Uowpjr19

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) 09:13, 21 March 2013 (UTC)

Afghan-Pakistani relations uneasy after more cross-border exchanges

Hi. Just noting, from the sources listed atm the article appears to be about events that are not sufficiently recent for the focus of a synthesis article. See WN:Fresh. --Pi zero (talk) 02:46, 2 April 2013 (UTC)

Afghan-Pakistani relations uneasy after more cross-border exchanges

Hi. I reviewed Afghan-Pakistani relations uneasy after more cross-border exchanges. The article is not yet ready to be published. I have left feedback to the article more ready for publishing at Talk:Afghan-Pakistani relations uneasy after more cross-border exchanges. The major concern is this is not fresh. Would this story be run on your local ABC station in Wollongong during the local news based on news sources a month old? Probably not. Think if of like sports: Is that ABC station going to fail to report on how the Swans played this weekend, but report as current news how the Swans did in the preason? No. --LauraHale (talk) 03:10, 2 April 2013 (UTC)

I've reviewed the current version. I immediately encountered a focus problem, on which I have tried to provide feedback in my review comments, which see. --Pi zero (talk) 01:38, 3 April 2013 (UTC)

Your feedback

From here could be best placed at an article talk, requesting a re-review or clarifications by a second reviewer; alternatively for group assistance pertaining to multiple articles please feel free to use Water Cooler. All the best, Gryllida 07:46, 12 April 2013 (UTC)

Multiple explosions hit Boston Marathon

Hi. I just wanted to give you a heads up that Multiple explosions hit Boston Marathon was published. While it meets all Wikinews's guidelines for publishing, during the review process, a fair amount of material was removed because it was not found in the article. In many cases, an article with this much unverifiable information would result in the article being marked as not ready. Given the breaking news aspect of this particular story, as the reviewer, I chose to just remove that information that was not verifiable based on the sources and to clarify the ambiguous statements like "it is believed" to properly credit the information. This was simpler and enabled the quicker publication of the story. As more information becomes available, or if a new perspective can be found on the topic, please feel free to write and submit another story on the topic. If you have any questions, please ask myself or another reviewer for assistance. For a faster response, if you can wait five minutes, we are often available on IRC to assist when we do review. --LauraHale (talk) 23:57, 15 April 2013 (UTC)

Victoria Arlen found unqualified for IPC Swimming World Championships

Hi. I reviewed the article you worked on Victoria Arlen found unqualified for IPC Swimming World Championships at Talk:Victoria Arlen found unqualified for IPC Swimming World Championships. AS the review queue is swamped, please really carefully address these comments so the version that comes back is publish ready. As the competition started today, the article will almost certainly need an update to include if the appeal was successful. You may want to consider reading more about the classification appeal process as background writing to better inform yourself when fixing the article. --LauraHale (talk) 06:47, 12 August 2013 (UTC)

Glasgow Para-Games to make history

Hi. I have left feedback for Glasgow Para-Games to make history at Talk:Glasgow Para-Games to make history. Please carefully consider this feedback and integrate it into the extensive article rewrite that will be required in order to get it published. Please clearly focus on a news event. If the problems are not fixed and quickly, then the review queue length means it will have a difficult time getting published on its second attempt. --LauraHale (talk) 07:03, 12 August 2013 (UTC)

Norwegian Prime Minister plays cab driver for an afternoon

Hi. I have reviewed Norwegian Prime Minister plays cab driver for an afternoon and left feedback at Talk:Norwegian Prime Minister plays cab driver for an afternoon. Please review these comments and try to address them as best you can before resubmitting. --LauraHale (talk) 07:30, 12 August 2013 (UTC)

Thanks for your review. You have messaged me about several articles today, I'm only the author of the Norwegian story.

GM rice research continues despite protest attacks in Philippines

I have reviewed GM rice research continues despite protest attacks in Philippines and left feedback at Talk:GM rice research continues despite protest attacks in Philippines. The article is not news because events occurred last Thursday, way outside the 48 hour window. Please consider writing about a new and more newsworthy topic. --LauraHale (talk) 07:42, 12 August 2013 (UTC)

Looking at articles from a reviewer perspective...

Reviewing an article for Wikinews about Paralympic swimmer

Reviewing an article for Wikinews about Norwegian politician

Reviewing an article for Wikinews about Paralympic swimmer

Reviewing an article for Wikinews about Genetically Modified

Reviewing an article for Wikinews about Glasgow para-sport

Reviewing an article for Wikinews about athletics

When I was doing reviews this morning, I screencast a number of them with the hope student contributors and other Wikinews reporters could see what reviewers are looking at and better understand some of what we are looking at. Hopefully you may find these helpful for understanding what we look for, bearing in mind that every reviewer does look at things slightly differently and no two reviews are the same.--LauraHale (talk) 12:17, 12 August 2013 (UTC)

Laura, I will pass these on to my fellow students in my class. I myself make a real effort in adding all of the things listed on the style guide. I do miss things though, as I'm still learning. I did however notice several stories on the front page that have been published, where the author has made zero effort to follow the style guide, the reviewer has added everything. I struggle fathom this. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Uowpjr19 (talk • contribs) 15:41, 12 August 2013

If I might offer a perspective. There's a — for lack of a better term one might call it student mindset, in which one expects implicitly to be fairly graded (whatever that means) and doesn't really think about those who grade, except when one feels they've deviated from upholding the expectation and therefore finds fault with them. It doesn't really take too much to disrupt this mindset (in fact, looking at it squarely may be enough to do so), but in my case I suspect I didn't move away from it until about the time I got my B.S. and moved on to graduate school. I remember in a department colloquium early in my graduate program, a professor remarking to students in the audience something like, 'This is the last place you will be in your life where those judging you are trying to be fair.'

It's not the case that Wikinews reviewers are here to 'grade' you. Nor is it true that they aren't; the truth is just in a different direction. Reviewers are here to enable the operation of a news site. Our community-driven peer review system works best when the reporter and reviewer are both well familiar with project standards and practices, and are both striving for publication of quality journalism. To that end, reviewers also want to do the best we can to help along newcomers struggling up our steep-but-thankfully-short initial learning curve, so they can become the sort of Wikinewsies who help our system work at its best, and as a special case of that, we want to help students along. That's mixed in with the primary news-site function of the project. And of course every reviewer is an individual volunteer, pursuing these goals in their own way and in the context of whatever else is going on in their life at the moment. --Pi zero (talk) 14:05, 17 August 2013 (UTC)

Open question for UoW contributors

Hi!

I've uploaded a few snaps of Tony Benn's appearance at the Edinburgh Fringe. I've an hour of audio, which the ideal would be to have a 100% transcript of.

I'm going to be subbing that to Wikinews reviewers, and will CC David Blackall with a copy.

You've been "picked on" as the 'first student victim' I found, I have to start work at 09:00 (currently ~06:30). And, if you ask David, I think this is a piece that he'd encourage you all to take part in making sure is a half-decent Wikinews article. Working title will be Edinburgh Fringe: Tony Benn - Last Will and Testament. --Brian McNeil / ^talk 05:27, 14 August 2013 (UTC)

---

• Can you click on preferences (top of page) and make sure you've completed an email address, then verified it?: I'd point you to all the stuff the WMF have on 'never disclosing email addresses' or spamming people, but gotta get on with the work that puts food on the table (systems analyst, currently in telecoms). --Brian McNeil / ^talk 08:20, 15 August 2013 (UTC)

An aside, when popping a comment on somsone's talk page, or any talk page, use four tilde characters to sign.

Policeman in China detained for hurling infant

I have reviewed Policeman in China detained for hurling infant and left feedback at Talk:Policeman in China detained for hurling infant. The two major problems are lack of establishing newsworthiness as a function of time and the large number of sources. --LauraHale (talk) 08:39, 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) 11:32, 19 August 2013 (UTC)