Wikipedia is a tertiary source - it summarizes secondary sources.
Wikipedia is fundamentally conservative - it does not report NEW research or ground-breaking discoveries. It is not cutting edge. Everything in Wikipedia has already been reported/published elsewhere first.
Verifiability, not truth: Wikipedia aims to report what has been published about a topic, not what is true.
Part 3: Editing skills
Prologue: Demonstrate WHERE TO FIND HELP
Sandbox
Create a SANDBOX
Add some text (lipsum.com) - 10 paragraphs
Preview
Edit Summary
Headers and signing
Add HEADERS (level 2 and level 3) to organize articles
Preview
TOC generated automatically after 4 headings added
Edit Summary
Headers on TALK PAGES, also
Use of talk pages…
Leave message and SIGN NAME
Sections and lists
Editing Page vs. Editing Section
Edit section - make a list with 1 "enter" keystroke between items
Preview - not a list - because of LINE BREAKS
Edit - with 2 "enter" keystrokes
Preview - looks good
Edit Summary
Turn that list into a BULLETED LIST
Preview
Remove extra spaces between some items to demonstrate
Change bullets to NUMBERED LIST
Edit Summary
Links
Link to another Wiki page
Preview - link displays blue
Make a typo in the Wiki page name
Preview - link displays in red
Fix the typo
Edit Summary
Create EXTERNAL LINKS section at bottom (level 2 heading)
Add a URL, no brackets
Preview - see URL displayed
Beneath that, add a URL in brackets with a label
Preview - see label displayed
Edit Summary
References
Create a REFERENCES section above External Links section
Add <references/> tag
Preview - can't see the tag
Go into text and make up a reference
<ref>Reference details go here</ref>
Preview - see "1" inline and listed in Reference section
Edit Summary
Shortcut for code and style: reference TEMPLATE
My Preferences >> Gadgets >> Editing gadgets >> refTools >> Save
In WYSIWYG editor, demo "Cite" tab
History
Click "View History"
Displays a list of the Edit Summaries - that's why they're valuable