Welcome! Welcome to Wikipedia! Welcome!

Editing cheatsheet
Forgot how that code worked?

Summary of policies and guidelines
A quick reference for Wikipedia's "rules"

Find the page for your course
Forgot the link to your course's page?

Choose a mentor
Contact an ambassador to work with

Help with article assessment
Help us assess these articles!

Starting an article
Guide to starting your first article

Comments or suggestions? Need help?

Your recent edits edit

  Hello. In case you didn't know, when you add content to talk pages and Wikipedia pages that have open discussion, you must sign your posts by typing four tildes ( ~~~~ ) at the end of your comment. You may also click on the signature button   located above the edit window. This will automatically insert a signature with your username or IP address and the time you posted the comment. This information is useful because other editors will be able to tell who said what, and when. Thank you. --SineBot (talk) 22:52, 28 September 2010 (UTC)Reply

Mentor edit

Hello, Claire. Did you want me to act as your mentor or did you want Alpha Quadrant to do it? Here is a good example of an article about a law for you to look at: Alaska Mental Health Enabling Act. One very important tip: Make sure to add full citations to WP:Reliable sources to support all the statements that you make (see WP:CITE, giving author, title, date, publisher/city, page number or url). Please scan through the links in the Welcome message at the top of this page, as they will give you the background you need to get started. Happy editing! -- Ssilvers (talk) 23:01, 28 September 2010 (UTC)Reply

OK, good luck with the article! -- Ssilvers (talk) 03:14, 5 October 2010 (UTC)Reply
Clairestum I am a bit confused, would you like Ssilvers to mentor you, or would you like me to? Thanks, --Alpha Quadrant talk 03:22, 5 October 2010 (UTC)Reply
 
Hello, Clairestum. You have new messages at Alpha Quadrant's talk page.
Message added 04:16, 5 October 2010 (UTC). You can remove this notice at any time by removing the {{Talkback}} or {{Tb}} template.Reply

Actually, it appears that Claire has teamed up with User:Sonia, but, of course I am happy to answer any questions or assist in any other way! -- Ssilvers (talk) 18:35, 5 October 2010 (UTC)Reply

Sonia appears to be on wikibreak atm. If you need help please ask me or another mentor. Your articles look fine...just one minor formatting comment: when adding hyperlinks, do [url description] as opposed to [url]description.Smallman12q (talk) 02:30, 17 November 2010 (UTC)Reply

Compulsory public education edit

Hi, Claire. Note that in addition to the above article, there is an existing article on Compulsory education. All the best! -- Ssilvers (talk) 18:42, 5 October 2010 (UTC)Reply

Thanks for the heads up - the compulsory education article is a very broad overview of the concept while the compulsory public education article is referring to a specific social movement in the US. Is it possible to change the title of an article to further clarify the distinction? Clairestum (talk) 23:53, 5 October 2010 (UTC)Reply
Yes, you can "move" an article like this. A more global-centric and clearer title for Compulsory public education would probably be something like Compulsory public education movement in the United States. What do you think? sonia 22:28, 6 October 2010 (UTC)Reply

DYK for Food Quality Protection Act edit

The DYK project (nominate) 06:03, 24 October 2010 (UTC)

CONGRATULATIONS!!! Annie Lin (Campus Team Coordinator, Wikimedia Foundation) (talk) 15:44, 26 October 2010 (UTC)Reply

Rename of Compulsory Public Education edit

I'll proceed with the rename if you give me the go ahead. Just let me know the exact name you decide on (or, if you prefer, your mentor can do it). The guideline recommends the shortest title that conveys the topic, as that makes it easier for a reader to find. Note also that the guideline says: "Use lower case, except for proper names". Let us know what you decide. See WP:NAME#Deciding an article title. -- Ssilvers (talk) 19:35, 30 October 2010 (UTC)Reply

Hi edit

I saw your article review request on Sonia's talk page and would be glad to review your article. I am one of the online ambassadors and will also be glad to help mentor you in Sonia's absence. I will be looking through the articles ASAP (I have to go offline soon). If you have any questions, feel free to leave a message on my talk page. Cheers, Bejinhan talks 14:32, 16 November 2010 (UTC)Reply

DYK nomination of California Voting Rights Act edit

  Hello! Your submission of California Voting Rights Act at the Did You Know nominations page has been reviewed, and there still are some issues that may need to be clarified. Please review the comment(s) underneath your nomination's entry and respond there as soon as possible. Thank you for contributing to Did You Know! 28bytes (talk) 01:05, 17 November 2010 (UTC)Reply

Article review edit

Hi! I've read both the Food Quality Protection Act and California Voting Rights Act articles and below is my review for both.

Food Quality Protection Act edit

  • Great job in the grammar copyediting and rewording for clarification! Such copyediting is sorely needed in many articles.
  • Your edition of a NPOV paragraph was good. We want a balance in articles and both views should be expressed.
  • Lastly, I saw that you expanded and created a number of sections. While that is good, you'll need reliable sources to back-up whatever you added. Content without reliable sources can be removed. Also, section headers should not be capitalized per our manual of style. For example, ====Public Health Pesticides==== should be ====Public health pesticides====. This goes for every section header, except the article name and abbreviations.

California Voting Rights Act edit

  • Wow, great expansion! You added references and all.... good job! Your edit summary said "Add article". I presume you worked on it in a sandbox prior to added it to the main article? Sandbox is great for starters, but if you feel confident, I'll encourage you to straightaway edit the article if you wish. Either ways are fine but if you choose to edit the article right away, be sure that you have the time to complete whatever you want to do.
  • There is a list of senators and representatives who voted on the bill. While that might be helpful for references purposes, it's not really necessary and if possible, should be removed. Mention a senator or representative only if he has done significant work and is connected with the act.
  • I've tweaked the size of the california seal pic. you added so that it wouldn't be so prominent. I did it by adding |150px. I also moved the VOTE pic to the left just to make it look better and reduced it to 150px. I did it by adding |left|150px.
  • Other than that, great job! I'm so proud to see you editing. You're certainly making great progress. Kudos on your hard work! Bejinhan talks 02:59, 17 November 2010 (UTC)Reply

DYK for California Voting Rights Act edit

The DYK project (nominate) 12:02, 18 November 2010 (UTC)

Hi Claire, did you know that more than 1,300 people read you article on November 18th? Congratulations! --Fschulenburg (Public Policy) (talk) 04:07, 4 December 2010 (UTC) Reply