- Consequently, nearly everyone with much expertise but little patience will avoid editing Wikipedia, because they will--at least if they are editing articles on articles that are subject to any sort of controversy--be forced to defend their edits on article discussion pages against attacks by nonexperts. This is not perhaps so bad in itself. But if the expert should have the gall to complain to the community about the problem, he or she will be shouted down (at worst) or politely asked to "work with" persons who have proven themselves to be unreasonable (at best).
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James Cho (that's me)
I study Aerospace Engineering at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor (previously, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University). As a youth, I resided in the Charlottesville, Virginia area. My homepage lists other details.
Here I mainly crusade for NPOV writing and decent page formatting, and am largely responsible for the improved table designs featured on Wikipedia. Before I started editing and complaining, ugly black table borders were table standards. Now they're all but gone.
Quick Tips
- Write encyclopedia articles. Do not use folksy tones and never use second person voice.
- Encyclopedias should not endorse fame or worth, because those are essentially non-factual. They exist wholly as impressions in people's minds. Let them remain there.
- "Aircraft" is a word. Use "aircraft" for the plural of itself.
- Use 's to form the possessive of a singular noun ending in s, as in "James's." [1]
- Start paragraphs with topic sentences. Don't introduce details immediately.
- Trim liberally, but maintain paragraph flow. If a sentence seems too long, it probably is.
- For god's sake don't use more than three commas in a sentence. It sounds terrible.
Insert Spoiler Warnings
Encyclopedias a duty to judge which information may displease its readers, whether about history, politics or movies. Spoiler warnings seek to inform accurately and comprehensively regardless of reader response. Spolier warnings should exist in any reference work (and in all but Wikipedia, they do not).
Topic Sentences
The first sentence of an article should summarize the most significant attributes of the article's subject. For example, the first sentence of Bawls previously was: "Bawls is an energy drink marketed mainly towards computer gaming enthusiasts and paintballers." Really, that's about how the drink relates to society. About the drink itself though, the stuff inside the bottle, the most important identifier is the caffeine content. The revised first sentence reflects this: "Bawls is an energy drink containing a large amount of caffeine." This is 4th grade english folks.
Don't Cherry-pick Facts
Try to balance your selection of facts. By neglecting certain facts and presenting others, a series of NPOV statements may compose a very POV picture. Swallow your pride and realize that your opinions are not "right."
Forbidden Words
Some words are inherently POV and cannot factually describe anything. Such words (in any form, with any prefixes or suffixes) should never be present in an encyclopedia, except in quotations:
- Descriptors: generous, fortunate, notable, luckily, thankfully, gratefully, unique, distinct, impressive, heroic, famous
Exercise caution with adverbs, verbs and adjectives in general. Don't say an athlete "demolished" the competition unless he used explosives or a backhoe (see Wikipedia:Avoid peacock terms for a related Wikipedia policy, and my removals of POV terms from "Garry Kasparov").
Make Section Headings Count
Don't use "History of the blah" as a heading if the article's title is already "Blah." What else would a section concern if not the topic of article? Don't be redundant. (And if the section does not relate to the article's title, then it does not belong in there at all.)
Don't Add Opinions
If you start a sentence with "many believe," or "many feel that," you probably are stating an opinion (though it may not be yours). Encyclopedias must only provide veritable facts, not opinions regardless of how many people hold them. Now, one may say that essentially, facts are opinions. But let's be honest; we can usually divide the two. If we could not, then we could make no POV/NPOV distinction at all. We must realize though that a widely held opinion does not constitute fact. See Wikipedia: Avoid weasel words, for a related Wikipedia guideline.
Clean Tables
Set all borders to 0 in tables (or if you must, maintain the outer border and the one below the header) and never use background colors because they add no additional meaning. Uncolored tables look infinitely cleaner, and the whitespace separation is always sufficient for dividing rows and columns. Why add dividers to the table if division is already clear?
Use "And" to Connect Related Ideas
"And" does not connect random sentence halves or wholes. Use the word when it makes sense. The usage below does not.
- During much of its development it was called the "Fireball," and it is the world's largest aircraft.
Really, it's not that hard.
Be Simple and Concise
- Write with nouns and verbs.
- — Strunk & White, The Elements of Style
Those two elements make or break a sentence. Adverbs, adjectives, prepositions and the like help. But they're not always necessary and often clutter a sentence. And punctuation can obstruct rather than mend. Instead of revising "the crimes he was accused of" into "the crimes of which he was accused," try eliminating "of": "the accusations." Crime is implied. Rather than separating two independent clauses with a semicolon, combine them: "He was born an orphan; likewise, he became lonely," becomes, "As an orphan he was lonely." Don't flash elaborate (though correct) grammar, or feign style with odd punctuation. Get to the point.
State the Plain Facts
Do not dissect Ali G's humor methods, or theorize on Bush's motives for supporting whatever. Leave that to your blog, your local newspaper or your friendly coffee table conversations. Wikipedia strives to be an encyclopedia of facts, not factual impressions no matter how clear they are to you. Leave the interpretations to the reader; don't shove yours down his throat.
Integrate Your Writing
If you add a single sentence-fact to a paragraph, don't just drop it there like a hat on a horse. Revise, make the paragraph flow, and create a consistent tone for the article. Quite obviously, choppy writing sounds bad. Please do not create more of it.
Notable Pages
- Original Authorships: X-44 MANTA, Boeing X-45, Radar cross section, Engineering physics, Vortex ring, Active Electronically Scanned Array, FB-22, The Gadget Maker
(Some of the above pages contain significant additions by other users.)
- Major Contributions: Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, F/A-22 Raptor, The Man Who Was Thursday, Thrust vectoring, Anechoic chamber, Frisbee, Skunk Works, YF-23, List of aerospace engineers, Palmdale, California, University of Michigan, Bathophobia, Why Wikipedia is not so great, Jerkcity, Toroid, Aerodynamics, Normal mapping, Stealth technology, Airfoil, Scramjet, George Cayley, Technical communication, Airbus A380, French press, Theodore Kaczynski, AIDS, Falcon 4.0, Aviator, Pencil sketching, Bawls, Petals around the rose, Rands