User talk:Seraphimblade - Misplaced Pages

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Thanks!

Just a quick note. I had a rough lesson a few years ago when I made the mistake of trying to edit a page that mentioned my company (won't do THAT again :). Anyhow it has been a few years and I have been moved to edit again. This time it's a page on a drug that seemed biased to me compared to the other research I was doing.. Anyway I have summoned up the courage to do some edits (gulp!) and would appreciate any help or guidance you have to offer as I go. I want to be very careful and conscientious. I actually have no real medical expertise but in checking the sources it seems that many of them have been very selective regarding the insights they have decided to bring into the article. Every positive statement about the drug is "balanced" with doubts and concerns, leaving an overall impression about the drug that seems extremely negative compared to descriptions from reputable sources like the NIH and NIMH which feel more balanced to me, especially for a drug that has been approved and actively prescribed for 40 years or so for ADHD. I have no idea of why someone would want to skew the article but I suppose there might be all kinds of possible reasons. Anyhow I am contacting you here for two reasons.

1. I have always remembered your kindness to me when I was new and felt attacked here. I wanted to let you know that this is the primary reason I decided to step up and do some editing when I perceived a bias and had concerns.

2. If you have time I would appreciate some light guidance as I proceed to edit this page. I am still new to editing and don't want to make mistakes, especially since I have zero expertise in this area, although I am not a completely disinterested party (This started because I want to evaluate the drug which was prescribed for my son).

Dgray xplane (talk) 01:15, 24 November 2011 (UTC)

Glad you decided to come around and do a bit of editing! Looking at the sources is, of course, the best way to edit an article. I also see you've been going over it on the talk page, which is generally a good idea as well.

That being said, I'm not sure the sentence the way it's worded is necessarily a good one for the lead paragraph, especially since one of the sources (source 1) explicitly contradicts it, and says users are more prone to cocaine addiction, and that if used in a similar manner to cocaine (snorting/injection) it is indeed just as addictive. Other sources seem to think it is not as much so. When there are conflicting sources like that, it's best to give the issue a more in-depth treatment in the body of the article, where the subject can be given treatment by summarizing either side without taking a particular one. If you can get your hands on the NIMH study that's frequently referenced by other sources, I think that would be very helpful indeed. I don't know offhand how reputable the journals published by source 3 are, but it is a for-profit and explicitly appeals to "marketers" on its website, so I'd tend to take it with a dose of salt. (Luckily, the worst effect of said salt dosage is a healthy sense of skepticism). The article is in pretty poor shape though, and could certainly use some copyediting for flow and tone. As it stands now, it really seems to jump all over the place. I'd work at fixing that first, and once it's in good order as far as its flow and organization goes, you'll often find it's much easier to find a good way to add in additional concepts. That's especially difficult on controversial subjects when you have dueling sources, of course, but since it's a subject that I'm sure you've checked into thoroughly due to your own circumstances, might be worth doing. Seraphimblade 08:17, 24 November 2011 (UTC)

Thanks! What you're suggesting (working on the overall flow) will entail much more significant edits than I was thinking of. Is there a set of guidelines for the general flow of an article about a drug? For example, should it start with a general description of its beneficial effects and possible abuses, or maybe its chemical composition? Or do you know how I might find a "well-written" drug article that I could use as a model? Thanks so much for your help! Dgray xplane (talk) 16:46, 24 November 2011 (UTC)

Bupropion, better known as Wellbutrin, has achieved featured article status, so you may want to look at that as a model. You can also check the manual of style in general, though admittedly, it can be a bit dense reading. You also might want to ask for some help from WikiProject Chemistry and/or WikiProject Medicine, they probably have more experience with this type of article in particular than I do (and could help with both parts of it, the sections on the chemical as relates to its chemical properties, and as relates to its medical uses). Seraphimblade 18:26, 24 November 2011 (UTC)

November copy edit drive

Greetings from the Guild of Copy Editors Backlog Elimination Drive!

The Misplaced Pages Guild of Copy-Editors invites you to participate in the November 2010 Backlog Elimination Drive, a month-long effort to reduce the backlog of articles that require copy-editing. The drive will begin on 1 November at 00:00 (UTC) and will end on 30 November at 23:59 (UTC). The goal for this drive is to reduce the backlog by 10% (approximately 500 articles). We hope to focus our efforts on the oldest three months (January, February, and March 2009) and the newest three months (September, October, and November 2010) of articles in the queue.

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Thank you; we look forward to meeting you on the drive!
— The Utahraptor /_{Contributions}, S Masters (talk), and Diannaa