User talk:BigKnish

Hello, BigKnish, and welcome to Wikipedia. Here are some pages that will help you to find your way around, understand key policies and guidelines, and develop your contributions:
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Please sign your name whenever you leave a comment by using four tildes (~~~~), which produces your name and the date. Whenever you edit a page, even if the edit is minor, you should include a descriptive edit summary. If you need help, visit the Help Desk or place `{{helpme}}` on your talk page and someone will respond shortly. If you would like direct access to help from an experienced editor, you can join the adopt-a-user project. I hope you enjoy contributing to Wikipedia and find it a rewarding experience. - Adrian M. H. 15:06, 23 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Help Desk question

Regarding your potential new article; you are welcome to contact me if you would like me to help you. Click my initials and follow the brief instructions to leave a message. Regards, Adrian M. H. 15:06, 23 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Help with references

Hi there. Thanks for the message. Sources that are not on the web don't present a problem; as long as they are accessible to you, then they can usually be considered accessible to others. Books are a good example.

For help with reference layout, see WP:FOOT, which tells you how to create references in the footnote style. Basically, each reference will be placed between ref tags – <ref> and </ref> – directly after a punctuation mark, before the space. They can be placed mid-sentence if the citation specifically refers to that part of the sentence and not the next part.

Then, under the appropriate heading (see WP:MSH#Standard appendices) you can place a choice of reference systems. The best one is {{reflist}} or {{reflist|2}}, which produces a list in a small text size. The "2" version gives two columns, which is not supported by all browsers, but is useful for long lists.

For each type of reference, there is usually a slightly different approach to layout, and WP:CITET can help with this. I won't suggest that you use the templates that you'll see on that page, because they are not mandatory and actually create more work for the editor in typing or pasting. But the examples are good for showing how to structure a ref and what information it should contain (assuming that it's available). The most important/useful layouts are:

{{cite book}}

Cordell, Bruce R. (2001). Manual of the Planes. Wizards of the Coast. pp. pp. 198-203. ISBN 0-7869-1850-8. {{cite book}}: |pages= has extra text (help); Check |isbn= value: checksum (help); Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help); Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)

{{cite journal}}

Bailey, David H. (1999-06-25). "The Quest for Pi" (PDF). Mathematical Intelligencer. 19 (1). Springer: 50–57. ISSN: 0343-6993. Retrieved 2006-06-29. {{cite journal}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)

{{cite news}}

McGee, Maggie (2005-02-10). "Seabed 'scarred' by tsunami quake". CNN. pp. 12–27. Retrieved 2006-07-03. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)

{{cite web}}

Hansen, James E. (2005-12-15). "GISS Surface Temperature Analysis Global Temperature Trends: 2005 Summation". NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies. Retrieved 2006-09-28. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)

Those layouts cover pretty much any source, and there is flexibility about what fields you include (use as many as you have available, basically). Which statements should you cite? Well, as a rule of thumb, as much as possible within reason. There is not normally any need to cite absolutely everything, unless the entire content is in some way questionable. If you write Paris is the capital city of France, don't cite it, because it is obvious and unquestionable. But claiming that Paris was over-run by the Romans in 52BC would deserve a citation. A good guide can be found by browsing some of Wikipedia's Good Articles and Featured Articles, because they naturally set the standard. Also of interest for your article in particular are Biographies of living persons and Manual of Style (biographies). Best of luck! Adrian M. H. 19:56, 4 May 2007 (UTC)[reply]