About me:


I'm female, born in 1955, and live in the U.S.

I have a degree in English and History from Duke University.

Among other things, I have been a professional editor for over 17 years, in New York City (1985–1992) and in San Francisco (1992–2001). Editing in all fields: journalism, nonfiction, textbooks, medical, legal, fact-checking, copyediting, proofreading, etc.

I started editing Wikipedia in mid 2006, and created an account in early 2007.




Invaluable resources for researchers:

BookFinder.com

AddAll.com

On those sites you can find any book, and at the very cheapest prices.


How to create a category

Let us say you have thought of a new category you want to place some articles in. To create this new category, go to one of the pages that you wish to put there, and add a category tag naming the new category to the end of the article, like this:

[[Category:Category name]]

...where in place of category name you type the actual name of the category. When you save the page, the category should appear on the bottom line of the page. If it is indeed a new category, it will turn up in red. But this does not mean there is no such category: it might exist but with a slight difference in naming. Before you create a new category, make sure it does not already exist. In a new browser window, click on Special pages in the toolbox menu on the left side of your screen. Then click on All pages. Pick Category from the Namespace dropdown menu, and then enter the name of the category. Look over the index for synonymous categories.

Once you are sure your new name is good to go: Click on the redlink, and then click on the article creation link provided in the instructions that appear on your screen.

You will need to put a parent category on the new page, and then save the page. Going forward you can put your newly named category at the bottom of pages that you wish to add your new category to. Categories with too few pages in them are usually nominated for deletion.

To add this auto-updating template to your user page, use {{totd}}

To add an invitation to WP:The Wikipedia Adventure to someone's talkpage, use {{subst:Wikipedia:TWA/Invite|signature=~~~~}}

Wikipedia:The Wikipedia Library

Wikipedia:Twinkle


WP:Advanced source searching

  1. WP:MEDRS about referencing
  2. WP:MEDMOS about language usage and ordering of sections
  3. WP:MEDHOW about formatting refs



Tip of the day/July 18


Cricket (musical)

Exploring Music

Bill McGlaughlin

Saint Paul Sunday

Compositions by Bill McGlaughlin

Gianna Rolandi

Metropolitan Opera radio broadcasts

Cosmopolitan (film)

Leon Jessel

Hans Brinker

The Nasty Bits


Barnstars

edit
BARNSTARS (click to view)
  The Music Barnstar
For contributions to articles pertaining to music and the arts, I award Softlavender the "Music Barnstar" --Jh12 (talk) 00:49, 27 September 2009 (UTC)
  The Editor's Barnstar
Good work on sourcing content for Father Damien. Viriditas (talk) 03:52, 9 March 2012 (UTC)
  The Original Barnstar
For helping me improve Diane Harper, I award you this barnstar. Jinkinson (talk) 16:44, 20 September 2013 (UTC)
  The Article Rescue Barnstar
Thank you for your great work on Luke Barnett. A fine example for us all on how to fix an article up for deletion! Peter in Australia aka Shirt58 (talk) 13:43, 3 October 2013 (UTC)
  The Civility Barnstar
Thank you for your support of me during a recent situation regarding another editor. I really appreciate it, Daniellagreen (talk) (cont) 00:11, 12 July 2014 (UTC)
  The Original Barnstar
Just because I admire your continuing excellent contribution. — | Gareth Griffith-Jones |The WelshBuzzard| — 19:44, 12 December 2014 (UTC)

The Sorcerer's Apprentice
Thank you, soft professional editor with a user page full of help, for quality articles on music and theatre, such as The Sorcerer's Apprentice, Jack Lowden and the list of compositions by Bill McGlaughlin, for redirects and a firm focus on improving, - you are an awesome Wikipedian!

--Gerda Arendt (talk) 09:11, 13 January 2015 (UTC)

  The Writer's Barnstar
Thanks for the "education" on possessives on the JC Superstar page! As I am NOT a professional, it was good to learn something new. Is there a resource you could recommend on these kind of issues? Thanks again! THX1136 (talk) 15:30, 25 February 2015 (UTC)
  The Original Barnstar
This barnstar is awarded to recognize particularly fine contributions to Wikipedia, to let people know that their hard work is seen and appreciated. Hafspajen (talk) 14:46, 4 November 2015 (UTC)
  The Copyeditor's Barnstar
For contributions "above and beyond ..." on Champagne Charlie (1944 film). FWiW Bzuk (talk) 21:32, 22 November 2015 (UTC)

Precious again, your musical rescue work on Bach's cello suites
--Gerda Arendt (talk) 08:02, 23 November 2015 (UTC)

  The Defender of the Wiki Barnstar
for your diligent efforts to find resolution in the Winkelvi ANI, a thankless task performed well and in the face of much heat and antagonism. Figureofnine (talkcontribs) 14:36, 26 March 2017 (UTC)
 
 
 
Softlavender
Scenic Lavender Field
 
Editor of the Week
for the week beginning May 27, 2017
A hard-at-work 10+ year veteran with over 60,000 edits. 82 articles created. Her excellent diplomatic skills are a true example of the type of editor that is the backbone of this encyclopedia.
Recognized for
Outstanding negotiating and mediation skills
Notable work(s)
Creating and maintaining articles over a wide range of topics.
Nomination page


On 3 June 2023, Did you know was updated with a fact from the article Plas Dinas, which you recently created, substantially expanded, or brought to good article status. The fact was ... that Lord Snowdon and Princess Margaret spent much time at his family's Welsh country mansion Plas Dinas, but after his father's death the estate went to Snowdon's younger half-brother? The nomination discussion and review may be seen at Template:Did you know nominations/Plas Dinas. You are welcome to check how many pageviews the nominated article or articles got while on the front page (here's how, Plas Dinas), and the hook may be added to the statistics page after its run on the Main Page has completed. Finally, if you know of an interesting fact from another recently created article, then please feel free to suggest it on the Did you know talk page.

 

Tip of the day

/test


To delete old userpages: {{db-g7}}

User:Dispenser/Reflinks


Wikipedia:WikiProject Films/Style guidelines

Wikipedia:WikiProject Films


Wikipedia:Your first article

/tutorials

Stuff to look at later:

To reply, this is how it should go:

Original post "What cars do you like?"

First reply "I like Volkswagens!"
Reply #1 to first reply "I think Volkswagens are stupid.."
Reply to reply #1 to first reply "No, they're great!"
Reply #2 to first reply "Me too!"
Second reply "I like Hyundai!"
Reply #1 to second reply "I think Hyundai cars break down easy"
Reply number three "I like Honda!"
Reply number four "I like Saab"

Of course those would all use ~~~~ after them to sign