OFWA COURSE 102
Lets Begin...
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Now that you fully understand what Wikipedia is or is not and the fact that anyone can edit, it will be crucial to steer you towards how to make a genuine contribution on the platform.
Recap
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Can anyone edit Wikipedia?
Can I write about any topic?
Yes anyone can, but only if you have learnt how to do it.�
Yes you can, from biographies to food, places and real life happenings.��
Quick Facts
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How to write in a Neutral Point of View (NPOV)
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Its an ideal.
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Based on multiple reliable sources, convey information fairly, proportionately, and without bias.
Be fair and accurate
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Avoid 'puffery' (e.g. 'great', 'iconic', 'legendary', 'celebrated', 'famous', 'renowned', 'cutting-edge'...)
Avoid emotive language (e.g. 'horrible', 'wonderful', 'exciting’)
Avoid editorializing (e.g. 'surprising', 'obviously', 'unfortunately', 'interestingly’)
Avoid giving grades (e.g. 'best', 'worst')
Example 1
Ghana, officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country along the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean, in the subregion of West Africa. Spanning a land mass of 238,535 km2 (92,099 sq mi), Ghana is bordered by the Ivory Coast in the west, Burkina Faso in the north, Togo in the east, the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean in the south. Ghana means "Warrior King" in the Soninke language.��The first permanent state in the territory of present-day Ghana dates back to the 11th century, the Bono State. Numerous kingdoms and empires emerged over the centuries, of which the most powerful were the Kingdom of Dagbon and the Ashanti Empire.
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Example 2
Robbery is the crime of taking or attempting to take anything of value by force, threat of force, or by putting the victim in fear. According to common law, robbery is defined as taking the property of another, with the intent to permanently deprive the person of that property, by means of force or fear; that is, it is a larceny or theft accomplished by an assault.[1] Precise definitions of the offence may vary between jurisdictions. Robbery is differentiated from other forms of theft (such as burglary, shoplifting, pickpocketing, or car theft) by its inherently violent nature (a violent crime); whereas many lesser forms of theft are punished as misdemeanors, robbery is always a felony in jurisdictions that distinguish between the two. Under English law, most forms of theft are triable either way, whereas robbery is triable only on indictment.
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Ensuring Verifiability & Notability of Subjects
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Wikipedia strives to publish verifiable information about notable subjects.
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Verifiability
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Wikipedia is a fact based site and every claim or fact must be backed by credible sources to confirm what is being written on the site.
Verifiability supports our quest to cover notable subjects, as its assumed that anything that is notable would have received significant coverage in verifiable sources.
Notability
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"If a topic has received significant coverage in reliable sources (at least 2 sources) that are independent of the subject, it is presumed to be suitable for a stand-alone article or list."
This is important because the encyclopedia is not a phone book, and documenting absolutely everything, rather than everything notable, would cost too much effort and resources.
Tools for editing wikipedia
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Visual editor is a "visual" way of editing Wikipedia that allows people to contribute without having to learn wiki markup. It works more like a word processor and hides the underlying source code. Links and other items are edited using toolbar and pop-up interfaces.
Source editing - The Wiki markup source editor shows the underlying page’s source code, and works like a plain text file. Links and other items are indicated using simple code like this: [[Earth]].
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Think of an article� Example Edina!
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How to research and add facts to support topic (I/II)
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How to research and add facts to support topic (II/II)
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Credible sources for Ghanaian articles
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Local Sources
Joy Online
Citi fm Online
BFT Online
TV3 News
Graphic Online
Ghana News Agency
GBC
Foreign Sources�
BBC
Forbes
CNN
New York Times
Not all sources are online
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News papers
Books
Journals
Digitized manuscripts
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Exercise
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Activity Checklist
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How to improve an article
How to create an article
How to add templates and photos
How to add infoboxes and categories
Learning about the preview, edit summary and submit icons
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Potential and opportunities
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Potential and Opportunities in Wikimedia
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Learning how to write on Wikipedia Improves one's writing skills
Empower and engage people around the world to collect, develop and bring educational content to the world through various projects.
Supports Creativity and ability to churn out more content creators
A platform for networking and learning
Creates opportunity for collaborative work
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FAQs
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What if an article I want to create already exists?
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I sent a draft for review it’s been a month now. Why?
Can I reference any site when creating an article?
This means that you can improve the said article or create a new article that is not yet covered
It can take months as articles are curated by volunteers and they receive many articles for review every minute. So you need to be a little patient.
No, not just any site. You can only reference credible sources to create an article. See your country’s credible sources list
Additional resources!
How to create a Wikipedia page
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_kERIvKJ2s&feature=emb_logo
Wikipedia editing bases
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u577WkW2TVY�
How to create a wikipedia article
Video on how to add citation
1.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VcyvdGR79yQ&t=9s
Basic rules of wikipedia editing
1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HnC2tAFgmdw
Sources https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:WikiProject_Africa/Africa_Sources_List
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Congratulations you have created your first article and now part of a BIG movement...
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Thank you!
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