User:Ederchil/Sandbox: Difference between revisions

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====Key====
====Key====
;Main works
* S = ''[[The Silmarillion]]''
* S = ''[[The Silmarillion]]''
* H = ''[[The Hobbit]]''
* H = ''[[The Hobbit]]''
* UT = ''[[Unfinished Tales]]''
* UT = ''[[Unfinished Tales]]''
* FR = ''[[The Fellowship of the Ring]]''
* FR = ''[[The Fellowship of the Ring]]''
* TT = ''[[The Two Towers]]''
* TT = ''[[The Two Towers]]''
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** AE = ''[[Appendix E]]''
** AE = ''[[Appendix E]]''
** AF = ''[[Appendix F]]''
** AF = ''[[Appendix F]]''
 
;[[The History of Middle-earth]]
# LT1 = ''[[The Book of Lost Tales 1]]''
# LT1 = ''[[The Book of Lost Tales 1]]''
# LT2 = ''[[The Book of Lost Tales 2]]''
# LT2 = ''[[The Book of Lost Tales 2]]''
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# PM = ''[[The Peoples of Middle-earth]]''
# PM = ''[[The Peoples of Middle-earth]]''
# IX =  ''[[The History of Middle-earth Index|Index]]''
# IX =  ''[[The History of Middle-earth Index|Index]]''
;[[The History of The Hobbit]]
# MB = ''[[Mr. Baggins]]''
# RB = ''[[Return to Bag End]]''


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Revision as of 14:32, 22 February 2009

This is a test page by User:Ederchil. It is currently a WiP for "Help: References".

References are the cornerstone of any serious encyclopedia. Though much of our old content remains without references, Tolkien Gateway wishes to properly credit its facts. This way, fanon and overinterpretation can be properly identified as such, and omitted.

General notices

Reliable sources

See also: Canon

As to what counts as a reliable source, in the tightest sense it is simple: primary material. From there, we have secondary and "semi-secondary".

Semi-secondary

Semi-secondary, as we call it for the sake of convenience, are texts by Tolkien that are about Middle-earth; these could be The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien, but also material published in Vinyar Tengwar or Parma Eldalamberon. For the state of canon of The History of Middle-earth, see Tolkien Gateway: Canon.

Secondary

Secondary texts are texts about Tolkien's work by other authors. We have a short rule for it: if they cite primary, we cite primary, and if they come up with original research, we cite them.

Sources to avoid

We'd rather not use the following sources:

Note: Needs some more. WaW? Some-guy-with-a-website/blog credibility?

Common Knowledge

There are, of course, things that do not need to be cited. These things are common knowledge. J.R.R. Tolkien is the author of most of the books here. No need to mention it, or cite it, in the text. Bilbo Baggins was a Hobbit. Old English was the language of what is now called England, around 600 AD. The Shire is located in Eriador, in the north-west of Middle-earth. If it needs to be explained every time that "J.R.R. Tolkien, the author of The Lord of the Rings, stated that so and so", it really takes out the flow of the text, and treats our readers as a bunch of imbeciles to boot.

Neutral point of view

Referencing and Sourcing

There are two ways to cite your sources: precise and not precise (we leave out "not at all" here). All references should be in a subsection, named "References". These go below all else, except for "External links".

Not precise

If an article only has one source, for example, Iorlas and Buldar, there is no need for extensive notes. The source can simply be bulleted. This method can can also be used when several chapters from the same book are quoted; not until secondary material is added the following method is necessary

Precise

A must on longer articles with multiple sources, including secondary sources (notes by Tolkien, analyses from scholars, information from The History of Middle-earth). Like most wiki-based encyclopedia's, Tolkien Gateway uses the Cite/Cite extension. A short how-to:

With this method, sources are cited within the text. They appear wherever you type {{references}}.

This is the text you type.<ref>And this is the source</ref>

Plain and simple. The text in between the <ref>-tags appears in the References section. These tags can be named for reuse:

This is the text you type.<ref name="One">And this is source number one</ref>
Then, you use something with another source,<ref>Like this one</ref>,
before returning to the first one.<ref name="One"/>

These tags should be given sensible but short names; for example, "Mutton" for "Roast Mutton", "FotN" for "Of the Flight of the Noldor" or "L131" for Letter 131.

Citation

About pagenumbers

As there are many different editions and translations of Tolkien's work, including page numbers is not very accurate: for example, page references in the Index of The Return of the King do not match with every edition of the other two volumes; sometimes the difference is as much as ten pages. The name of the chapter suits better, as it also provides a clearer picture of the position of the quote in the story. No-one knows off the top of his head what happened on page 208.

About notes

When a fact is stated in a note to the text, this can be cited: note numbers are always the same (except in the case of The Annotated Hobbit). Please bear in mind that some chapters in The History of Middle-earth have multiple note sections.

Quickcite

Usage

<ref name="Chapter title">{{HM|}}, "Chapter title"</ref>

Key

Main works
The History of Middle-earth
  1. LT1 = The Book of Lost Tales 1
  2. LT2 = The Book of Lost Tales 2
  3. LB = The Lays of Beleriand
  4. SM = The Shaping of Middle-earth
  5. LR = The Lost Road and Other Writings
  6. RS = The Return of the Shadow
  7. TI = The Treason of Isengard
  8. WR = The War of the Ring
  9. SD = Sauron Defeated
  10. MR = Morgoth's Ring
  11. WJ = The War of the Jewels
  12. PM = The Peoples of Middle-earth
  13. IX = Index
The History of The Hobbit
  1. MB = Mr. Baggins
  2. RB = Return to Bag End

Forged into Help page unto here. Note: Won't forge the rest until Hyarion gets the ME-cite template, or something equivalent.


The Letters

Semisecondary

"Nomenclature"

Note: Because the printed text in Lobdell (ed.) A Tolkien Compass, 1st edn. is no longer freely available, I vote for only referencing to this occurance of the source.

Other semi-secondary material by Tolkien

Note: This method applies to ALL magazine articles.

Websites

Author/Editor websites

"Institute" websites

Documentaries

Note: I haven't got a clue how to do this properly. Oh, and in the light of renaming every adaptation, that seems to be the EE's official name.
Update note: added year, DVD first.

Adaptations

Films

  • Film, "Scene"

Radio series

  • Series, "Episode"

Games

  • Game , "Level"
Update note: the 1981 series should be referenced by 26 episodes as broadcast, not 13 as published.