[Wikipedia-l] Writing articles

[Andre Engels]

On Mon, 1 Sep 2003, Merritt L. Perkins wrote:

> I have been thinking of trying to write some Encyclopedia articles but I
> would like to discuss them with several other people while I am preparing
> them for publication.
> . Suppose I choose to write about Rose of Sharon. I could look in the
> Wikipedia and not find it under that heading. Perhaps it is described
> somewhere and I didn't find it.

Try doing a search using the terms under which it could be described. In this
case I would search under +rose +sharon, and under its binomial name (or
just the genus if it is a small one).

> I could take close-up pictures of the flowers with my digital camera and
> describe it from what I know and what I can see. Should I include
> pictures of the whole plant, the seeds, or the roots?

This is up to you - what do you think would be useful, what do you think
would not be very informative? I cannot give any general rules, except that
I would prefer to keep it to 1 or 2 pictures, unless the article gets very
large (over two pages, say).

> I could look in
> encyclopedias and books for more information. I could prepare a rough
> draft. After reading the instructions for submitting articles I would
> like to discuss it with other people and get their comments and
> suggestions.

The general Wikipedia way would be to write your draft and publish it.
If you have questions or ideas to enhance the page, you could place them
on the Talk page.

> Someone told me that Rose of Sharon was mentioned in the
> Bible. Somebody may know where. Should I include that and quote the Bible
> passage?
>
> An historian may be able to tell what part it played in history like the
> thistle in Scotland and the War of the Roses in England. A botanist may
> be able to correct and add to my description. People in other parts of
> the world may tell me that it is common there. Is it the national flower
> of some country or does it appear on a flag? Should we include the name
> in some other languages?

I would say it is all your call what you think is important enough to add
and what is not. I would make an exception for the names in other languages,
which I personally would choose not to include (except of course the official
biological binomial name), but for all others I would say, just do as you
like.

> If someone else is writing an article on the same subject I might choose
> to let him take my article and use parts of it in his article.

In general, this is done by having whoever is ready first publish it on
Wikipedia, then the second one combine the tow articles.

> After I get tired of editing it I could submit it to be included in the
> Encyclopedia.
> Then the readers would have their opportunity to make changes.

You might consider doing that before. There's nothing wrong with putting
something on Wikipedia while it is still a 'work in progress'.

> I didn't find articles about Jesse Ramsden who made precision navigation
> instruments or Count Rumsford who left Massachusetts and went to England
> and founded the Royal Institution.

There's many thousands of other interesting subjects that we do not have...
It's all still 'work in progress'.

> There are several other subjects that I might write about but I would
> like to have other people participate. How can I do this?

I don't think there is any specific method for that on Wikipedia. We all
just write on what we want to write on, and cooperation comes when we
happen to be writing on the same thing.

Andre Engels