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

Hiya,

You said to pop by and drop you a line about writing entries for PR, so I thought I would .

I'm a car nut and a history nut, so I was contemplating writing a number of entries on the history of the British Car Industry - probably focussing on the larger players like Rover, Jaguar, Austin, Morris etc and maybe covering the site histories, too, as each site has a varied history.

The thing that puts me off is a) the scale and b) how to set it out, and even c) where to start. Someone else's objective view would be very useful .

BTW, I like York as a place - me and my husband spent a day there while we were on honeymoon. The Romans and Vikings fascinate me, too! Have you been inside York Minster yet - it's well worth going into the undercrofts to see all the different layers on the site.

I live in Leamington Spa, so I'm not too far away from Solihull, either .

That's probably a massive essay, so I'd better go (being naughty and hootooing at w*rk - home 'net access is off at the moment as our PC has died).

See you round,

Lins

Good morning!

First things first - take a look at Writing-Beginners and the links on there, especially the Writing Guidelines. That should give you an idea.

Secondly, do a search on your proposed topic (UK car manufacturing sound good to me!) - if there are no edited entries on it already, or if there are but they don't overlap with what you're planning, then you're good to go.

Next you need to collate your information and plan the entries. If you're thinking about doing multiple entries (it has to be 5 or more you could do it as a University project, which will also get you a badge for your PS. Then obviously you write them. Preferably on a wword processor then copy and paste into h2g2, otherwise it's easier to miss typos.

I would suggest that a good structure might be:

a) Introduction - perhaps a few brief lines about the invention of the car, it's poluarity leading to plants being set up? You could use the same one in each entry.
b)History of the company, probably split into subheaders - formation, early history, later history, whether it still exists etc.
c)Famous models (of the car )
d) History of the site

If you wanted, as well entries about the cars makes, you could also do a general entry, to link it together, about the history of British car manufacturing.

Hope all this helps, feel free to ask if you need anything else!

Yay! A midlander! I haven't been inside the Minster but hopefiully I will at Christmas!

Thanks , that helps a lot.

The main problems with doing this is that the car industry in this country is pretty incestuous, and although there are definite makes, their history is best described as extremely tangled . I'm putting together a working outline, and I reckon there could be 7 entries in this altogether , including an overview one. Only Land Rover appears to be covered on hootoo, so that gives me a lot of ground to cover!

Do you mind if I run the outline past you - I could do with a second opinion as to whether or not it's logical!

I use Notepad as it's easier to write GuideML in Notepad - Word does odd things to the notation sometimes .

I've lived in the Midlands for 4 years; I moved here when I finished uni and started work. Originally I'm from Rotherham, in South Yorkshire, but I'm going to be in the Midlands for the foreseeable future .

I can imagine the Minster will be a pretty special place at Christmas - they do a student discount for admission, too!

I know, but you still have to pay to get in - hopefully Mom and Dad will pay for me...

I'd be happy to hear your plan!

One advantage of being a student! It all stops once you get a job, I'm afraid .

I reconsidered my plan, and to cover the majority of the UK's car industry, the minimum entries would have to be:

Overview of car manufacturing and design's beginnings in the UK
Aston Martin
British Motor Corporation (BMC)
British Leyland (BL)
Jaguar
Rolls-Royce and Bentley
Rover
Rootes Group
Vauxhall

(I can't believe that's 9 entries )

I'm undecided as to whether or not to include entries on the smaller, niche manufacturers like Lotus, TVR and Morgan; I think they should be done for completeness, but they're not as mainstream as most of the rest. And I have a similar dilemma regarding kit-car manufacturers like Westfield and Caterham

BMC and BL could almost be one entry, as BMC was turned into BL through some mergers; but I need to think about that. There's an awful lot of political and social history bound up with BL during the 1970s which would be an integral part of the entry.

Each entry would cover the make's beginnings, the founders, the progression through time, any famous vehicles, and the status today or their ending.

I'm also going to contact the writer of the entry on Land Rovers to see if they're willing to let it be contributed to this. As Land Rover are getting bigger these days, I can't miss them off the list.

I'm thinking of submitting this as a university project; just not sure which School it would come under, though.

That sounds great! You can't have existing edited entries as part of a new project though, so unless the Land Rover entry is unedited, you'll have to leave it.

As for which school to put it in, I'm not sure either. I'd be inclined to say history, but you might be best asking the italics.

I've decided to make it a proper project, as it's something I've been thinking about for a long time. I've put it in Engineering (I'm an engineer and I work on cars!), but I've asked the Italics anyway.

The Land Rover entry is unedited, so we'll have to wait and see what the author says . I may ask the Italics about this one, too.

Great! If the authr agrees, that would be great. Is it arranged in the same sort of format you want, or would you want to change it?

Yeah, the Land Rover entry looks good - at least Ekki is still online, if they'd elvised there might be problems.

If you do include the Land Rover entry, link to my entry on Solihull!

No worries - it's hard to mention Land Rover without Solihull, anyway . The two are definitely linked in most people's minds! As it happens, Solihull was also used as Rover's production site during the 1970s, so it'll still get linked to when I do Rover .

I probably wouldn't change the Land Rover entry all that much, to be honest. Hopefully Ekki will get back to me and let me know.

BTW, I like the term "Elvised" .

I should probably get back to what I'm paid to do, rather than playing on here! Have to admit if I'd found hootoo at uni, I would never have done any work .

I only wish "elvised" was my invention...

I have been spending too much time on here since I started uni.

I just added your name to my friends list without your permission (I hope you don't mind). I don't go to uni any more

No problem, of course I don't mind! But thanks for asking.

Rains - have you heard back from Ekki yet?

Rains? You about?

Hiya!

Sorry, I was offline over Christmas - our home PC gave up the ghost at the start of December. I had three weeks of holiday to take, so I've been offline and without the internet for three weeks .

Our new laptop arrives Friday so I hope to be able to be online and not at w*rk soon . I did some scribbling for the entries, but haven't been able to get much further . The wonders of technology!

Hope you had a good Christmas and New Year, anyway .

I did, thanks, did you? Apart from no internet access?

There's no rush for the entries, take your time!

Yes, I had a lovely break, thanks - I wrote a journal entry going through it on my PS. It sounds really hectic but was actually relaxing - even the bit where we redecorated the kitchen.

Well then, I'll have to stick you in my friends list so I know when you've written journal entries. That ok?