I thought I'd post my draft article for the Wikipedia part of our project here (attached Word document) for any feedback, ideas, etc. At this point, I'm thinking of having this be a new article on the interplay of racial/labor issues among the waterfront workers in New Orleans at the turn of the 20th century. It might be referenced on another page on New Orleans or Louisiana labor history with a quick blurb and a link to this separate article, or maybe something different depending on how the Wikipedia people think it might work best.

I think I'll likely have to cut down some of the footnote references/citations to a more general form, maybe combining some of them. Ideas on this are very welcome.

EDIT: Per Stephen's comment below, I've put the text of the draft here at DraftTextOfRitaTrivediWikipediaProjectWork

-- RitaTrivedi - 31 Oct 2011

I haven't fully read your draft yet, Rita. But I think if you put this up in non-doc format (or at least not docx), it'd be easier to get input.

Just looking to the size though, I'm wondering how big others' projects are looking. At 3,500 words and 60 footnotes, this seems an intimidating amount of work: both for me in creating my draft and for me as your reader. As I'm throwing together my outline, I'm wondering where to draw that line between detail and simplification.

-- StephenSevero - 01 Nov 2011

Thanks for the comment Stephen, I appreciate it. Yes, the length is something that I've been thinking about as well. Looking at existing Wikipedia articles on other subjects in labor, there is quite a range. At the same time, I worry about potentially short-changing the interested reader who might be using Wikipedia as a starting point to understand the scope and the issues in play. Particularly as I haven't found other related articles to my topic that I could reference and then link to, the balance is (as you say) a tricky one. I'm taking another pass through it to see what might be recombined or otherwise edited.

I'll also see if I can get the draft up on a linked page to this one in text format.

-- RitaTrivedi - 01 Nov 2011

• Dockworkers_article_for_Wikipedia.docx: Rita Trivedi's draft Wikipedia article re New Orleans waterfront workers, race, and labor