Cailinkramer

Welcome to Wikinews

Getting started as a contributor How to write an article Pick something current? Use two independent sources? Read your sources before writing the story in your own words?. Do choose a unique title? before you start. Follow Wikinews' structure? for articles, answering as many of who what when where why and how? as you can; summarised in a short, two- or three-sentence opening paragraph. Once complete, your article must be three or more paragraphs. If you need help, you can add {{helpme}} to your talkpage, along with a question, or alternatively, just ask? Use this tab to enter your title and get a basic article template. [RECOMMENDED. Starts your article through the semi-automated {{develop}}—>{{review}}—>{{publish}} collaboration process.]

Welcome! Thank you for joining Wikinews; we'd love for you to stick around and get more involved. To help you get started we have an essay that will guide you through the process of writing your first full article. There are many other things you can do on the project, but its lifeblood is new, current, stories written neutrally. As you get more involved, you will need to look into key project policies and other discussions you can participate in; so, keep this message on this page and refer to the other links in it when you want to learn more, or have any problems. Wikipedia's puzzle-globe logo, © Wikimedia Foundation   Used to contributing to Wikipedia? See here.

All Wikimedia projects have rules. Here are ours. Listed here are the official policies of the project, you may be referred to some of them if your early attempts at writing articles don't follow them. Don't let this discourage you, we all had to start somewhere. The rules and guides laid out here are intended to keep content to high standards and meet certain rules the Wikimedia Foundation applies to all projects. It may seem like a lot to read, but you do not have to go through it all in one sitting, or know them all before you can start contributing. Remember, you should enjoy contributing to the project. If you're really stuck come chat with the regulars. There's usually someone in chat who will be happy to help, but they may not respond instantly.

The core policies Neutral point of view Cite sources Writing an article Content guide Style guide Reviewing articles

Places to go, people to meet Wiki projects work because a sense of community forms around the project. Although writing news is far more individualistic than contributing to Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, people often need minor help with things like spelling and copyediting. If a story isn't too old you might be able to expand it, or if it is disputed you may be able to find some more sources and rescue it before it is listed for deletion. There are always discussions going on about how the site could be improved, and your input is of value. Check the links here to see where you can give input to the running of the Wikinews project.

Find help and get involved The Water Cooler The Latest News The Newsroom Articles for deletion Audio Wikinews Recent Changes

Write your first article for Wikinews! Use the following box to help you create your first article. Simply type in a title to your story and press "Create page". Then start typing text to your story into the new box that will come up. When you're done, press "save page". That's all there is to it! It is recommended you read the article guide before starting. Also make sure to check the list of recently created articles to see if your story hasn't already been reported upon.

-- Wikinews Welcome (talk) 00:37, 4 August 2013 (UTC)

UoW?

Are you a UoW student? If so, please add

{{UoW student
|year=2013
|semester=Spring
}}

to your user page. --Pi zero (talk) 04:52, 9 August 2013 (UTC)

Welsh Paralympian Chris Hallam dies

I have reviewed Welsh Paralympian Chris Hallam dies and left feedback at Talk:Welsh Paralympian Chris Hallam dies. The facts around his death are not readily available, so the ones that are there and important, like where he was living when he died, need to be emphasized more. Words like pioneer need to be avoided unless there are facts that clearly support it, and the text does not. (He won 16 Paralympic medals and that is a huge accomplishment, yet the article does not reference that.) The article feels vague, and not clear. It almost feels like in order to avoid plagiarism, key and important adjectives towards understanding concepts are left out... which in effect makes it difficult to understand. --LauraHale (talk) 07:33, 19 August 2013 (UTC)

Screencasts of some of today's reviews

The six videos are screencasts of reviews done today. As a whole, all the articles have improved tremendously from when they students first submitted. Now, they have infoboxes. They usually have a relevant picture, most of the time giving credit to the photographer. They more often than not have categories. The external links are not in the body. The sources are more consistently and better formatted. These little changes make a huge difference for motivation when reviewing because they show reviewers students are listening to feedback and attempting to get things published according to community standards.

That said, the current issues get to the more difficult spot of issues with making sure inverted pyramid style reporting is done, plagiarism and very close paragraphing need to be better avoided, facts need to match facts conveyed in sources, and relative dating needs to be better done. These are on one level the much harder part of doing good reporting on Wikinews. The screencasts of reviews included from the batch I reviewed this morning are more so you can see that what we are (I am) thinking when we are (I am) reviewing. This may not be educational in terms of teaching you how to report, but it might give you insight into what we are looking for. Hopefully that can be a little bit helpful in terms of understanding what we as a community on Wikinews are looking for in publishable works. --LauraHale (talk) 11:31, 19 August 2013 (UTC)

New lead under investigation in six-year-old Madeleine McCann case

Hi. Rather than not ready New lead under investigation in six-year-old Madeleine McCann case, I have moved it back to the draft stage to give reporters time to address the comments on the talk page as these will need to be handled before the article is ready for publication anyway. I would also suggest looking at the article's history to see what changes other community members have made. Looking at the individual edits should give you a better idea of what sort of things reviewers are looking for. --LauraHale (talk) 16:49, 14 October 2013 (UTC)

Seven Group announced they are cutting 630 positions

Hi. I reviewed Seven Group announced they are cutting 630 positions at Talk:Seven Group announced they are cutting 630 positions. When writing articles, it is best practice to repeatedly read the sources until you understand what they are saying. After you understand the meaning, then write the article. Please do not copy-and-paste from sources (outside direct quotes) and then change a few words. On Wikinews, that still constitutes plagiarism and it should be avoided. If you feel the need to do that, consider going back and reading the source a few more times, writing what you think is accurate, checking that against the sources. If necessary, then consider copying-and-pasting no more than two or three words that are needed because there is absolutely no other way to word something. --LauraHale (talk) 10:57, 12 November 2013 (UTC)

?

You haven't run away, have you? Hang in there! Keep contributing! --Bddpaux (talk) 15:23, 18 November 2013 (UTC)