct article initially).

SandyGeorgia (Talk) 08:38, 14 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

User talk pages vs. article talk pages

See WP:TALK for a discussion of the differences in how we use article talk pages and user talk pages. When you post to an article talk page only to give an atta girl, rah-rah, cheery post to a friend, saying you like "their" article (it's not "their" article, see WP:OWN), that causes the article to pop on the watchlist of every other editor who is watching the article, causing them to take time to check and read the talk only to find it says nothing relevant to the article, and isn't an appropriate use of article talk pages. If you just want to cheer on a friend and say you like "their" work, that is better added to individual editor talk pages, where we have more leeway to engage in personal conversations. If you have sources that could be incorporated, or note specific problems with an article, or have concrete suggestions based on sources for article improvement, that belongs on article talk, so please make sure your comments on article talk relate directly to improving the article. Many other editors watchlist articles, and article talk pages are not for "I like it" (see WP:NOTAFORUM). SandyGeorgia (Talk) 03:23, 24 April 2012 (UTC)[reply]

I have mentioned this many times to my students and have tried to police it Debaser42 (talk) 14:45, 3 May 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Gender representation in video games

Hello,

I have noticed Pdebarro's article on gender_representation_in_video_games has linked two blog posts from VGResearcher (Links used: [1] [2]). As the blogger, I am pleased that a student has shown interest in videogames research through my blog, but I am greatly disappointed that the student did not make the extra effort in obtaining the original source which should be accessible from university libraries or even consulting with faculty member, such as Erica Scharrer. Understanding original sources through their own critical thinking skills rather than mostly drawing from others would give the editors a better grasp and comfort in writing a better article. Second, the article posits original conclusions drawn from my blog posts. The posts are merely my own musings and ideas that certainly would be a good start for a research project, but these are not thoroughly drawn and peer-reviewed conclusions, unfit for wikipedia.

--Wai Yen Tang, School of Communication, The Ohio State University.

I have raised this at the Education Noticeboard, where it might receive wider attention. SandyGeorgia (Talk) 14:39, 3 May 2012 (UTC)[reply]

I have sent this to the student. Debaser42 (talk) 14:47, 3 May 2012 (UTC)[reply]