Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Guild of Copy Editors/Backlog elimination drives/September 2022

"Words"

Hi! I'm new to "backlog elimination drives", so I'd like to know what the explanatory section means by saying "words". Is that the total number of words left in the readable prose of an article after copyediting is complete? Thanks. Nythar^T.C 02:01, 31 August 2022 (UTC)

@Nythar: The word count is the total number of words before you start copyediting. You can use Prosesize to get a word count, although editors have noted some issues with it (it doesn't count bulleted lists, for one). Happy editing, Perfect4th (talk) 02:52, 31 August 2022 (UTC)

@Nythar: Like Perfect4th said, the word count is for before editing happens. I generally use Word Counter as an external counter for when a significant portion of an article is not considered prose. —Tenryuu 🐲 ( 💬 • 📝 ) 02:54, 31 August 2022 (UTC)

Thanks for both of your replies, but what is its purpose? Nythar^T.C 04:33, 31 August 2022 (UTC)

@Nythar: It's just a number that determines what shiny Internet trophy you may win at the end of the drive, which ultimately doesn't mean anything in the long run. —Tenryuu 🐲 ( 💬 • 📝 ) 06:56, 31 August 2022 (UTC)

@Tenryuu: To clarify my question: What is its significance in relation to the drive? Is it just a random number? Nythar^T.C 07:01, 31 August 2022 (UTC)

@Nythar: Article word counts are totaled together for places on the leaderboard. —Tenryuu 🐲 ( 💬 • 📝 ) 07:08, 31 August 2022 (UTC)

@Nythar: GOCE editors keep track of the word count for each article they edit during the drive, recording the count in their section of the drive page. It may help to look at an example; see Lfstevens's section in the previous drive. Based on those counts, that editor received recognition on their talk page for their work during the drive. That's it. There is no requirement to track all of your words, but most editors find it fun and motivational to do so. – Jonesey95 (talk) 14:13, 31 August 2022 (UTC)

I don't understand the point of this either. Copy editing may involve increasing or reducing the number of words in an article so I don't see what sense of achievement one would get just from recording how many words were there before we started editing. Deb (talk) 09:05, 6 September 2022 (UTC)

Copy-editing a 10,000-word article requires much more effort than copy-editing a 300-word article, so most drive and blitz participants like to keep track of both article count and word count. There is no requirement to do so. GOCE drive and blitz participants have been doing it for many years, and it works for us. – Jonesey95 (talk) 14:19, 6 September 2022 (UTC)

It looks like somebody's started before the Drive has?

What it says on the tin. As far as I'm aware, it doesn't start for about another 10-11 hours?

Asparagusus (interaction) 13:44, 31 August 2022 (UTC)

I’m not that bothered, and I doubt the other coordinators are, seen as it’s a couple of hours, it could just be time zones. Thanks, Zippybonzo | Talk (he|him) 09:28, 1 September 2022 (UTC)

The edits have been reverted. The drive starts and ends at 00:00 UTC. Time zones essentially do not exist when it comes to Wikipedia editing; that way madness lies. – Jonesey95 (talk) 14:34, 1 September 2022 (UTC)

Edit checks

First time participating in one of these - would anyone be willing to check my edits on Bad Girls: The Musical? I've never written a WP plot summary and I suspect even this edit is too verbose, but struggling to cut it down. The article has its own issues with sourcing etc but I couldn't let it lie. BeReasonabl (talk) 14:11, 2 September 2022 (UTC)

Thank you for your participation. It looks as though you've done a thorough job at Bad Girls: The Musical. You've certainly cut down the length of the Synopsis section, which was very long; and reduction in length was part of what was explicitly asked for. Dhtwiki (talk) 03:48, 3 September 2022 (UTC)

@BeReasonabl: You knocked the 2500-word plot down to a reasonable 500 words. That's right on target, great work! I've looked it over and will leave you some notes on your talk page later today. – Reidgreg (talk) 14:57, 3 September 2022 (UTC)

Advice on edit

I am currently editing the article Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2015, which was tagged in October 2021 for overly long sentences, conversion of long prose list(s) to bulleted list(s). Ordinarily, this wouldn't have posed any questions, but I noted that the main "afflicted" section is a verbatim summary of the bill's provisions. How does one approach this kind of content - should it be left as-is or should it be further summarised? BroVic (talk) 21:59, 3 September 2022 (UTC)

Hi @BroVic:; I assume you're referring to the section "Congressional Research Service summary" which, I agree, is horrid. The text is copied directly from a US Government website. Though its content is in the public domain, the source is primary so must be used with care and not indiscriminately. Also, Wikipedia isn't a mirror / host of public domain material. That material should be summarised from text in reliable, secondary sources, but that's beyond a copy-edit. I would completely remove the section and add the US Govt source to the External Links section; it's far too long and detracts from the rest of the article. Cheers, Baffle☿gab 02:15, 4 September 2022 (UTC)

Thanks, I will do just that. I will also make an entry on the talk page. BroVic (talk) 02:30, 4 September 2022 (UTC)

How to mark bonus articles?

How do I mark articles that are eligible for a bonus?

> You will receive a bonus score of 50% over the article's word count for articles that were tagged with {{copy edit}} in October, November, and December 2021, and for all articles listed on the Requests page. Awards will be given out once the drive has finished. 🌊PacificDepths^talk|contrib 20:12, 5 September 2022 (UTC)

Hi @PacificDepths:, in your section, when you log articles that were tagged in the bonus months, append each line with *O (asterisk followed with capital letter O) after your word count in brackets. For articles from the Requests page, append lines with *R (asterisk followed with capital letter R). Good luck and cheers, Baffle☿gab 21:04, 5 September 2022 (UTC)

Thank you @Baffle gab1978! And for my total word count, do I calculate the multiplier myself? For example, if I have two articles with 945 and 593 words, both tagged in the bonus months, do I calculate (945 + 593) * 1.5 = 2307 words in total words? 🌊PacificDepths^talk|contrib 16:13, 6 September 2022 (UTC)

I see now that instructions say to not include bonuses. 🌊PacificDepths^talk|contrib 16:16, 6 September 2022 (UTC)

That's correct; bonuses are calculated when the drive is over. Cheers, Baffle☿gab 00:30, 7 September 2022 (UTC)

Guidance on article that needs help

I started working on Acun Ilıcalı and I tried to clean up the existing content as best I could. However, large parts of the content lack citations. I also am not sure that I am capturing the essence of the article because I cannot read the sources in Turkish (the machine translation helps but is not perfect). What would you recommend in this situation? Should I count this as completed? 🌊PacificDepths^talk|contrib 06:45, 15 September 2022 (UTC)

As copyeditors, we do not take responsibility for how well sources back up content or try to find sources for uncited material. We try to make the article say what it's trying to say as readably as possible. We're not experts on every subject. We try to focus on clarity, readability, and consistency. Good luck! Lfstevens (talk) 07:14, 15 September 2022 (UTC)

Yes, that is correct, we just slim the content of the article down, we don't ensure the quality of the actual information, we just make it readable and understandable. Zippybonzo (public) (talk) 12:53, 15 September 2022 (UTC)

Thank you @Lfstevens and @Zippybonzo (public) 🌊PacificDepths^talk|contrib 16:13, 15 September 2022 (UTC)

Francis Ford Coppola

A copyedit tag was added to the article in December 2021. It was removed [1] in July 2022. However, it is still listed in the December 2021 articles tagged for copyedit. I don't think it still counts from then(?).

Asparagusus (interaction) 15:46, 17 September 2022 (UTC)

@Asparagusus: It was moved to the career section. 0xDeadbeef 15:51, 17 September 2022 (UTC)

Ah, thank you.

Asparagusus (interaction) 15:54, 17 September 2022 (UTC)

I learned (the hard way) that if the tag isn't at the top of the page, you have to search for "copy edit" to find it All the best, Miniapolis 20:49, 17 September 2022 (UTC)