[WikiEN-l] Mathematics university lecture notes - useful to anybody?

[Ray Saintonge]

Thomas Dalton wrote:

>>It is far easier to source a text than to gather sources and write a
>>new article from scratch. Sourcing is grunt work where writing a new
>>article requires creativity and whatnot.
>>    
>>
>That kind of thinking is one of the biggest problem with Wikipedia at
>the moment. Sourcing should always come *before* writing. The source
>is where the information came from, that's what "source" means, so you
>have to have the source before you can write the article. Adding
>sources afterwards is a way of fixing a problem - unsourced articles -
>it should not be a part of the standard process of writing articles.
>The problem should never be created in the first place.
>
There are benefits and drawbacks to either approach.  Some simply can 
maintain a better narrative flow if they wait until they are finished to 
add the sourcing.  They may have a stack of sources sitting beside their 
computer, but not be sure which will be relevant until they are well 
advanced intheir writing.  Presumably they are making private notes as 
they go along so that they will be able to add the references when they 
get to the bottom of the article.  If an article appears to be a work 
that is actively in progress it is good etiquette to let the editor 
finish what he is doing before complaining about missing sources.

Ec