User talk:Cirrus Editor/American Medical Writers Association

How to make references

I won't edit your work, but here's an example of how inline citations (references) work:

The American Medical Writers Association (AMWA) is the world's leading professional association for medical communicators. AMWA has more than 5,600 members in the United States, Canada, and 26 other countries. AMWA is governed by a board of directors composed of a 14-member executive committee and representatives from its 19 US and Canadian chapters.

References

Edit this page and you'll see that the citation is placed inside <ref>...</ref> tags at the point in the text you want to reference. Then the <references/> tag in the references section automatically generates the actual reference. The numbering is taken care of automatically. Let me know if you need help. --RexxS (talk) 16:20, 5 October 2009 (UTC)

Hi RexxS, check out my updates to the sample page. The one section on controversies of medical ghostwriters needs work, and so does the history section. How can I get folks to comment on what I've done so far? Or, is it better to push on, post the page, then let others edit as they see fit? Cirrus Editor (talk) 17:11, 6 October 2009 (UTC)

Well, it's a huge improvement on the current stub, so you've done very well! If you want other opinions, you could ask again at the doctors' mess or drop a line to Graham who's always patient and helpful. In either case leave a link to the user-page article.

On the other hand, it really is so much better than the present article, you could just put it in place and wait for others to comment/edit it. Before you do though, there's two points:

1. Take a look at the current article and check if you can make the same links to other wikipedia articles that they have made, so that you don't upset the person who took the time to put those links in.
2. You won't be allowed to have such a big section on External links - see WP:EL. The way to chop down your list is to make a new section of the article called "==Chapters==" and write a brief intro, like: AMWA has x local chapters covering most/all of the USA. They are autonomous groups (/ or not) who organize meetings, workshops and conferences in their region. Then make a bulleted list of the chapters and reference those you can to their respective website. Hope that makes sense.

Whatever you decide, you won't be wrong. The only difference between working here and in mainspace is that in the latter, you'll get other editors butchering your beautiful work :) However, I can't edit your work here (because of GFDL limitations), but I can directly edit the mainspace article once it arrives there. Anyway, there's no rush, so carry on improving what you have here until you're satisfied with the comments you've received and with the state of the article. I should warn you, once you've worked on one article, you'll want to do others - Wikipedia can be addictive! Regards, --RexxS (talk) 21:00, 6 October 2009 (UTC)

Try [[continuing education]] program. --RexxS (talk) 01:36, 7 October 2009 (UTC)

Thanks for all this help! Addictive and fun. I'll make more updates and some fine-tuning, then take your advice and place the page up. I'm having trouble with the code on that one reference....Cirrus Editor (talk) 16:25, 7 October 2009 (UTC)

Check out the latest edits. I think it can go live. Cirrus Editor (talk) 21:36, 7 October 2009 (UTC)

References take the most learning - but you have already put the essential parts in. When it goes live, I'll copyedit the references and use citation templates. It's easier to see how they work than it is for me to describe them, so don't worry about that now. The article is certainly looking ready. --RexxS (talk) 00:50, 8 October 2009 (UTC)

Page went live this morning. Thank you for your help and advice. I have put a watch on the page and so will check back to see you fix the references. Cirrus Editor (talk) 14:24, 8 October 2009 (UTC)

Oh, and should I delete the User page you created for me to develop the text of the new article? Cirrus Editor (talk) 14:26, 8 October 2009 (UTC)

I've used {{cite web}}, {{cite news}} and {{cite journal}} templates to code the references. It's useful because these templates produce meta-data (like authors, dates, etc.) that can be used for other purposes (see COinS if you're interested). Ideally, there should be no direct links to external sites, other than in the "External links" section. And I've used the {{quote}} template to replace the blockquote markup - it's more flexible. You may find that some editors might complain the AMWA is not notable, because a lot of the info is sourced from the AMWA website, rather than a third-party source, and some may grumble that parts read like an advert. We'll see. Otherwise, you've done a grand job. I'll keep an eye on how it develops. You'll find only an administrator can delete pages. You can easily request the deletion, but I'd hang on for a while yet. --RexxS (talk) 18:41, 8 October 2009 (UTC)

Wow. Thanks so much for tidying all of that up. I went briefly to that template page to see how it is supposed to be done. I'll definitely give it a re-visit. Regarding the "notable": I can agree that much material comes directly from the AMWA site, but that is because it is an association site and it makes sense to me to use the source. I mean, not many people outside of the association are going to know about (or post on their sites) AMWA history, for example. About reading like an advertisement: I tried my best to remain neutral. I am open to suggestions. I will leave the sample page up for now, as you suggest, just to have it there. Thanks so much again. I'm glad you were here guiding through my first article creation. Cirrus Editor (talk) 20:57, 8 October 2009 (UTC)