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Wikijunior:United States Charters of Freedom/Declaration of Independence

Before the United States of America became its own country, it was made up of thirteen colonies (later to become the first thirteen U.S. states) that were part of the British Empire. On July 4, 1776, a group of people representing the interests of the various colonies (known as the Continental Congress) agreed to a joint statement known as the Declaration of Independence in which they declared the colonies to be free and independent states and explained their justifications for doing so. The anniversary of this declaration is now celebrated as Independence Day in the United States.

A handwritten copy of the Declaration of Independence signed by the members of the Continental Congress is on display in the National Archives in Washington, D.C. It was the first of the three main Charters of Freedom, along with the ../Constitution/ and the ../Bill of Rights/.

Background
During the 1750s and 1760s, relations between Great Britain and thirteen British colonies along the eastern shore of North America became increasingly strained. Fighting broke out in 1775 at Lexington and Concord, marking the beginning of the American Revolutionary War. On January 10, 1776, Thomas Paine published (anonymously) a pamphlet titled Common Sense in which he outlined major problems with the British form of government (a constitutional monarchy) and several reasons the American colonies should separate themselves from Great Britain. Paine's pamphlet both reflected and influenced the growing anti-British sentiment in the colonies.

Draft and adoption
On June 11, 1776, a committee consisting of John Adams of Massachusetts, Benjamin Franklin of Pennsylvania, Thomas Jefferson of Virginia, Robert R. Livingston of New York, and Roger Sherman of Connecticut (known as the "Committee of Five"), was formed to draft a formal resolution declaring the colonists' intent. The committee decided that Jefferson — its youngest member and the youngest signer of the final Declaration — would write the first draft of the resolution. After Franklin and Adams made several minor corrections, Jefferson produced another copy. The committee presented this version to the Continental Congress on June 28, 1776.

Independence from Great Britain was declared on July 2, 1776. The full Declaration was rewritten somewhat in general session prior to its adoption by the Continental Congress on July 4, 1776, at the Pennsylvania State House (now known as Independence Hall). Word of the Declaration reached London the following month, on August 10.

Distribution and copies
After its adoption by Congress on July 4, 1776, a handwritten draft of the Declaration of Independence was signed by the President of Congress, John Hancock, and the secretary to Congress, Charles Thomson. It was sent a few blocks away to the printing shop of John Dunlap, who worked through the night to print 150 to 200 copies, now known as Dunlap broadsides. One of these was sent to George Washington on July 6, who had it read to his troops in New York on July 9. The 25 Dunlap broadsides still known to exist are the oldest surviving copies of the document.

On July 19, 1776, Congress ordered a copy be handwritten for the delegates to sign. This engrossed copy of the Declaration was produced by Timothy Matlack, assistant to the secretary of Congress. Most of the delegates signed it on August 2, 1776, in geographic order of their colonies from north to south, though some delegates were not present and had to sign later. Two delegates never signed at all. As new delegates joined the congress, they were also allowed to sign. A total of 56 delegates eventually signed.

The first and most famous signature on the engrossed copy was that of John Hancock of Massachusetts, President of the Continental Congress. Two future presidents, Thomas Jefferson and John Adams, were among the signatories. Edward Rutledge (age 26), was the youngest signer, and Benjamin Franklin (age 70) was the oldest signer.

In January 1777, Congress decided the Declaration should be more widely distributed. Printer Mary Katherine Goddard was commissioned to print a version containing the text and names of the signatories. Today, these copies are known as the "Goddard broadsides". Nine copies are known to still exist today.

In 1823, printer William J. Stone was commissioned by Secretary of State John Quincy Adams to create an engraving of the document essentially identical to the original. Stone's copy was made using a wet-ink transfer process, where the surface of the document was moistened, and some of the original ink transferred to the surface of a copper plate which was then etched so that copies could be run off the plate on a press. Because of poor conservation of the 1776 document through the 19th century, Stone's engraving, rather than the original which has largely faded, has become the basis of most modern reproductions.

Text and analysis
The text of the Declaration of Independence can be divided into five sections: the introduction, the preamble, the indictment of George III, the denunciation of the British people, and the conclusion. (Note that these five headings are not part of the text of the document.)

Introduction

 * In CONGRESS, July 4 1776
 * The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America,
 * When, in the Course of human Events, it becomes necessary for one People to dissolve the Political Bands which have connected them with another, and to assume, among the Powers of the Earth, the separate and equal Station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent Respect to the Opinions of Mankind requires that they should declare the Causes which impel them to the Separation.

In this section, the signers declare their independence from the British and prepare to state why they feel compelled to do so.

Preamble

 * We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed, by their Creator, with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness.
 * That to secure these Rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just Powers from the Consent of the Governed, that whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these Ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its Foundation on such Principles, and organizing its Powers in such Form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.
 * Prudence indeed, will dictate, that Governments long established, should not be changed for light and transient Causes; and accordingly all Experience hath shewn, that Mankind are more disposed to suffer, while Evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the Forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long Train of Abuses and Usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object, evinces a Design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their Right, it is their Duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future Security.

This section is presented as a syllogism, with one proposition leading to another proposition. From the first proposition (that all men are created equal), a chain of logic is produced that leads to the right and responsibility of revolution when a government becomes destructive of the people's rights.

Grievances

 * Such has been the patient Sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the Necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The History of the Present King of Great-Britain is a History of repeated Injuries and Usurpations, all having in direct Object the Establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let the Facts be submitted to a candid World.
 * He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public Good.
 * He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing Importance, unless suspended in their Operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.
 * He has refused to pass other Laws for the Accommodation of large Districts of People; unless those People would relinquish the Right of Representation in the Legislature, a Right inestimable to them, and formidable to Tyrants only.
 * He has called together Legislative Bodies at Places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the Depository of their public Records, for the sole Purpose of fatiguing them into Compliance with his Measures.
 * He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly Firmness his Invasions on the Rights of the People.
 * He has refused for a long Time, after such Dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative Powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the Dangers of Invasion from without, and Convulsions within.
 * He has endeavoured to prevent the Population of these States; for that Purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their Migrations hither, and raising the Conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.
 * He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers.
 * He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the Tenure of their Offices, and Amount and Payment of their Salaries.
 * He has erected a Multitude of new Offices, and sent hither Swarms of Officers to harass our People, and eat out their Substance.
 * He has kept among us, in Times of Peace, Standing Armies, without the consent of our Legislature.
 * He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power.
 * He has combined with others to subject us to a Jurisdiction foreign to our Constitution, and unacknowledged by our Laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislaton:
 * For quartering large Bodies of Armed Troops among us:
 * For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from Punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:
 * For cutting off our Trade with all Parts of the World:
 * For imposing taxes on us without our Consent:
 * For depriving us, in many Cases, of the Benefits of Trial by Jury:
 * For transporting us beyond the Seas to be tried for pretended Offences:
 * For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an arbitrary Government, and enlarging its Boundaries, so as to render it at once an Example and fit Instrument for introducing the same absolute Rule in these Colonies:
 * For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:
 * For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with Powers to legislate for us in all Cases whatsoever.
 * He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.
 * He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our Towns, and destroyed the Lives of our People.
 * He is, at this Time, transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to complete the Works of Death, Desolation, and Tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty and Perfidy, scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous Ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized Nation.
 * He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the Executioners of their Friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.
 * He has excited domestic Insurrections among us, and has endeavoured to bring on the Inhabitants of our Frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known Rule of Warfare, is an undistinguished Destruction, of all Ages, Sexes and Conditions.
 * In every stage of these Oppressions we have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble Terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated Injury. A Prince, whose Character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the Ruler of a free People.

In this section, the signers then list 27 grievances against the British Crown. The grievances are directed personally at the King (as in "He has refused his Assent to Laws..."), although many of them refer to actions taken by the British Parliament or the Royal Governors. Many of the grievances are examples of violations of fundamental English law, such as "imposing taxes on us without our Consent", and "depriving us, in many Cases, of the Benefits of Trial by Jury". Many historians maintain that some of the grievances are exaggerated propaganda (such as the "Swarms of Officers" in truth referring to about fifty men ordered to prevent smuggling).

Denunciation

 * Nor have we been wanting in Attentions to our British Brethren. We have warned them from Time to Time of Attempts by their Legislature to extend an unwarrantable Jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the Circumstances of our Emigration and Settlement here. We have appealed to their native Justice and Magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the Ties of our common Kindred to disavow these Usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our Connections and Correspondence. They too have been deaf to the Voice of Justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the Necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of Mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace, Friends.

This section is a message to King George III that the 13 colonies are no longer a part of the British Empire and that they do not want to have anything to do with the British.

Conclusion

 * We, therefore, the Representatives of the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, in GENERAL CONGRESS, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the World for the Rectitude of our Intentions, do, in the Name, and by the Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly Publish and Declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be, FREE AND INDEPENDENT STATES; that they are absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political Connection between them and the State of Great-Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as FREE AND INDEPENDENT STATES, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which INDEPENDENT STATES may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm Reliance on the Protection of the divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.

 * [New Hampshire:] Josiah Bartlett, William Whipple, Matthew Thornton
 * [Massachusetts:] Samuel Adams, John Adams, John Hancock, Robert Treat Paine, Elbridge Gerry
 * [Rhode Island:] Stephen Hopkins, William Ellery
 * [Connecticut:] Roger Sherman, Samuel Huntington, William Williams, Oliver Wolcott
 * [New York:] William Floyd, Philip Livingston, Francis Lewis, Lewis Morris
 * [New Jersey:] Richard Stockton, John Witherspoon, Francis Hopkinson, John Hart, Abraham Clark
 * [Pennsylvania:] Robert Morris, Benjamin Rush, Benjamin Franklin, John Morton, George Clymer, James Smith, George Taylor, James Wilson, George Ross
 * [Delaware:] Caesar Rodney, George Read, Thomas McKean
 * [Maryland:] Samuel Chase, William Paca, Thomas Stone, Charles Carroll of Carrollton
 * [Virginia:] George Wythe, Richard Henry Lee, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Harrison, Thomas Nelson, Jr., Francis Lightfoot Lee, Carter Braxton
 * [North Carolina:] William Hooper, Joseph Hewes, John Penn
 * [South Carolina:] Edward Rutledge, Thomas Heyward, Jr., Thomas Lynch, Jr., Arthur Middleton
 * [Georgia:] Button Gwinnett, Lyman Hall, George Walton

In this section, the signers assert that (since conditions exist under which people must change their government, and the British have produced such conditions) the colonies must necessarily throw off political ties with the British Crown and become independent states. The conclusion contains, at its core, the Lee Resolution that had been passed on July 2. The signatures have been listed here labeled with the states each group of delegates came from; this is not seen on the original Declaration.

Text on the back of the document
If you have watched the movie National Treasure, you may think a treasure map was written on the back of the Declaration of Independence. However, that is not true. Although there is something written on the back of the document, it is not a treasure map. Written on the back of the Declaration of Independence were the words "Original Declaration of Independence dated 4th July 1776". The text appears on the bottom of the document, upside down. While no one knows for certain who wrote it, it is known that early in its life, the large parchment document (it measures 29¾ inches by 24½ inches) was rolled up for storage. So, it is likely that the notation was added simply as a label.

Differences between draft and final versions
The Declaration went through three stages from conception to final adoption:
 * 1) Jefferson's original draft.
 * 2) Jefferson's draft with revisions from Benjamin Franklin and John Adams.
 * 3) The final version, which included changes made by the full Congress.

Jefferson's original draft included a denunciation of the slave trade ("He has waged cruel war against human nature itself, violating its most sacred rights of life & liberty in the persons of a distant people who never offended him, captivating & carrying them into slavery in another hemisphere, or to incur miserable death in their transportation thither."), which was later edited out by Congress, as was a lengthy criticism of the British people and parliament. According to Jefferson:
 * "The pusillanimous idea that we had friends in England worth keeping terms with, still haunted the minds of many. For this reason those passages which conveyed censures on the people of England were struck out, lest they should give them offense."

Myths
Several myths surround the document:
 * Because it is dated July 4, 1776, many people believe it was signed on that date—it was signed August 2 by most of the delegates.
 * An unfounded legend states that John Hancock signed his name so large that King George III would be able to read it without his spectacles. In point of fact, other examples of his signature indicate that he typically signed his name in this way.
 * Much like the previous, another myth states that John Hancock had bad eyesight himself and was therefore forced to sign his name large. This is, of course, not verified.
 * The famous painting by John Trumbull, which hangs in the grand Rotunda of the Capitol of the United States, is usually incorrectly described as the signing of the Declaration, when what it actually shows is the five-man drafting committee presenting their work. Trumbull depicts most of the eventual signers as being present on this occasion, but this gathering never took place. An image of the painting can be seen in an earlier section of this article.
 * The Liberty Bell was not rung to celebrate independence, but to call the local inhabitants to hear the reading of the document on July 8, and it certainly did not acquire its crack on so doing; that story comes from a children's book of fiction, Legends of the American Revolution, by George Lippard. The Liberty Bell was actually named in the early nineteenth century when it became a symbol of the anti-slavery movement.

Questions
Here are some questions to answer. If you are stumped, and need the answer, just click and drag your mouse over the space next to the question. The answer will show up. The answers to all the questions are located in this article.

 * 1) What led to the creation of this document? The American Revolutionary War
 * 2) On what day was independence declared? July, 2, 1776
 * 3) What was the name given to the first 150-200 copies of the Declaration of Independence? Dunlap broadsides
 * 4) How many Dunlap broadsides are still known to exist? 25
 * 5) On what day did most of the delegates sign the Declaration of Independence? August 2, 1776
 * 6) How many delegates signed the Declaration of Independence? 56
 * 7) How do we know how the Declaration of Independence looks like even though it faded heavily?  A printer named William J. Stone was commissioned to create an engraving of the document
 * 8) Which British king who was ruling over the 13 colonies when they declared independence? King George III
 * 9) Whose signature was the largest on the document? John Hancock's
 * 10) What was written on the back of the Declaration of Independence? Original Declaration of Independence dated 4th July 1776
 * 11) How many grievances against the British Crown were listed in the Indictment? 27
 * 12) Where does the painting by John Trumbull depicting the signing of the Declaration of Independence hang? The Rotunda of the Capitol

Source
Basically a junior version of the Wikipedia article.


text:
Wikijunior:United States Charters of Freedom

This page is for the Wikijunior United States Charters of Freedom project.

When working on this project, remember that it's aimed at children. It's more important to be understood than to be precisely accurate on every detail. Use technical vocabulary when you need to, but don't use big words where simpler language would work.

Important Documents

 * 1) /Declaration of Independence/
 * 2) /Constitution/
 * 3) /Bill of Rights/

Other Concepts

 * 1) /History of the Charters of Freedom/
 * 2) /National Archives and Records Administration/
 * 3) /Dunlap broadside/
 * 4) /Goddard broadside/
 * 5) /Syng inkstand/
 * 6) /Additional amendments to the United States Constitution/
 * 7) /Articles of Confederation/
 * 8) /Federalist Papers/
 * 9) /The 13 Colonies/
 * 10) /Freedom Train/
 * 11) /100 Milestone Documents/
 * 12) /Conserving the Charters of Freedom/

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/


text:
Talk:Ancient History/Egypt/Pharaohs

Pharaoh is misspelled in the title of this book. How does this get corrected? Does it need to be corrected?

 * You would use the "move" link (next to "history" and "edit" in the top bar. --hagindaz 01:56, 1 June 2006 (UTC)
 * Did I do that right? Andrew Watt 02:50, 1 June 2006 (UTC)

 * Yes, that's right. Ancient History/Egypt/Pharoahs turns into a redirect so any pages that linked there now go here. --hagindaz 02:53, 1 June 2006 (UTC)

title: Talk:Ancient History/Egypt/Pharaohs


text:
Composition

Welcome to the Composition Wikibook, where you can learn about the skills required for various kinds of composition writing and can practice planning, drafting, redrafting and proofreading compositions.

Things to remember before you get started
Writing should be seen as a process that involves several stages, from formulating your ideas through planning, drafting, redrafting and proofreading. An in depth guide to process writing is available at: Rhetoric and Composition Wikibook. The focus in this wikibook is on practical exercises to provide students with opportunities to apply the writing skills that they can learn about by following this and other links in the book.

Format
Be aware of the layout which you are expected to use when writing for different purposes. The layout of a formal letter to a newspaper will be very different from that of a postcard to your best friend.

Audience and Purpose
Make sure you have a good idea of who you are writing to/for and why. Are you trying to persuade, argue, inform, advise, or narrate a story? Are you writing to someone you know well or someone you have never met? Are you writing to someone in a position of authority, or as someone in a position of authority? To one person or many?

Plan
Plan. Decide on the main ideas that you want to include and the order in which they should be included. This can be done in the form of a list, but a mind-map may be more helpful. Traditional outlines work well for longer essays.

More about mind maps: Wikipedia Mind Map Article

Draft
Write a rough draft. Get your ideas down on paper (or onto your computer) as quickly as possible. Remember, at this stage your writing doesn't have to be perfect - so don't get stuck on how to form the ideal phrase.

It helps at this stage if you remember the golden rule of writing: KISS: "Keep it simple, stupid!"

The following guide is very useful for helping you to keep your writing clear, simple and to-the-point:

Plain English Guide

Review
Read through your work. Underline places where grammar or phrasing seems awkward, where you feel you could add more detail or description, or where you feel it would be more effective if you were more concise. While doing this, try to imagine that you are the person for whom the writing is intended. If you received this piece of writing in the post, saw it in a newspaper, or had to hear it being delivered as a speech, would it make sense to you? Would you respond positively to it?

Do you overuse any particular words or sentence patterns? Using a variety of linking phrases and sentence structures - i.e. simple, compound and complex sentences - will make your writing more varied and less boring.

These guides will help: Sentence Types Guide and Exercise

Sentence Types - Guide and Quiz Bonesaw

A thesaurus such as www.thesaurus.com can help you to avoid repeating words, but be careful that you are choosing alternative words that have the right tone and fit the context.

Organize
Ask yourself: is the writing coherent (does it make sense when you read it)? Does it have a beginning, a middle and a conclusion? Does each paragraph focus on one main idea, clearly marked by a topic sentence (the first sentence of the paragraph- it explains what the rest of the paragraph will be about) and the effective use of linking phrases? If it doesn't, fix it!

Redraft
Go through the parts of your work that you have underlined and rewrite them. You should do this as often as possible.

Proofread
Check for grammar and spelling mistakes. Sometimes it helps if you do this by working backwards from the bottom of your composition. That way, your attention on proofreading is less likely to be distracted by the flow of ideas.

Easy proofreading practice

Focused proofreading, looking for specific errors.

More advanced proofreading practice.

Editing Pages in this Wikibook
The sample compositions in this Wikibook are rough first drafts. They contain many errors and need to be extensively edited and enhanced. Please do not make changes to improve the first draft - but rather, do your editing work on the most recent draft on the screen. As many students may be working on these compositions at the same time, please edit by selecting the section you wish to edit and then clicking the edit icon on the right hand side of the screen directly above it. Please do not edit by selecting 'edit this page' at the top of the screen, as this will make it difficult for other people to work on the compositions at the same time as you.

Advice on Style
Keep your writing simple. Each sentence should contain one main idea. Sentences do not need to be long or complicated in order to do this.

Write complete sentences.

Avoid pretentious, silly language. Try not to use a long and difficult word when you can express the same idea more clearly with a short, easy word. Try not to use unusual, confusing metaphors.

Avoid biased, opinionative writing. Report objectively on events and let the facts speak for themselves.

Avoid the passive voice unless you have to use it.

Avoid obsequious, lengthy acknowledgments of advisors, teachers in charge of activities and so forth.

Avoid exaggerating or lying. Do not write simply for the sake of filling space. If there is very little to say about something, then say very little about it.

Avoid writing anything rude, offensive or vain.

Many of these ideas are taken from George Orwell's essay, Politics and the English Language - a must read for anyone interested in writing professionally. Read the essay here:

Here’s an example of bad style:

A touch of lipsticks, a pat of powder on our so beautiful faces, eyebrows plucked, hairs all in place. A final look into the mirror: perfect faces for the evening. Dressing in lavish, shimmering gowns, as beautiful as angels on the tops of Christmas trees, the F. 5 girls sallied forth into the Conrad International Hotel for the celebration of their magnificent schooldays. There was an air of excitement filling the air in addition to the scrumptious aroma of the exquisite selection on the buffet counter. It was the much anticipated Graduation Dinner.

Far better would be:

The F. 5 Graduation Dinner took place on Friday, 26 June in the Harbour View Ballroom of the Conrad International Hotel, where graduating students enjoyed a sumptuous buffet. The F. 5 girls wore formal evening gowns for the occasion, and also put a lot of effort into preparing their hair and make-up. Everyone looked splendid.

Another example:

The stamp-collecting club has as its aim and objective to promote interest in stamp-collecting. Although being the co-ordinator of stamp-collecting club has not been an easy task for me because of I had to organise many activities that related to stamp-collecting, but I learnt about leadership skills. This has been a very fruitful year for our club and all our members successfully collected stamps. I would like to thank my members for their eager stamp-collecting skills and my dearest vice-chairlady, secretary and PRO for their tireless efforts in trying to assist me in running this important activity. Also, we must express our sincere and heartfeltest gratitude to our teacher advisor, Mr. Terence Stamp. Without you our club would not have been so successful!!! We LOVE you, Mr. Stamp!

This would be far better:

This year has been very successful for the stamp-collecting club. We were able to attract more than 50 students to join the club, and our increased membership has made it possible for us to organize a wider range of activities than in previous years. Students particularly enjoyed the visit to the General Post Office in December and the talk on first-day covers by Mr. Wally Tang, the chairman of the Hong Kong Philately Society, in March. We are very grateful to Mr. Stamp for his help in organizing these activities.

Guidelines for Proofreading (First Draft)
(Please do not correct this version - work on the latest draft.)

Tips for Proofreading

Cross out of unnecessary words. Mark the position a missing word with an upside down letter y. Then write the missing word above symbol. Underline words which need to be changed. Then write the correct words above it. If a sentence is correct, write a tick beside it. Pay attention of mistakes like wrong prepositions as well as the watching out for unnecessary articles. Look out missing prepositions, too. One of the mistakes are likely to be subject-verb agreement. Next most common mistake is a missing article. You are also likely to notice of unnecessary prepositions. Is easy to spot missing pronouns and you should also spot The use of plural noun instead of singular nouns Or when the examiner had used the wrong tense. Try to read through the passage for several times. Each time you can focus at a different kind of mistake. Remember to make changes which change the meaning and that the passage should be logically inconsistent. Remember that because the proofreading task is at the end of the paper, you should never allow sufficient time to complete them.

Guidelines for Proofreading (Second Draft)
Tips for Proofreading

Omit unnecessary words. Mark the position of a missing word with an upside down letter v. Then write the missing word above the symbol. Underline words that need to be changed. Then write the correct words above. If a sentence is correct, write a tick at the end of it. Pay attention to mistakes like wrong prepositions as well as watching out for unnecessary articles. Look out for missing prepositions, too. One of the mistakes is likely to be subject-verb agreement. The most common mistake is a missing article. You are also likely to notice unnecessary prepositions. It is easy to spot missing pronouns and you should also spot the use of plural instead of singular nouns or when the examiner has used the wrong tense. Read through passages several times. Each time you can focus on different kinds of mistakes. Do not make changes that alter meaning. Passages should be logically consistent. Although proofreading occurs at the end of the paper, prepare appropriate time to complete it properly.

Planning
How would you turn these rough notes into compositions?

A Person I Admire

''Where can you find answers to these questions? How would you make sure that you present the information in your own words?'' Stephen Hawking - Scientist (what discoveries?) - Overcame disability (which one? how long? how severe?) - Background - where born? when? what did he study? family life? - Why I admire him: What we can learn from his example:

My Favourite Restaurant

''In what order should the points be made? How would you divide this into paragraphs? How can you use descrip[tion to make the place sound appealing?'' When I visited:  Service:   Atmosphere:  Name of restaurant:  Decoration:   Value for money? Who should go: Types of food:  Location:

Draft your answers here:

A Person I Admire: David Beckham
I admire David Beckham because he is very handsome and his football skills is (s/v agreement) very good!

As he gets older, he finds that his good looks can only carry him this far. Moving to LA to play football was a strange move, especially (spelling) since soccer is hardly a popular sport in the US. Was that a publicity move instead? Perhaps he and his skinny wife wants to get into Hollywood? Perhaps he should rely on his mean goal kicks...... In short, I admire (why past tense?) David Beckham. (is this conclusion just a repetition?)

''This makes a few interesting observations, but a lot is missing - an outline of his career and specific details about his achievements, for example. For a piece of writing on why you admire Beckham, it also seems rather negative!''

Newspaper Article (First Draft)
(Please do not correct this version - work on the latest draft.)

A Dog Jumped Into A Pool

On Friday 29 April there was swimming gala. All the students cheering for there house and singing school song when someone shouted that she can see a dog. And that dog jumped into the swimming pool. Then Mr. Jones was very brave he was the announcer for the swimming gala and he saw the dog swimming in the pool.

Immediately he didn’t think and he jumped into the water to rescue the dog. After that the dog was very afraid and bit him so he had to go to hospital. A doctor told us that Mr. Jones bit the dog and drank the water in the swimming pool. Mr Jonnes is lucky because the St John’s Ambulance workers could bring him out the pool. Or he would drown.That naughty dog ran away.

Also some students were chewing gum at the swimming gala. People who live near the park complained to the police because the cheering teams were very noisy.At last, Jupiter came first with 650 points. Yeah! Jupiter Forever!

Newspaper Article (Second Draft)
''This has fewer grammar mistakes, now, but does it have the right tone for a newspaper article? Is it unbiased and objective? Does it have all the important information for a news story? Could some less important information be left out?''

***
A dog attacked a teacher April 29 during the Marymount swimming gala at Victoria Park public pool. The incident took place as students cheered and sang for their respective houses. Witnesses, including the victim, Mr. Jones, claimed they saw the animal jump into the pool and swim.

***
Mr. Jones said the frightened dog bit him after he jumped into the pool to save the animal. Jones was transported by ambulance to ABC hospital, where staff treated his wound and cleared his lungs of excess water.

***
Furthermore, some students were cheering too loud during the swimming gala. People who live near the park complained to the police that the Marymount cheering teams were very noisy, disturbing them. The principal punished the whole school after the swimming gala. At last, Jupiter came first with 650 points. Obviously the students of Jupiter are strong and good.

Letter to a Newspaper: Cyber Cafes (First Draft)
(Please do not edit this version - work on the latest draft)

I am writing to express my views towards the increasingly common of cyber cafes, karaokes and electronic game centres. According to the violent cases happened recently in a cyber cafe, two form three students were being injured. Although no people died in this accident, we should not ignore the bad effects behind.

For computers, we cannot live without being insulated with them. If students got addicted to lingering in cyber cafes, and enjoy exposing too much to the computer world, infers that less time will be spent on students’ own studies and this may cause low incentive in studying. Following will be poor performances at class, appalling results in exams and poor relation with teachers. Instead of entertaining, they should focus more on their academic.

Secondly is about the problem of health. The number of students are found to be buried themselves in cyber cafes. Cyber cafes are usually found in the old buildings or in some of the commercial buildings. There is no window found. As a result, the ventilation of air is poor enough to cause the non-smoker feel sick. According to my biological knowledge, breathing in too much smoke disposed from the cigarettes would become more easily to be suffered from cancer. Another problem is the safety. Many cyber cafes are opened without lifeguard equipment. This can be fatal if fire accident happens.

As there is a new cyber café opens near my school, I decidied to go there to a try. The services of the waiters were bad, and the food, Oh my god! You just can’t put them into your mouth, they were not for humans. Due to the reasons there were someone stearing at us, we therefore keep silent. When I passed through the kitchen I saw crouchates everywhere. (What I think is I’m in a black shop!)

When we decided to pay the bill, to our surprised it costed as almost $80 per person, even they said to have discounts.

Moreover, children under 18 are inquisitive during purberty and may get some wrong and indecent knowledge from computer. We should give a correct guidance to youngsters. And they should be forced to ban any pornographic webpage. This is not just a need, but a must.

Students may know some bad guys in the internet, too. Many bad businessmen make good use of the trend and do guilty things. They do not concern about students. There will be stealing, bullying and sexual disturbance. Government must monitor cyber cafes inorder to avoid these people to control the cafes leading to any other crimes.

Letter to the Newspaper - Cyber Cafes (Second Draft)
''This is improving, but there are still many grammar mistakes and problems with awkward, unidiomatic phrasing - I have highlighted these. Could the message be conveyed more simply and directly? Is there a clear conclusion?''

***
I am writing to express my views about the increasing number of incidents which happen in cyber cafes, karaoke bars and electronic game centres. According to (wrong expression) the violent cases (missing pronoun)happened recently in a cyber cafe, two form three students were injured. Although nobody died in this accident, we should not ignore the '''bad effects behind. (wrong expression)'''

***
We cannot live without computers.However, if students get addicted to lingering in cyber cafes, and enjoy being in the computer world, this will interfere with students' studies and they will have a lower incentive to study'''. This will also lead to poor performances in class, unsatisfactory results in exams and poor relationships with teachers. Instead of entertainment, they should focus more on their studies.

***
Secondly is (what is?) about the problem on (wrong preposition) health. Students are found to be burying themselves (sounds a bit extreme!) in cyber cafes. Cyber cafes are usually found in old commercial buildings. There aren't any windows (is this always true?). As a result, the ventilation of air (can anything other than air be ventilated?) is so poor that (missing subject)causes the non-smokers to feel sick. According to my biological knowledge, (do you need to sound so technical?) breathing in too much smoke disposed by the cigarettes (is it? how would cigarettes do this?) would be likely to suffer (parallelism: who would suffer? from lung cancer. Another problem is safety. Many cyber cafes are opened without lifeguard (sounds like they are swimming pools!) equipments. This can cause fatal (word form) if fire accidents happened. (awkward: one word is redundant and the tense seems wrong) Bold textSECOND IS THE PROBLEM OF HEALTH.STUDENTS OFTEN FOUND THEMSELVES BOURING IN THE CYBERCAFE.CYBER CAFE USUALLY HAVE NO VENTILATIONS AND NON SMOKERS OFTEN FEEL UNCOMFORTABLE AS IT HAS NO WINDOW AND IT IS IN COMMERCIAL COMPLEXES.SOMKING IN PUBLIC PLACES CAUSES LUNG CANCER TO MEN.SAFETY IS THE OTHER THING WHICH THE CYBERCAFE DOESNOT HAVE AS IT OFTEN OPEN TOWARDS SWIMMING POOL AND HAVE NO LIFE SAVING EQUIPMENT CAUSING ACCEDENTS.

***
As there is a new cyber café opened (stick to subject+verb+object) near my school, I decided to go there for a try (wrong expression). The waitors (spelling) are (tense) unfriendly, and the food, '''Oh my god! (tone) You just can’t (tense) put them (agreement with uncountable noun) into your mouth, they''' were certainly not for humans! Due to these reasons (which reasons, there was someone staring at us, we therefore kept silent. When I pass (tense) through the kitchen (seems unlikely that they'd let you!) I saw cockroches (spelling)'' everywhere.

***
When we decided to pay the bill, to our surprise it cost us almost $80 per person, even (missing word) they (who?) said to have discounts (awkward).

***
'''Moreover, children under 18 are inquisitive during puberty and may get some wrong and indecent information from the internet. We should give suitable guidance to youngsters. And any pronographic (spelling) webpages should be banned. (sounds too formal and general - not specifically related to cyber-cafes This is not just a need, but a must (is there a difference?)'''.

***
Students may know (wrong word) some bad guys (tone) through the internet, too. Many bad (in what sense? are they incompetent?) businessmen make good (really?) use of the trend and do guilty (wrong word) things. They do not concern (should be passive) about the students. Thery commit crimes like stealing, bullying and sexual disturbance (parallelism). The government must closely monitor cyber cafes in order to avoid (wrong word) crimes.

Reply to Letter of Complaint: Practical Skills
Please do not correct this version:

Dear Mr. Kwok

I am sorry about you are unhappy with your holiday in your letter on 5 September but I think that we have some misunderstandings. You recently went on one of our tours to Cebu and you can only say you had a terrible time and hold our company responsible, but isn’t this unfair?

Some of those matters are beyond our control. First of all, the flight was delayed and the airline and airport should be responsible for that, so we are sorry about the inconvenience this caused to you. Also, you can’t expect us to make the weather sunny while you are on holiday. Didn’t you know August is the rainy season in Philippines? Anyone could have told you that. Then, we don’t decide how much duty to pay – the Hong Kong Government is responsible for this and information is provided in every duty free shops. We are sorry about that and will try to prevent this from happening again in future. Finally, we didn’t lose your luggages. When you saw that you should have reported to the airport staff immediately. If I were you, I would read the back of my ticket more carefully next time. ______________________________________________________________________ Unfortunately, you didn’t read our tour pamphlet as it states that economic transport is being offered. We apologise that we did not fly first class because it is not economical enough and group member wants to have single room preferred must pay $500 in advance because this is the low season price. According to our records you are male and 41 years old but you are not allergic to seafood because other passengers can remember to make a special request such as Muslim no pork and vegetarian single room etc. but not you.

Tours and excursions have to pay 24 hours advance, so if you cannot. Perhaps if you don’t like seafood you shouldn’t go to Cebu next time as our brochure stated that you can have your breath taken away by the corals and enjoy nightly seafood barbecues, succulent shrimps and lobsters fresh from the sea. ______________________________________________________________________

Let me refer you to our medical policy about your doctor in Cebu with an old kidney problem. It states that all members of the tour are covered by a group insurance policy but the policy does not cover any illness or medical conditions known to the tour members before the tour, and the insured must pay the first $1000 himself. The insurance company will pay any further receipted expenses up to $50000 and in the event of death will pay up to $80000 in funeral expenses, but since you are not dead and your doctor charged you less than $1000 this is not necessary.

Finally, I would like to apologize to the tour guide about he has been incredibly rude and nasty to you. We have taken appropriate disciplinary measure, but when we fried him he told us you are a real pain, that nobody liked you and that you never stopped complaining. Don’t you know that you are on a cheap low season package? I am sorry that you are frustrated, but everyone else was happy and reasonably priced.

Yours sincerely

Second Draft
Please correct this version:

Dear Mr. Tai

***
We are sorry that you are unhappy with your holiday in Cebu as stated in your letter on 5 September. However, having read your complaints I think that you may have some misunderstandings about the nature of the tour and our liability to you.

***
We would like to point out that some of the matters which you complained about are beyond our control. First of all, while we regret the inconvenience caused by the flight being delayed, the airline is responsible for this, so if you wish to seek compensation for the delay, you should pursue the matter with the airline rather than with us. Also, the weather is clearly not something which we can be held responsible for. We have already included the weather facts of the Philippines in 'Guide Book to the Philippines' which has stated very clearly that the Philippines has heavy rainfall in summer, so that our customers can be awarded of it. And we assumed that it was clear enough for our customers. We will be more considerate in the future and will make sure that everyone who goes on the tour is clearly awarded of that.

***
The Hong Kong Government decides how much we need to pay for stamp duty and this information is provided at every duty free shop. Finally, when you realised that you had lost your luggages, you should have reported to the airline ground staff immediately. This information was printed on the back of your ticket.

***
Unfortunately, you did not read our tour brochure as it states that the economy class is being offered. We apologise that we did not provide the first class flight, but it's clearly stated in our brochure that if customers wish to make an upgrade to their transportation, booking should be done 24 hours in advance, and it also states that if group member wants to have single room, they would have to pay $500 as a supplement. According to our special requests list, there are no special requests being made by you. Special requests should be made if you have any sorts of food allergy, or have other requests such as requesting for a single room etc. in advance.

***
We regret to tell you that you are not eligible to get the refund of the medical service related to your kidney problem. As stated in the medical policy note issued before departure, any illnesses or medical conditions known to the tour members before the tour will not be covered. As your condition is an old problem, the insurance company does not have the responsibility to cover the cost in this case.

***
Finally, we would like to apologize for the rudeness of the tour guide. Your feedback of the tour has been taken into consideration and we have already taken appropriate disciplinary measures. We are sorry that you are frustrated.

Yours sincerely,

Walter Kwok

Letter to a Friend Looking for Work (First Draft)
(Please do not edit this version. Make changes to the latest version. I have highlighted some of the things that need to be fixed.)

Dear Pat,

Hi there! I’m Chris. How are you? I know that you are studying overseas but plans to return to Hong Kong during the summer holidays to look for a summer job and not sure how to find a suitable one. Is it right? It cannot be denied that this is a crucial decision. My dear Pat, I hope you will allow me to be frank: the moment I read your letter it became apparent to me that you are at a critical turning point in your life and, to coin a phrase, you are on the horns of a dilemma. I hope that what I have to tell you will assuage your anxiety.

First, for what types of jobs are suitable. I think you can become a salesman because if you work in a department store or a shop, you can meet a lot of people in the society. Or if you work as an assistant officer, it may be a good choice because you are comfortable to work in an office. You are good at English, Geography and Mathematics and passed your GCSE successfully. You can be a tutor and teach the younger children. Or you can work as a surveyor for the Lands Department during the summer holiday.

Then, how to get them. Hong Kong is suffering an economic depression and unemployment rate becomes higher and higher. Even university students can’t find a job for their living. Don’t expect it to be easy to get those well paid jobs. But if you tried hardly, I think you can get some jobs that are suitable to you.

First, you must decide what is your interest and ability. You must apply a job that suits these. Look on the newspaper for adverts of the recruitment session or visit to the Labour Department. Write a CV which says your qualification and experiences. If you are asked to conduct an interview, remember to dress up smartly and do researches about the company. Remember to ask about training opportunity and your '''promotion prospect. (in a summer job?)'''

About which ones should be avoided. First of all, if you are just returned from studying overseas, I don’t think you know enough about local culture – so don’t get a job as a tourist. Reject those jobs like modelling agencies that ask you to pay a training fee before you start work. Many teenagers are attracted for this and it is a trap. And don’t take up those black jobs like sell private CDs. You don’t want to hold a criminal record at your age.

Good luck with finding for a job. Please contact me when you arrive in Hong Kong. Then, we can find for a job together. '''I am looking forward to receiving your reply. Thank you for your kind attention. Yours sincerely, (are you writing to a friend?)''' Chris Wong

Letter to a Friend Looking for Work (Second Draft)
''This is much better than the first version, but there are still occasions when the tone is condescending and unfriendly, when phrasing is awkward, or when excessive use of cliches makes the letter sound silly. Also, is the advice realistic, given that the letter is supposed to be about temporary summer jobs?''

***
Dear Pat,

I hope that you are doing well and that you have been having a good time in London. Have you finished your A Levels yet? In your last letter, you told me that you are planning to go back to Hong Kong during the summer holiday to look for a summer job. Unfortunately, you aren't sure how to find a suitable one. It cannot be denied that this is a crucial decision. My dear Pat, I hope you would allow me to be frank: the moment I was reading your letter it became apparent to me that you are at a critical turning point in your life and, to coin a phrase, you are on the horns of a dilemma. I hope that what i am going to tell you will comfort you.

***
First, you should look for jobs that are suitable for you. I think you can be a saleswoman because when you are working in a department store or a shop, you will have a lot of opportunies to meet a lot of people in the society. Being an assistant officer is also a good choice. You can work comfortably in an office. If you are good at English, Geography and Mathematics and passed your GCSE successfully, you can be a tutor and teach those young children. Or you can work as a surveyor for the Lands Department.

***
Then, how to get them. Hong Kong is suffering from an economic depression and the unemployment rate is becoming higher and higher. Even university students can’t find a job to make their living. Don’t expect you will easy to get those well paid jobs. But if you tried hardly, I think you can get a job that is suitable to you.

***
First, you must decide what are your interests and to consider your ability. You must apply for a job that suits you most. Look for the recruitment session in the newspaper or visit the Labour Department. Write a resume which includes your qualification and experiences. If you are being interviewed, remember to dress up properly and do some research on the company.

***
About which one should be avoided. First of all, if you are just returned from studying overseas, I don’t think you know enough about local culture – so don’t get a job as a tourist. Reject those jobs like modelling agencies that ask you to pay a training fee before you start working. Many teenagers are attracted to this but it is a trap. And don’t take up those black jobs like selling private CDs. You don’t want to hold a criminal record at your age.

***
Good luck with finding a job. Please contact me when you arrive in Hong Kong. Then, we can find a job together. I am looking forward to receive your reply. Thank you for your kind attention. Yours sincerely, Chris Wong

Artist's aim
The artist drew a boy and a girl to draw both boys' and girls' attention to his message. The artist wants to tell everyone not to copy the characters in poster by showing how the boy behaved dangerously and how the girl wore unsuitable clothes.

The artist wants to tell everyone not to dress improperly or drive dangerously on a motorcycle like the boy and girl in the poster.

Teachers' reactions
The careers teacher, Miss So, thinks that some immature students might want to copy the dangerous acts as the artist seems to suggest that the behavior is smart and trendy. She suggests that the artist should redraw the poster to remove this idea.

The English teacher, Mr Fung, similarly criticizes the language used in the poster for being too wordy and complex. He suggests that the caption ought to be simplified as "Dress properly!".

Student questionnaire results
Most junior form students (approximately 80%) like the poster. It was equally popular with junior boys and girls. However, fewer than half of the senior students like the poster. Around 40% of senior boys and only around 25% senior girls like it.

Junior and senior students' comments during interviews
Two of the Junior form students find the words on the poster confusing.

Two senior form students said that they think that the characters on the poster set a negative example for the junior students.

The drawing
The drawing should be redesigned so as to avoid suggesting that dangerous driving is fun. The artist should rephrase the message to be more direct and simpler.

Artist's aim
The artist wanted to show that young people should be actively involved with road safety and they should set a good example for others to follow.

Teachers' reactions
The careers teacher, Ms So, understands the artist's messages of drawing attention to the difficulty that many old people have when trying to cross a busy road. However, she feels that the helpful teenager should not be only a girl, boys should be included also. The English teacher, Mr Fung, thinks that the caption should be rewritten as he's not sure who is saying it and it's not appealing.

Student questionnaire results
The poster appeals more to the senior forms. A clear majority of senior boys and girls like the poster, while a majority of junior girls and about a quarter of junior boys like it. Within both the junior and senior forms, there is a higher percentage of girls liking the poster than of boys.

Junior and senior students' comments during interviews
Most junior and senior students think that the aim of the poster is to show that girls are helpful but boys are not, instead of showing the importance of road safety. Some students think that the poster contains elements of sexual discrimination. The message of the poster is not clear for junior students.

The drawing
The poster should be redesigned so that it shows both girls and boys being helpful. The caption should be rewritten as well to show that road safety is important for everyone.

Artist's aim
The artist shows teenagers not paying attention to useful advice. The artist wants to point out that everyone (including students) should learn about the importance of road safety.

Teachers' reactions
The careers teacher, Ms So, thinks that it is not fair for the teacher to only scold girls as both boys and girls are not paying attention in the poster. The caption suggests that only the girls need to pay attention in class, which is also discriminatory against girls.

Mr Fung, believes that the poster should clearly state that it is a road safety lesson, and because the wording of the poster is biased, it distracts people from the intended meaning.

As the artist wants to bring out the importance of road safety to both boys and girls, both teachers think the caption is inappropriate and should be changed.

Student questionnaire results
The results of the questionnaire show that more boys like the poster than girls do. There are fewer than 50 percent of boys and nearly 20% of girls in the junior forms who like the poster. In the senior forms most students dislike the poster. Only around 20% of boys and 10% of girls said that they liked it.

Junior and senior students' comments during interviews
Some students seem to think that the message brought out by the poster is rather unclear and confusing. They don't know whether the point of the poster is about 'road safety' or about 'paying attention in class'. They also seem to think that the poster contains elements of sexual discrimination, as the teacher emphasizes that it's the girls who have to pay attention and they asked why this did not apply to both boys AND girls?

The drawing
The caption of the poster should be changed so that it doesn't have a biased implication. Also the wording should state clearly the subject of the poster, which is road safety.

Conclusion
Based on the above findings, poster 2 would be the most suitable as it was the most popular poster among students according to the questionnaire, and both teachers liked it more than the other designs. However, it needs to be improved by redesigning the picture to show that both boys and girls can contribute to road safety and rephrasing the caption to show that everyone should be involved.

Manual del escritor

title: Composition


text:
Spanish/Requests

If you have any requests for vocabulary, grammar, audio files, or anything else, please leave your suggestions below along with your signature. We really appreciate any suggestions because they help us make sure we cover all aspects of the Spanish language that could be needed by users.

Propuestas (Suggestions)

 * Audio files --Think Fast 20:06, 17 June 2006 (UTC)

title: Spanish/Requests


text:
Wikibooks:Book of the month/July 2006 voting

The voting for the Book of the month for July 2006 was open from June 1st, 2006, and closed on July 1st, 2006, 00:00 UTC. The book of the month was featured on the main page of Wikibooks in July.

'''Closed. Any votes added will be reverted.'''

ATALL
Votes:
 * 1) I've only just seen this book. It appears to be an unrecognised gem (at least on Wikibooks), Jguk 19:18, 9 June 2006 (UTC)
 * 2) Looks like a bit of work could make this a winner Pluke 18:03, 28 June 2006 (UTC)

Comments:

UK Constitution and Government
(Automatically renominated with 4 votes for June)

Votes:

Comments:
 * 1) Klingoncowboy4 06:52, 8 June 2006 (UTC)
 * 2) Ultimadesigns 20:07, 16 June 2006 (UTC)
 * 3) Novialiste 12:38, 26 June 2006 (UTC)
 * 4) Dolive35 10:39, 27 June 2006 (UTC)

Organic Chemistry
(Automatically renominated with 6 votes for June)

Votes:

Comments: Wonderful Wikibook, that should become the first natural science-related book of the month. Sblive 22:00, 1 June 2006 (UTC)
 * 1) Sblive 22:00, 1 June 2006 (UTC)
 * 2) Master  mind  007 16:37, 4 June 2006 (UTC)
 * 3) Klingoncowboy4 06:52, 8 June 2006 (UTC)
 * 24.225.215.177 21:44, 14 June 2006 (UTC) invalid vote
 * 1) Ultimadesigns 20:07, 16 June 2006 (UTC)
 * 2) hagindaz 01:26, 22 June 2006 (UTC)
 * 3) Toby Phillips 14:49, 23 June 2006 (UTC)
 * 70.21.146.236 04:37, 24 June 2006 (UTC) invalid vote
 * 1) Everlong 00:13, 26 June 2006 (UTC)
 * 2) Ervinn 22:00, 27 June 2006 (UTC)
 * 3) Rob Horning 11:47, 30 June 2006 (UTC)

Movie Making Manual
(Automatically renominated with 5 votes for June)

Votes:

 * 1) Master  mind  007 16:37, 4 June 2006 (UTC)
 * 2) Klingoncowboy4 06:52, 8 June 2006 (UTC)
 * Trooper209 9 June 2006 (PST) vote by unregistered user
 * 1) Dilaudid 19:11, 10 June 2006 (UTC)
 * Wajee 3:35 PM, 13 June 2006 (PST) vote by unregistered user
 * 1) Rob Horning 17:15, 18 June 2006 (UTC)
 * 2) Nathan8225 02:01, 23 June 2006 (UTC)
 * 3) Je suis 16:15, 26 June 2006 (UTC)

Comments: Some content has been copied and pasted from non-GFDL sources.
 * This is a serious accusation, and if you (or anybody) can demonstrate incompatability with the GFDL, please make known on the project talk page or here. You can also mark up any problems with the    Wiki markup tag.  These get reviewed very closely and will be deleted if the copyright violation is proven true yet no attempt for copyright permission has occured.  --Rob Horning 16:24, 12 June 2006 (UTC)

This book is all over the place. It uses a dozen different naming conventions, and has links from within chapters to pages not linked to anywhere else. I don't think we should be featuring a book so poorly organized, because others will imitate it. --hagindaz 01:34, 22 June 2006 (UTC)

Spanish
(Automatically renominated with 3 votes for June)

Votes:

Jack-o-Jason Not enough edits.
 * 1) Klingoncowboy4 19:31, 24 June 2006 (UTC)

Comments: This book was really good. It helped me tp really learn and grasp Spanish even though I didn't have the greatest teacher. In addition, this wikibook is also great for advanced Spanish speakers to finetune their knowledge of one of the most spoken languages in the world.Jack-o-Jason 13:47, 1 June 2006 (UTC)
 * I strongly oppose to this nomination. It looks like a construction area, with lots of red links, and many unfinished pages. Also, it is worser than previous language-related books, such as French, or even German. Sblive 21:59, 1 June 2006 (UTC)
 * I also oppose this nomination. I have contributed to this book and want to see it succeed, but I do not think that it is at its best and that has a long way to go.  It just isn't the type of material that we want to showcase as our best work. --Think Fast 03:30, 5 June 2006 (UTC)
 * I oppose this nomination. Not up to the standard of the French book. Definately has potential though. --Zapateria 18:49, 6 June 2006 (UTC)
 * I oppose this nomination. It's not good enough, there are many places for improvment.

Dutch
Votes:

 * Datch invalid vote - too few contributions


text:
WebObjects/EOF/Using EOF/EO Editing Context

Pierce T. Wetter III
I thought I'd expand on that last sentence because localInstanceOfObject seems to confuse multiple people.

localInstanceOfObject actually returns a _fault_ from the new editing context for the passed in object.

If you have 2 peer contexts:

databaseContext -> ec1 -> ec2

and you call localInstanceOfObject, and the object is in the database, you'll get a copy of the databaseContext snapshot of the object when the fault resolves from ec2. That is, the editing context goes up one level to the database context and returns whatever the database context has, not whatever ec1 has (because they're peers). If its an uncommitted object, then the object only exists in ec1, so the fault can't resolve into ec2. Similarly, any uncommitted changes in general from ec1 won't show up in ec2, because they're peers.

What Mark just said was that if you have an uncommitted object, and you have:

databaseContext -> ec1 -> ec2 -> ec3

(i.e. ec2 and ec3 are child editing contexts of ec1, but peers of each other)

Then when the fault fires in ec3, it goes up one level, pulls the objects and changes from ec1 (committed or not) and returns it to you in ec3. But that only works because ec1 is common to both ec2 and ec3. In other word, localInstanceOfObject returns an object from "one level above" the source editing context which is not necessarily a copy of the object you want, it depends on how the destination context lies with respect to the source context.


text:
Linear Algebra with Differential Equations/Homogeneous Linear Differential Equations/Repeated Eigenvalue Method

When the eigenvalue is repeated we have a similar problem as in normal differential equations when a root is repeated, we get the same solution repeated, which isn't linearly independent, and which suggest there is a different solution. Because the case is very similar to normal differential equations, let us try $$\mathbf{X} = \mathbf{u} t e^{\mathbf{\lambda}t}$$ for $$\mathbf{X}' = \mathbf{A} \mathbf{X}$$ and we see that this does not work; however, $$\mathbf{X} = (\mathbf{B} t + \mathbf{C}) e^{\mathbf{\lambda}t}$$ DOES work (For the observant reader, this gives a hint to the changes in the Method of Undetermined Coefficients as compared to differential equations without linear algebra).

In fact if we use this we see that $$\mathbf{B} = \mathbf{u}$$ where $$\mathbf{u}$$ is a typical eigenvector; and we see that $$\mathbf{C} = \mathbf{n}$$ where $$\mathbf{n}$$ is a normal eigenvector defined by $$(\mathbf{A} - \lambda \mathbf{I})\mathbf{C} = \mathbf{B}$$

Thus our fundamental set of solutions is: $$\{\mathbf{u}te^{\lambda t} + \mathbf{n}e^{\lambda t};\mathbf{u}e^{\lambda t}\}$$

Using the same process of derivation, higher-order problems can be solved similarly.


text:
Linear Algebra with Differential Equations/Heterogeneous Linear Differential Equations

=Introduction= We now tackle the problem of $$\mathbf{G}(t)$$ being nonzero, so that we have the following problem:

$$\mathbf{X}' = \mathbf{AX} + \mathbf{G}(t)$$

There are four reasonable ways to solve this.

 * /Diagonalization/
 * /Method of Undetermined Coefficients/
 * /Variation of Parameters/
 * /Laplacian Transforms/


text:
Ancient History/Egypt/Geography

The geography of ancient Egypt was dominated, as is today, by the combination of lack of rainfall and the Nile River. The Greek historian Herodotus called Egypt the "gift of the Nile", since the kingdom owed its survival to the annual flooding of the Nile and the resulting depositing of fertile silt. The Nile River flows into the Mediterranean Sea, and there is a delta at the mouth.

The Nile
The Nile River was the only reason that civilization arose in ancient Egypt at all. In the fourth century B.C., the Greek historian Herodotus reported in his Histories that "Egypt is the gift of the Nile." He meant that Egypt received virtually no rain, and so all of its water — for drinking, washing, irrigation of crops and operation of water-wheels — came solely from this one river. The Nile is the longest river in the world.

The Nile's physical/chemical properties
Since the headwaters of the Nile are deep in central east Africa (at Lake Victoria), the river flooded annually during the height of Egyptian civilisation. Spring in the Ethiopian highlands would melt the snow, which then gradually overflowed the river, and the Nile would gently rise. Unlike Mesopotamia, where floods were irregular, unpredictable and highly destructive, the Nile washed over its banks to flood stage on a predictable schedule, usually within two or three days of the heliacal rising of the star Sirius in late July. For a period of almost three thousand years, with relatively few interruptions, the ancient Egyptians could count on three months of high waters, from August to early November. The Inundation, as it was called, carried a rich bed of silt and alluvial soil onto the farmland of Egypt. In this way, the farmland of Egypt was annually replenished and invigorated, making Egypt the garden-land of the ancient world.

The Nile's annual Inundation thus established the pattern of Egyptian life very early. Between August and November, when the fields were flooded, the Egyptians would work on building projects for the priesthoods and Pharaoh. The pyramids at Giza and Sakkarha were built during the Inundation in all likelihood, as were the temples at Karnak and Luxor. From November to March, farmers would re-establish their fields using geometry and markers placed on high points above the flood lines, and plant their crops. March to June was the harvest season, in which grain and grape would be processed for bread, beer and wine, and Pharaoh's tax collectors would make their rounds. In early July, people collected their tools and prepared for the next flood.

So constant was this pattern that its interruption may have caused the fall of several dynasties. The most famous example of the Nile's failure to flood may have occurred during the later years of the reign of Pepi II, who reigned from the age of 6 until 96. The Nile Inundation failed to arrive on time for several of the last years of his reign, and upon his death the Egyptian bureaucracy largely collapsed in power struggles with the country's nobility and priesthood. Pepi II's death, and the resulting civil conflicts, are considered the end of the Old Kingdom period in Egyptian history.

Four Divisions
Four divisions are useful in considering Egypt's geography. The first division is between Upper and Lower Egypt, while the second is between the Red Land (Desert) and the Black Land (Kermet). English speakers are normally confused about the first division, because Upper Egypt is in the south, while Lower Egypt is in the north. Upper or southern Egypt, is a narrow river valley, rarely more than twelve miles wide, and more frequently only one or two miles wide. High cliffs hem it in on both sides. Lower or northern Egypt is the broad delta above modern Cairo. The land is flat and fertile, and the rich soil of the Inundation often winds up here. It was richer but softer than Upper Egypt.

The second major division, between Red and Black Lands, is a division between the black and fertile soil of the Nile Valley, and the ruddy, sandy and arid wastes of the desert. While oases existed in the western desert, the eastern desert was largely empty of habitation, except around a few mines and quarries for especially valuable stone. The ancient Egyptians were wholly conscious of how much they lived in a narrow strip of farmland surrounded by hostile wilderness to the east and west.

Egypt's southern boundary, at the southern edge of Upper Egypt, was traditionally held to be the First Cataract. This was an area of harsh rapids and waterfalls some six hundred miles due south of the main exit point of the Nile into the Mediterranean. During the Old Kingdom, this was Egypt's farthest extent. During the Middle and New Kingdom periods, however, Egyptian armies pushed further south, as far as the Sixth Cataract, in an attempt to invade and conquer Nubia and Kush, two countries that lay farther south. Kush is associated with present-day central Sudan, while some scholars place Kush in modern Ethiopia.

Relatively recent discoveries of small tombs in a pyramid style in Sudan suggest that while Egypt did not rule the lands south of the First Cataract, they did have cultural contacts in the deep south, and trade of both goods and ideas was quite common.

Upper Egypt
Upper, or southern, Egypt, extended from Memphis in the north to Abu (Elephantine) in the south. This is approximately the distance from the 30-degrees North line to the Tropic of Cancer. The western oasis of Fayum is within this district, as are the major cities of Herakelopolis, Quis, Thinis, Abydos, Dendera, Nekhen/Hierakonpolis, and Edfu.

Upper Egypt is a narrow river valley, with steep cliffs rising on either side. Numerous wadis feed into the Nile in this region, and the river itself is rarely more than a mile wide. The valley is often as narrow as six or eight miles.

Lower Egypt
Lower, or northern, Egypt is the delta. Almost three hundred miles across at the mouth of the Nile, the great fan-shaped region was the breadbasket of ancient Egypt and later of the Roman Empire. Archaeology in Lower Egypt is difficult, since the regularly shifting paths of the rivers and the annual Inundation have often swept away both artifacts and buildings.

Ancient Egyptians referred to the deserts around their country as the desert, meaning "Red Land". Hot and arid, the Red Land grew no food, and was thought to be a place of wildness and danger. In contrast, the khemet or "Black Land" was the Nile valley, where the soil was black and moist, and life was capable of not only surviving, but thriving. The Egyptian word khemet is thought to be the term from which the name Egypt springs.

The desert provided Egypt with numerous products, despite its raw and wild nature. Dry lake beds near the delta in Lower Egypt provided natron, the salt used to preserve mummified corpses. Quartzite for grinding and drilling tools, and limestone for building, came from a desert region northeast of Memphis. Copper came from mines in the Sinai Peninsula and the eastern desert. Alabaster for fine carvings came from near Cusae. Granite quarries near the Red Sea provided stone for sculpture and construction. Diorite for hammers and flint for stone knives traveled downriver from the region of the First Cataract.

Then there was gold. It was said by a Hittite ruler that there was as much gold in Egypt as there was sand. This enormous wealth, and the natural barrier of the deserts, allowed Egypt to carry out its natural role as the trade link between Africa and the Near East. Gold purchased straight timber, a necessary but locally-unavailable commodity, as well as lapis lazuli, silver, ebony, ivory and olive oil.

Black Lands
The 'Black Lands' was the fertile land on the banks of the Nile. The ancient Egyptians used this land for growing their crops. This was the only land in ancient Egypt that could be farmed because a layer of rich, black silt was deposited there every year after the inundation of the Nile.

Red Lands
The 'Red lands' was known as life in ancient Egypt and was also a barren desert that protected Egypt on two sides. These deserts separated ancient Egypt from neighboring countries and invading armies. They also provided the ancient Egyptians with a source for precious metals and semi-precious stones.

Koningen aan de Nijl/Een land aan de Nijl

title: Ancient History/Egypt/Geography


text:
User talk:Xxhuntressxx

Come introduce yourself at the new users page. If you have any questions, you can ask there or contact me personally.

P.S. I hope you'll contribute to the Ancient History Wikibook. Thanks for starting on that project in a way already. Andrew Watt 04:24, 1 June 2006 (UTC)

title: User talk:Xxhuntressxx


text:
User talk:The Wanderer~enwikibooks

Hello and welcome to Wikibooks!

Here are some tips to help you get started:
 * You can sign your name on Talk and vote pages using four tildes, like this: ~~~~.
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 * Take a look at Naming policy
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 * Explore, be bold in editing pages, and have fun!

You will find more resources in Community Portal. If you want to ask a question, visit the Study help desk, the Staff lounge, IRC channel or ask me personally on my talk page.

Good luck! --Snarius 05:39, 1 June 2006 (UTC)

Your account will be renamed
Hello,

The developer team at Wikimedia is making some changes to how accounts work, as part of our on-going efforts to provide new and better tools for our users like cross-wiki notifications. These changes will mean you have the same account name everywhere. This will let us give you new features that will help you edit and discuss better, and allow more flexible user permissions for tools. One of the side-effects of this is that user accounts will now have to be unique across all 900 Wikimedia wikis. See the announcement for more information.

Unfortunately, your account clashes with another account also called The Wanderer. To make sure that both of you can use all Wikimedia projects in future, we have reserved the name The Wanderer~enwikibooks that only you will have. If you like it, you don't have to do anything. If you do not like it, you can pick out a different name.

Your account will still work as before, and you will be credited for all your edits made so far, but you will have to use the new account name when you log in.

Sorry for the inconvenience.

Yours, Keegan Peterzell Community Liaison, Wikimedia Foundation 23:46, 17 March 2015 (UTC)

Renamed
 This account has been renamed as part of single-user login finalisation. If you own this account you can |log in using your previous username and password for more information. If you do not like this account's new name, you can choose your own using this form after logging in: . -- Keegan (WMF) (talk) 05:35, 19 April 2015 (UTC)

title: User talk:The Wanderer~enwikibooks


text:
Wikibooks talk:PDF versions

PDF accessibility features
Hello, I'm working in the Wikipedia:Accessibility policy, and I would like to point PDF files have some nice accessibility features that help people with disabilities (e.g. a blind user with a screen reader) and also provide some device independence (e.g. to read a wikibook in the 320×240 screen of my hyper-cool new PDA/phone :-). Some wikibooks are currently created with this feature (e.g. Ada Programming), and from my POV it's a good idea to always generate the PDF versions with the "accessibilty tags" to provide document reflow (Spanish: "reflujo"). See http://www.adobe.com/uk/epaper/tips/acr5reflow/index.html for more info. Best regards --surueña 09:14, 1 June 2006 (UTC)

Previous PDF Editions
Do we realy need that column at the "Image:" page of the pdf allready provided a history list. --Krischik T 07:57, 2 November 2006 (UTC)

How can one contribute a book
I have authored a boob on Calculus and Differential Equation. The TeX source, PDF as well as Postscript version of the book with me. If I want to submit the book how can I upload it?

202.141.99.51 15:05, 17 January 2007 (UTC)

 * I'm unsure if there is any easy way of converting TeX or Postscript to wiki markup. You could upload all three files (though you may have to split them up if they are too big) and then solicit other Wikibookians to help out transcribing the content. I would be willing to help out.
 * To upload the files, you will need to sign up. Just click the link at the top right that says "Log in / create account," click the link (in the center of the screen) that says "Create an account," and fill in the information. Make sure to not put your e-mail address or real name in the "username" box if you do not want to reveal your identity. It would be great to have you on board! --Iamunknown 19:41, 30 January 2007 (UTC)

Thanks dear for offering help. Well, while posting the above message, I had forgotten to login. I am already a contributor to many wikis (en, gu, books, wiktionaries, and here too). I have the pdf format, is it not sufficient to upload the pdf file only?

BTW: I am posting the same message to your talk page also to be sure it reaches you.

thanks once again and looking forward to sharing my book with all, -- Dineshjk 14:47, 9 February 2007 (UTC)

 * Any user could download the pdf if you uploaded it. In order to legally distribute it, however, you would need to own the copyrights, or have the permission from any others who own the copyrights, and then license it under an appropriate copyright license such as the GNU Free Documentation License. Then, however, it would only be a pdf. It would be ideal if the text were in wiki text which anyone could edit and add upon. --Iamunknown 01:08, 10 February 2007 (UTC)

 * To note that one of the problems with a PDF file is the clause about "opaque" file formats, of which most PDF files fit in that definition. Here on Wikibooks, the "non-opaque" data is clearly in the Wiki markup text, where we are merely providing a convienent transformation of that data to something like a PDF file to help redistribute this content to places where reading web pages wouldn't necessarily be the only way to access the content.  Uploading a PDF file and including it as a traditional Wikibook would require this to be reversed, where the "non-opaque" data would have to somehow be made available.

 * Having the content available as a TeX markup would certainly simplify the process, and a subset of TeX is included on Wikibooks for at least the formulas themselves. But it would require either some tremendous hand editing or somebody automating the process of converting the content.  Considering that TeX is explicitly designed for printed page formating and HTML is more for hyperlinked networked "virtual" documents, there are some areas that would be harder to translate, if they could be done at all.  --Rob Horning 05:36, 8 March 2007 (UTC)

title: Wikibooks talk:PDF versions


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Wikijunior:Ancient Civilizations/Phoenicians

About 800 BC, the Phoenicians lived on the shores of the eastern Mediterranean. Their major cities were Tyre and Byblos, and they were merchants and sailors. They traveled all over the Mediterranean and Black Seas, establishing trading outposts and cities that bought goods and raw materials from local people, and sold luxuries like ivory and purple cloth. The purple cloth was their greatest luxury — no one else in the world knew the secret of making purple dye, and kings alone could wear the color because the Phoenicians made it so expensive. This was the origin of their name - "phoenix" in Greek means scarlet or dark red and was named after the famous dyes. The Phoenicians themselves had no real name, and because their writings are not common the Greek name has stuck.

What country did they live in?
Phoenicia was a narrow strip of the Syrian coast, about 160 miles (260 kilometers) long and 20.2 miles (32.50875 kilometers) wide. The area now comprises Lebanon and parts of Syria and Israel. Their territory was so small that the Phoenicians were forced to turn to the sea for a living. They became the most skillful ship-builders and navigators of their time.

The name Phoenicians means "purple people" because of the purple dye and purple cloth which only they could provide, an expensive dye they made from sea snails. They were known as skilled shipbuilders, and their innovative boat design allowed them to trade all over the Mediterranean. They were also excellent craftspeople. It is believed that glass was invented at Sidon, and the Phoenicians were known for their metalwork and faience (tin-glazed pottery). Because their goods were so prized by their trading partners, the states enjoyed good relations for many centuries.

What did their buildings look like?
The buildings are similar to other middle eastern buildings - large-scale complexes, which often were lavishly decorated

What did they eat/drink?
Because the Phoenicians traded all over the Mediterranean world, they ate very well. Their diet included olives, olive oil, wine, lamb, goat, cheese, garlic, honey, dried fish, soup, bread, watermelon, grapes, blueberries, and a lot more! What do you think they ate? A huge variety of food from various cultures? Or maybe... Food from their trading ships?

What did they wear?
The Phoenicians wore many things that were purple. The purple dye they used was made from sea snails and expensive. The kings wore a lot of purple items because they wanted to show their high authority. They wore sandals, and loose tunic-type clothing. The women wore their hair in intricately pinned to their head. Jewelry was also part of Phoenician fashion.

What did their writing look like?
Phoenician writing is very similar in some ways to the Latin alphabet, because the Latin alphabet was designed, in part, from the Phoenician alphabet. In fact, the Phoenicians are the first known people to use an alphabet. Their writing system had 22 letters, which were all consonants. The reader had to guess at the vowels the author meant to use.

One Phoenician city, Byblos, is thought to have been a major center for writing, because the city's name is the origin of the word "book"! Many scribes or professional writers worked in Byblos, and made copies of books there on Egyptian papyrus — an important trade product.

The Phoenicians, most likely a Semitic people, spoke the Phoenician language. In addition to their many inscriptions, the Phoenicians, contrary to some reports, wrote many books that have not survived. Evangelical Preparation by Eusebius of Caesarea quotes extensively from Philo of Byblos and Sanchuniathon. Furthermore, the Phoenician Punic colonies of North Africa continued to be a source of knowledge about the Phoenicians. Saint Augustine knew at least a smattering of Punic and occasionally uses it to explain cognate words found in Hebrew. The name of his mother, Saint Monica, is said to be of Punic origin as well.

What did they believe?
Phoenicians had many gods and goddesses called Ba'lu and Ba'let. Ba'lu (Lord/Master) for men and Ba'let (Lady/Mistress) for women. They all worshiped the same major gods, but they may have different names in different cities.

The temples were filled with priests, singers, musicians, divers, and scribes. Their sacrifices included fruits, oil and herbs. But also animals were sacrificed. From these things a variety of dishes were created for the gods. Two of the gods they worshiped were named Ba'lu Haddu (Lord of thunder) and Athtartu as he was the chief god and his consort. The Phoenicians took worship seriously and to prevent evil they would have ceremonies of dancing.

What is their History?

The Phoenicians emerged around 1200 BC, when many other empires were being attacked by barbarians. They were able to become successful during the 400 years of Dark Ages that followed. Instead of creating an empire of land, these traders formed many trade links from a few independent cities on the coast of what is now Lebanon. They originally only traded with Egypt and Palestine because the Minoan people controlled the trade with Greece. However, once the Minoans were destroyed in the disaster of 1200 BC, the Phoenicians were able to expand their trade. The Phoenician homeland was in the center of the Ancient world, so they could trade with Egypt, Greece and the Middle East.

By end of the Dark Ages in 900 BC, the Phoenicians were very rich. This made them targets especially by the Assyrian people. As they were attacked, they gradually established more colonies to the West, away from the plundering Assyrians. The most powerful of these colonies became Carthage and an empire in its own right once the Phoenician cities fell in this period. From then on, they were never as independent, being owned by Assyrians, Babylonians and Persians until Alexander the Great conquered them in 332 BC ending their independence forever.

What is left of them today?

Their most significant contribution was the alphabet and their cultural spread through colonization. The phoenician alphabet was the first original alphabet which the Greeks borrowed and changed to become similar to the one we use today. They are respected as great sailors and may have even discovered Britain, sailed around the African continent, southern Italy and Spain.


text:
Wikijunior:Ancient Civilizations/Mongolians

The Mongols are an ethnic group that originated in what is now Mongolia, Russia, and China.

Mongols are a completely different ethnic group from the Chinese.

They lived on the continent of Asia but they didn’t live in one spot. They were nomadic people that traded with the Chinese and Persians. They would set up nomadic homes (ger) when they stopped in an area. The gers were made out of felt, cone shaped, and  called steppes.

What Countries Did They Live In?
Many, including Mongolia, China, Japan, Iran and Russia.

By 1279 the Mongol Empire had expanded to its farthest point going from Moscow, Russia to the South China Sea.

By 1294 the Mongol Empire had broken into four separate khanates or regions, each ruled by their own khan. To the north west was the Golden Horde, to the south west was the ll-khanate,in the center was Chagatai Khanate, to the east was the Yuan Dynasty or Great Khanate.

What did their buildings look like?
Mongolians lived in dwellings called yurts, which are round and had a collapsible wooden frame covered in felt made from sheep's wool, somewhat like tepees used by North American Indians. Yurts had to be portable and easy to take down or put up because Mongols were a nomadic people, meaning that they had to move around often to find crops for their animals. The most important Mongols, like the khan and his top generals, had larger yurts than the other Mongols, often with decorated fabrics and even wheels.

In the later years of the Mongol Empire, when the conquests of new territories had slowed down, the Mongols began building permanent cities and towns for the first time. The most famous city was Karakorum on the Orkhon River, which was famous for having religious buildings for all major faiths and for its magnificent palaces.

What did they eat?
During the Mongolian Empire there were two different groups of food, “white foods” and “red foods”. “White foods” were usually dairy products and were the main food source during the summer. The main dairy product that Mongols lived on during the summer was “Koumiss” or fermented mare’s milk which is still widely drunk today. The Mongolians rarely drank milk fresh but often used it to create other foods, including cheese and yoghurt. “Red foods” were usually meat and were the main food source during the winter. Any time meat was served in the Empire it was usually boiled and served with wild garlic or onions.

What did they wear?
The boys and girls wore the same clothes, a del. This is like a dress that they wrap around themselves. Boys' dels are shorter than girls'. They sewed fur in their clothes to keep them warm.

They wore leather boots. They also wore hats and head-dresses all year round. Some were made of sable and others were made of silver fox for cold weather and in the summertime the hats were made of colorful fabrics. They made hats for special occasions too. They love hats.

What did their writing look like?
Mongolian writing was based on the older Uyghur script, which was used by the Uyghur Empire which controlled Mongolia during the 8th and 9th Centuries. It is written vertically from top to bottom, left to right. Mongolian script was first used by Uyghur scribes under Genghis Khan around the year 1204. In China, the Mongols tried to copy the Chinese emperors who had ruled before them, and began writing in Chinese, using the Chinese characters. Mongolian script is still used to write Mongolian today in the Chinese region of Inner Mongolia, but not in the country of Mongolia today, where it was replaced by a Cyrillic alphabet similar to Russian.

What did they believe?
The earlier Mongol tribes mostly followed a type of religion known as Shamanism, where a shaman is a person who is believed to be able to contact and speak to the spirit world. One religion like this was Tengriism, which believes in multiple gods, the chief of which is Tengri, the Sky-Father. Some of the other tribes followed Manichaeism, a religion which used to be followed by the Uyghur Empire from the 8th and 9th Centuries.

As the Mongol Empire grew, it encountered many more religions - in China, the Mongols encountered Buddhism and Taoism, while they learnt about Islam when they invaded modern-day Iran and Afghanistan. They also had a lot of contact with Christians, especially the Nestorian missionaries who often travelled far into the east. The Mongol khans originally followed Tengriism, but they were very tolerant of other religions and were often eager to learn about other faiths. After the Mongol Empire broke up into smaller khanates, the local khans began converting to other religions such as Islam or Buddhism.

Are some of them famous even today?

Genghis Khan and Kublai Khan, the first and last rulers of the Mongol Empire are known worldwide. Genghis Khan united the arguing Mongol tribes under one banner, calling himself the khagan meaning "khan of khans", and set about conquering new lands for their people. The Mongols had lived on the steppes, the barren infertile mountains of Mongolia and northern China for many years. They grazed animals for food and generally lived a nomadic life.

Genghis Khan rallied the troops into a formidable army, made up of mostly highly skilled horse archers who devastated the kingdoms of the Chinese and Persians. Khan was known for his cruelty, when in one Persian city, he killed every man, woman and child and had their skulls piled up into a great pyramid to warn others not to resist him. Khan's campaign stretched across the vast wastes of Asia, into China, and deep into the Persian empire, ending up (when succeeded by his son) at what is now modern Hungary. Thankfully for the Europeans, they were spared the Mongol invasion when the army disintegrated and the unified army began fighting amongst itself.

Kublai Khan was Genghis Khan's grandson, and he admired the Chinese so strongly that he changed some of the Mongol customs to appear more Chinese. He became famous in Europe after the Italian explorer Marco Polo travelled to Mongolia to meet him and wrote a famous book about his adventures in Mongolia.

What is left of them today?
The Mongolians currently number about 8.5 million and speak the Mongol language. There are approximately 2.7 million Mongols in Mongolia, 5 million Mongols living in Inner Mongolia which is in China, and 1 million Mongols live in Russia. Ethnic subgroups of Mongols are: Khalkhas, Daurs, Buryats, Evenks, Dorbots, Kalmyks, Oirats, Kazakhs, Chakhars, Tumeds, Ordoses, Bayad, Dariganga, Urianhai, Uzemchin and Zakhchin.

When did their civilization exist?
The Mongol Empire lasted from 1206, when Genghis Khan united the warring Mongol tribes and was named khagan, to 1368, when the Mongol-led Yuan Dynasty was overthrown by the Chinese-led Ming dynasty. After the Yuan Dynasty fell, the old Mongol Empire broke up into smaller khanates each with their own khan, which gradually became less Mongol and more like the local people instead. The Mongols who stayed in Mongolia, however, carried on in almost the same way they had lived when the Mongol Empire started.