h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Entry: On the Importance of Language - A10936668
Author: Lucas Brown - U3193115

Ok, my first entry, so be kind.
Writing 2 years ago… so for a 25 year old… a long time ago.

Not at all punchy or amusing, which is my preferred style, but I think it is good none the less.

Most likely has a number of mistakes a haven’t picked up… so all corrections are welcome.

Thnx
Lucas

Yikes... thats what i get for turning on the auto spellchecker.

Ello. I haven't had a chance to read this yet but have a little request:

Could you temporarily remove the 'Bibliography'? The links are making the entry a bit 'widescreeeeeeen' and tricky to read!



Looks like an interesting subject.

sure thing

That's better.

Cor, interesting! I was initially a bit daunted by the length of the entry but it reads marvellously.

I have a couple of suggestions:

How about amending the second paragraph so that instead of:

'This essay will explain the issue of Loss of language and its impact on indigenous groups and their culture. The focus group will be the Australian Aboriginal and the Torres Strait Islander (ATSI), with comparisons drawn between the Maori of New Zealand and the and First Peoples of Canada, the Métis, Indian and Inuit whose history has great similarity with the ATSI.'

you say something like:

'To explain the issue of loss of language, and its impact on indigenous groups and their culture, let's use the example of the Australian Aboriginal and the Torres Strait Islander (ATSI).'

I think the comparisons further into the piece speak for themselves.

Also, the title could be more descriptive. Not sure what else to use though!

'Language and aboriginal culture'? (the small 'a' is deliberate!)

There are some typos and formatting things but they're not important at this stage.

An informative read about an interesting issue. Nice one, and welcome to the Guide.

Thnx for the feed back.. i will change that paragraph.
Originally, the essay was to be judged on style and content, so it was important to spell it out for the markers. Such strict criteria markers are no longer necessary. I never liked the formal essay structure much, but sometimes, you just have to suck it up.

Yeah, the title was what now appears as the first paragraph… A bit long i thought, so i just added "On the importance..." bit. I think your right; something more specific will help the reader out.

that's a fascinating piece of work it doesn't actually feel long at all when you're reading it.

I'd remove the references to the works you have referenced () in the body of the text, too. I don't think I've seen a Guide Entry contain them before (but then,there's always a first time)

[example: Today only half of this number has survived in any given form, with only twenty languages in common use, the largest community being the Yolugu tribe of north east Arnhem Land, with nearly six thousand speakers. (Schmidt, 1990, 145)]

I think it reads easier without them.

You also have some quotes in there - which will need to be changed from double to single quotes to fit in with house style (you can see more details here <./>SubEditors-Style</.>

Finally, I think a change of title might be in order? Since you're not covering languages like Welsh, or Gaelic for example, this entry seems quite specific to the indigenous languages of Australia.

Of course, this is just my opinion.

But it's an excellent entry for the guide so

Sho - there was a bibliography with links at the bottom but it was strecthing the page. Shouldn't be a problem if the entries changed to GuideML but I think it's early days for that sort of thing!

Clap clap for me

Thnx a heap

Will del the refs

The title has been giving me some trouble. For now Ill change it to something simple and to the point.

The biblio was messing with the page layout… any ideas on how to trim them URL's down to fit nicely... just manually/?

no idea about the URLs, I only meant the references in brackets - and only because they distracted me. Other readers might like to have them in...

although,if you could find online references for those parts, that would be even better (oh, I love links)

That would have been a simulpost!

For the moment I'd leave the biblio: at some point you should change the entry to Guide ML (I'll dig out a link in a minute) which will allow formatting and, more relevantly, linking like HTML, so the only thing shown on the page is a word and the link is'hidden' underneath.

I see another post has arrived while i typed this one so sorry for any duplication!

Well.. yeah.. i have all the links in the biblio... just might need a bit of help putting them up. Havent tried anything like that here.. is it HTML code sort of thing?

It would be nice to have the links there for the reader.

lol.. yeah.. u guys are quick... I keep getting my questions answered a second before i post them :D

You could pop the references in as footnotes, but too many footnotes can be a pain. Bit of a contentious issue!

A GuideML link: A395552

The Subeditors can change an entry to GuideML but it'll be helpful for them if you could do it. It's nowhere near as daunting as it seems, and will help you add headers (breaking the entry up with headers would make it easier on the eye).

Quick? It's more down to not having a life...

Thnx.. ill get on that.

Always up for small techy challenges

sorry, my brain isn't working

I didn't see the links but I'm guessing what you want is how to make a link look like the underlined word, which is clickable?
(tell me if I'm teaching my grandmother to suck eggs here)

you can use the nifty references function for you bibliography

like this:

at the bottom of the entry (between the and the tags put



then come the links

(the " are vital, don't forget them)
then type in the text you want to reference - these are the words which will appear underlined
close the tag

when you have all your links in close the reference tag



you can cut&paste this and then just put in the urls if you like

oh my, sorry, that looks like gobbledegook!

I forgot about the references tag! 'Tis frightfully handy, but the entry needs to be in GuideML first.