User:Dirk Franke/IGB-10

10. Your first article
	Following your first steps with editing Wikipedia in existing articles, let's now move on the creating a new article from scratch. For the purpose of this webinar, I will help you create your first article on a dedicated page within your user name space. Find a topic You may have hundreds of unwritten articles in your head. However, as part of this course, I kindly ask you to limit your choice to a female scientist's (or other notable woman's) biography. As you may have heard, Wikipedians are trying to fill the gaps that are still huge in the coverage of women's biographies within Wikipedia. Some Wikipedians have set up a project called Women in Red, referring to the red links to non-existing articles, to increase visibility of women in Wikipedia. You don't have to be a feminist or gender activist to embark on this project - for the purpose of this course it is just a good learning opportunity while at the same time filling relevant gaps. Have a look at the project's coordination page: Wikipedia:WikiProject Women in Red. Write a short biography Screencast: How to insert a reference. Screencast: How to insert images into articles. In the Redlink Index you can find names of female scientists, authors, artists, politicians, sportspersons and other notable women, who do not yet have a wikipedia article. You can browse through the various categories. Chose a woman from your area of interest or expertise, for which you would like to write a short biography. Insert a link to that missing article on the webinar's wiki page. I have created a new page within your user name space, which contains some basic formatting that you may use for a short biography. You will find a link to that page on your user talk page as well as on the webinar's wiki page. Try to write the article using information that you find in books, journals or serious websites. Before you start, please read the advice on writing biographies. Please reference the information that you include, by citing the respective sources, using the "Cite" button of the edit toolbar on top of the edit window. Click: in this screencast I will explain how to add a citation. Illustrate your article and insert media from Wikipedia's media repository Wikimedia Commons. Click: in this screencast I will show you how to insert images from Wikimedia Commons into an article. Just send me an email or post a message on my user talk page, once you think you are finished. I will help you to move the draft to the article name space. Continue on your own Now that you have some experience, just give it a try and write more articles about your topics. Here are some suggestions how to proceed: Use your sandbox As a new Wikipedian, you are not allowed to create articles in the article name space directy. Rather, you are required to draft your first article within your user name space or in a draft name space. A good place to start working and for any other formatting tests is the sandbox, which is provided to any user automatically. You find the link to your sandbox in the navigation bar on top of the page, just click on "Sandbox" and an empty page will open. Use subpages in your user namespace Another good idea to prepare your article for publication is within your user namespace. I suggest you setup a subpage like this: Click on your user name in the navigation on top of the page. Add /subpage after your user name in the URL bar of your browser and press "enter". Click „create“. Submit draft for review. You may create a more or less unlimited number of subpages to your user page. For further subpages use any other names such as /workshop or /building site. It is helpful to use a name that suggests to any other Wikipedian that this is still a work in progress. Use the Article Wizard to create a draft A further way is to use the Wikipedia:Article_wizard which will guide you through some questions to create a draft. Submit draft for review Once your first article is ready for publication, you click on "Submit your draft for review". There is a committee of experienced Wikipedians who will check your request for article creation and who will subsequently move your draft into the article name space.
Thank you