User talk:DougNielsen
Welcome!
Hello, DougNielsen, and welcome to Wikipedia! Thank you for your contributions. I hope you like the place and decide to stay. Here are some pages that you might find helpful:
- The five pillars of Wikipedia
- Tutorial
- How to edit a page and How to develop articles
- How to create your first article (using the Article Wizard if you wish)
- Manual of Style
I hope you enjoy editing here and being a Wikipedian! Please sign your messages on discussion pages using four tildes (~~~~); this will automatically insert your username and the date. If you need help, check out Wikipedia:Questions, ask me on my talk page, or ask your question on this page and then place {{helpme}} before the question. Again, welcome! Cunard (talk) 08:19, 7 February 2010 (UTC)
You can remove this notice at any time by removing the {{Talkback}} or {{Tb}} template.
Hi, Doug, welcome to Wikipedia! I have some advice to you about editing Wikipedia articles.
Two important policies for Wikipedia articles are Wikipedia:Verifiability and Wikipedia:Neutral point of view. Feel free to add other information, but please make sure you cite independent, third-party reliable sources. Also, be sure to avoid peacock terms and stick to neutral language.
Here are some templates to help you cite sources. There are three main templates:
- {{cite news}} : for news websites like CNN, Fox News, ABC, MSN, etc. I normally use {{cite news |first= |last= |authorlink= |coauthors= |title= |url= |work= |publisher= |date= |accessdate= }}
- {{cite web}} : for web pages. I normally use {{cite web |url= |title= |accessdate= |last= |first= |coauthors= |date= |work= |publisher= }}. If anything (such as the author's name or the date) is not on the web page, then you should remove it from the template. The same goes with other elements in this cite web template.
- {{cite book}} : for books. I normally use {{cite book |title= |last= |first= |authorlink= |coauthors= |year= |publisher= |location= |isbn= |page= |pages= |url= }}.
Another good link about sources is Wikipedia:Reliable sources, which states that Wikipedia articles should use reliable, third-party, published sources. Remember to keep this in mind when you are researching an article. Sources from Myspace and most blogging sites are not reliable sources and should not be used in Wikipedia articles. Also, using "third-party sources" means that the article should not solely rely on sources that originate from the website that the article is about.
Wikipedia:Your first article also provides some good information about writing decent articles. If you have any further questions, don't hesitate to ask me. Feel free to expand this article. Thank you for your contributions to Wikipedia! Cunard (talk) 08:19, 7 February 2010 (UTC)