User:Gschliss/sandbox
Topmatter. This is my introduction. This is where i briefly define the topic, and wink at ancient or recent history but i dont go into great detail. this should be sometihing about as long as an abstract, but with a different (more expository) voice. Start by making an account, then drafting your page in your account sandbox. If you are making a brand new page, then you will be able to just change the name of this page later and publish it as your final topic. If you are editing an existing page, you will need to copy/paste your edits into that page later on.
History
use equals signs to break out sections. This is the section where I talk about the history. Every sentence that I write has to be cited, and the voice should be expository[1]. The first time where you cite a reference, you need to do it long-form. In subsequent uses of the reference, you can assign a reference a name and insert the reference by calling that name[1]. Try to make your citations as complete as possible[1]. There are wikipedia bots that will clean up after you if you misformat things, but the aren't perfect and it's a little embarassing to have dozens of bot-edits to your references[1].
Linking
One of the coolest part of wikipedia is the ability to follow links indefinitely... make your page part of the fun by inserting lots of links to related topics. Links usually come at the first reference to an outside topic. It's also possible to display one thing, but link to something else. use this sparingly, and ideally only when you are referencing the synonym of the displayed word. Don't do it to rickroll people... In addition to linking from your page, you should find related topics and start linking TO your page. Look for pages that touch on your topic, and edit the page either to convert a word of text to a link, or to insert a brief sentences that links to your page. The more links to your page, the more views you will get.
Sections
the structure of your article is all up to you. Be especially wary of using many, small sections. It is lazy writing trick to defer to section titles to build transitions around facts. Try instead to extract the narrative that connects the facts and use prose to transition between ideas rather than section headings.
Inserting media
To upload your figure, go to the wikicommons at commons.wikimedia.org and click upload. The preferred file formats are .png or .svg. Make sure you indicate that you created the file, and that it is free to be distributed and edited (you claim no copyright). Give the figure a descriptive title and give it some useful metadata. Once you upload your file, insert it by referencing the name you gave it, and give it a very brief caption (way less than a typical academic figure):
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/2/23/Sir_spreading.gif/220px-Sir_spreading.gif)
Publishing your page
If you are editing an existing page, go to that page and click "edit" either at the top of the page to edit the entire page, or at the top of the section you want to edit. Copy and paste your edits in there, and click "show preview." read it over to make sure it makes sense and that all of the links work, and save the page. If you are making a page from scratch, go to your sandbox where you have been editing your page, and click "More -> Move" (right next too the search field). Type in the new title for the page, and publish the move. Your page will be live immediately under the new title.
Tracking your page
Once you have published your page, you should tell wikipedia to update you if anyone edits it. This is useful because it shows if the wikipedia community takes the page seriously. When you make your page, make sure to check the box "Watch this page" right above the "save page" button. If you are logged in to wikipedia, at the top of the page should be a watchlist link, and there you can see all of the edits made to your page. You can also navigate directly to the page and click "view history." There will be many edits for the first few weeks, then very few. This is because new articles are flagged for review by editors (paid and volunteer) and by wikipedia bots. If your article is well cited (basically every sentence should have a citation) and remains expository in tone, then no one will flag it and it will live in permanence.
Turning this page in
Please send me a link to your final page (submit it on bCourses), or to your sandbox page if you end up editing many articles instead of creating you own. I won’t grade this link at all and i really don’t have a mechanism to force you to do this, but I really care about this project and I really want you to do this. I will collect all of the pages generated by this class and when I am bummed out because my experiments are failing I will read them and take pride in your work.
Pages by MCB 149 students
Short interspersed nuclear elements (SINEs)
Segmental Duplication on the Human Y Chromosome
Human Genome Structural Variation
Eukaryotic Nuclear Organization
Acute myeloblastic leukemia with maturation