Wikipedia:WikiProject U.S. states

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This is a WikiProject, a collaboration area and open group of editors dedicated to improving Wikipedia's coverage of a particular topic, or to organizing some internal Wikipedia process.
Please see the Guide to WikiProjects and the Directory of WikiProjects for more information.

Shortcut: WP:STATE

Welcome to the U.S. states WikiProject!

First, an important note for everyone to remember:

A few Wikipedians have gotten together to make some suggestions about how we might organize data in articles about states, cities and towns. These are only suggestions, things to give you focus and to get you going, and you shouldn't feel obligated in the least to follow them. But if you don't know what to write or where to begin, following the below guidelines may be helpful. Mainly, we just want you to write articles!

Title

WikiProject U.S. States

Scope

This WikiProject aims primarily to coordinate content about all of the 50 U.S. States, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and other dependent territories. The project scope includes other Subnational entities typically counties, cities and regions and the maintenance of The United States Portal.

Related WikiProjects

WikiProject U.S. states is one of the United States WikiProjects.

National	United States \| US regions \| US states \| History
State	Alabama \| Alaska \| Arizona \| Arkansas \| California \| Colorado \| Connecticut \| Delaware \| Florida \| Georgia \| Hawaii \| Idaho \| Illinois \| Indiana \| Iowa \| Kansas \| Kentucky \| Louisiana \| Maine \| Maryland \| Massachusetts \| Michigan \| Minnesota \| Mississippi \| Missouri \| Montana \| Nebraska \| Nevada \| New Hampshire \| New Jersey \| New Mexico \| New York \| North Carolina \| North Dakota \| Ohio \| Oklahoma \| Oregon \| Pennsylvania \| Rhode Island \| South Carolina \| South Dakota \| Tennessee \| Texas \| Utah \| Vermont \| Virginia \| Washington \| West Virginia \| Wisconsin \| Wyoming List of US State-level WikiProjects and their sub-projects
Territorial	District of Columbia \| American Samoa \| Puerto Rico \| Caribbean (US Virgin Is. + non-US is.) \| Micronesia (Guam, etc. + non-US is.)
Regional	US State capitols \| US cities \| US counties \| US special districts
Government	US Government \| US Presidents \| US Congress \| US Government agencies \| US Governors \| US politicians \| US Armed Forces
Assets	US Interstate Highways \| US Highways \| US Roads \| Historic Places

Also related, and often overlapping heavily with US topics, are WikiProject Canada and WikiProject Mexico.

Similar Wikiprojects

Wikipedia:WikiProject French départements

Participants

BenBaker
Brion VIBBER
Christian_Historybuff
ClairSamoht
CQ
Lou I
Lbr123
Neutrality talk
Ram-Man
sfmontyo
Simon J Kissane
Stilltim
Tedernst
Trimalchio
Vaoverland
Toussaint
IronCrow
ComputerGuy890100 (talk • contribs • count)

Structure

There shall be an article called U.S. state, which shall discuss U.S. States in general, as opposed to any particular state, and provide a list of U.S. states. It shall also list the current U.S. Federal Territories, and explain the difference between a state and a Federal territory. It shall also include a listing of U.S. states in order of admission to the Union, including the date on which it was admitted.

Each U.S. state shall be called by the common name of the state, e.g. Texas, California. An exception to this rule is Georgia (U.S. state), since it has the same name as Georgia (country), an independent country in the Caucasus; means must be found of distinguishing between the two. A template article can be found at the bottom of this page. The article on each U.S. State shall include the following information:
NOTE: Please only create these headings when there is more than a couple of sentences worth of information for an area. There is no need at all for an "introduction" heading.
NOTE: Where possible use both metric and English measurements, except in the tables where being simplified is important. Metric measurements should be used if only one is available because of its global use.

The rest of the article should consist of a few short paragraphs. These paragraphs should give an outline of the history/politics/etc. of the country and link to a full article on them. If any section becomes too detailed, it should be split off into a separate article with more detail as follows:

The heading should look like:

== Geography ==
''Main article: [[Geography of Pennsylvania]]''

A notice should be placed on each temp page that should read:

''This temporary page is being used to expand and convert the article [[_]] over to the new format agreed to at [[Wikipedia:WikiProject U.S. States|WikiProject U.S. States]]. Please feel free to add or edit anything on this page to help in the conversion process.''

Don't forget to replace the "_" with the name of the article being converted.

A table describing some of the important facts of the state. This table should look similar to the table used in WikiProject Countries. An example is included with the state template below. The table will include the following:
- State flag and the state seal. The state coat of arms may be substituted for the state seal if it is not available. NOTE: In some states, use of these symbols is prohibited without permission from the state. If such is the case, a picture of each state-designed quarter could be used as a replacement.
- The state nickname. The state motto may be substituted if the nickname is not available.
- The state's capital city.
- The state's largest city.
- Area statistics including the total area (not land area or water area) and percent of total area that is water, and the ranking among states. All areas should use square kilometers. The English measure should be reserved for the articles to keep the table simplified. If this is a U.S. territory or non-state, the rank may be omitted. Existing values are maintained at List of U.S. states by area.
- Population statistics including the total population, the population density (using square kilometers), and the rank among states. Add the year when the census was taken for the total population. Ranking may be omitted if it is a U.S. territory or non-state. Existing values are maintained at List of U.S. states by population.
- For the first 13 states, add "Order of ratification of the Constitution." Add the order and date of admittance into the Union. Include any events that caused the admittance (may be omitted). For the seceding states of the Confederacy there should also be "seceded on" and "readmitted in" dates. For a territory or non-state, an appropriate date, such as annexation dates, can be used instead.
- The time zone(s) of the state. Include the name of the timezone (e.g. Eastern) followed by the UTC numbers. Also include information on Daylight Saving Time.
- Latitude and Longitude range
  - The parallels that bound the state's eastern and western most parts.
  - The longitudes that bound the state's northern and southern most parts.
- Width, Length and Elevation
  - The greatest width of the state
  - The greatest length of the state
  - Elevation
    - The highest elevation in meters
    - The mean elevation in meters
    - The lowest elevation in meters

For all lists, Use small font and two columns were appropriate (i.e. if list is 6 or greater and does not have lengthly descriptions ). Pages on U.S. Federal Territories are to have the same format as U.S. States above, changed as needed.

Please try to avoid including trivia in the articles for U.S. States, unless you consider the trivia especially interesting.

Hierarchy Definition

No classifications of U.S. States has been defined (Do we need to classify them into groups somehow?). User:Manning Bartlett's example has ways of dividing a topic into a hierarchy.

Subpages

/General • archived discussions up to June 2005
/Strategy • proposals to move this project forward
/Assessment • Version_1.0_Editorial_Team article assessment
/Organization • Wikipedia:Classification and Wikipedia:Categorization

Worksheets

/PPP • U.S. state worksheet - Projects, Portals and People
/state templates U.S. state worksheet templates (includes territories)
/Matrix • page for coordinating:
/Sandbox • Work in progress (shared scratchpad)

References

Wikipedia:Geographic references

Template

{{US state}}:

Don't forget to replace the "_" with the name of the article being converted. For the table, replace the X's with the proper information.

This temporary page is being used to expand and convert the article [[_]] over to the new format agreed to at WikiProject U.S. states. Please feel free to add or edit anything on this page to help in the conversion process.

See implementations at Ohio, Texas, New Jersey, New York, Virginia...

Official name

Image:Statename state flag.png	Image:Statename state seal.png
Flag	Seal
Nickname(s): The Xxxx state
Image:Map of USA highlighting Statename.png

Official language(s)

None

Capital

Capital city

Largest city

Largest city

Area

Ranked N^th in the US

- Total

NNN.n sq mi
(NNN,NNN km²)

- Width

NNN miles (NNN km)

- Length

NNN miles (NNN km)

- % water

N.N

- Latitude

HH°MM'SS"W to HH°MM'SS"W

- Longitude

HH°MM'SS"N to HH°MM'SS"N

Population

Ranked N^th in the US

- Total

NN,NNN,NNN

- Density

NN.NN/sq mi (NN.NN/km²)
Ranked N^th in the US

Elevation

- Highest point

{{{HighestPoint}}}
NNN ft (NNN m)

- Mean

NNN ft (NNN m)

- Lowest point

NN ft (NN m)

Admission to Union

Month Day, Year (NN^th)

Governor

Xxxx Xxxx

Lieutenant Governor

{{{Lieutenant Governor}}}

U.S. Senators

{{{Senators}}}

Congressional Delegation

List

Time zone

Eastern: UTC-N/-N

Abbreviations

XX US-XX

Website

www.state.xx.us

{{US state |
  Name            = Normal name |
  Fullname        = Official name |
  Flag            = Statename state flag.png |
  Flaglink        = [[Flag of state link|Flag of state]] |
  Seal            = Statename state seal.png |
  Map             = Map of USA highlighting Statename.png |
  Nickname        = The Xxxx state |
  Capital         = [[Capital city, State|Capital city]] |
  LargestCity     = [[Largest city, State|Largest city]] |
  Governor        = [[Xxxx Xxxx]] |
  PostalAbbreviation = XX |
  OfficialLang    = ''None'' |
  AreaRank        = N<sup>th</sup> |
  TotalAreaUS     = NNN.n |
  TotalArea       = NNN,NNN |
  LandAreaUS      = NNN,NNN |
  LandArea        = NNN,NNN |
  WaterAreaUS     = NN,NNN |
  WaterArea       = NN,NNN |
  PCWater         = N.N |
  PopRank         = N<sup>th</sup> |
  2000Pop         = NN,NNN,NNN |
  DensityRank     = N<sup>th</sup> |
  2000DensityUS   = NN.NN |
  2000Density     = NN.NN |
  AdmittanceOrder = NN<sup>th</sup> |
  AdmittanceDate  = [[Month Day]], [[Year]] |
  TimeZone        = [[Eastern Standard Time Zone|Eastern]]: [[UTC]]-N/[[Daylight saving time|-N]] |
  Longitude       = HH°MM'SS"N to HH°MM'SS"N |
  Latitude        = HH°MM'SS"W to HH°MM'SS"W |
  WidthUS         = NNN |
  Width           = NNN |
  LengthUS        = NNN |
  Length          = NNN |
  HighestElevUS   = NNN |
  HighestElev     = NNN |
  MeanElevUS      = NNN |
  MeanElev        = NNN |
  LowestElevUS    = NN |
  LowestElev      = NN |
  ISOCode         = US-XX |
  Website         = www.state.xx.us |
  ElectoralVotes  = NN
}}

introduction: statement that it is a state of the United States, (note internal link to U.S. state), the U.S. Post Office abbreviation for the state, (e.g. MA, TX, etc.), the official (long) name of the state (e.g. "Commonwealth of Massachusetts"). Add "Order of entry into Union," and for the first 13 "Order of ratification of the Constitution." When available, add a picture of each state-designed quarter.
Add each state's motto, song, tree, bird, and other official items to a table (see Pennsylvania for an example).

Body of article

The following are suggestions for some standard sections that can be developed for each state. It is not an exhaustive list. The precise order in which these sections appear has not been discussed at any great length and the order presented here should not be contrued as consensus for re-ordering sections in existing articles to match.

Etymology

Origin of state's name

Geography

Main article: Geography of _ See also: List of _ counties

Geography
- Physical geography (mountains, rivers, plains, elevation, area, that sort of thing)
- National parks, etc.
- adjacent U.S. states, oceans, Great Lakes, Canadian provinces or Mexican states
- List of counties (if someone wants to go to the trouble) (the list itself makes for a good subpage)

Thumbnail version of the large (>1 Mb) state map from commons:Category:PD Atlas with the name "Map of state_name NA.png".

History

Main article: History of _

History
- prehistory
- history prior to joining the United States
- when first came under U.S. control (if it was a territory prior to being a state)
- When it attained statehood
- Major historical events that occurred in state

Demographics

Main article: Demographics of _

Demographics
- state population
- racial/ethnic makeup of state
- religious makeup of state

Economy

Main article: Economy of _

Economy
- State income
- Major industries/products
- state taxes

Transportation

Main article: Transportation in _

Transportation topics

- Highways and bridges (include tunnels, etc.)
- Local public transportation (transit, commuter rail, etc.)r
- Intercity bus
- Rail (passenger and freight)
- Air (include major airports)
- Ports and waterways

Politics and government

Main articles: Politics of _, Government of _, Law of _

Structure of government
- highlights from Government of _
- governor -- current, previous governors
- legislature -- bicameral or unicameral? names of houses?
- structure of state judicary
- information on state constitution
Laws
- highlights from Law of _ particularly in relation to other states and federal law
- does it have referenda? propositions?
Politics
- highlights from Politics of _
- conservative, liberal, third parties' role
- major issues in the past, present

Important cities and towns

Important Cities and Towns

Education

Education. Elementary upwards.

Colleges and universities

Colleges and Universities. A list of the colleges and universities in the state, or See also List of colleges in _

Sports

Main article Sports in _

Sports. A discussion of sports in the state, including professional and amateur team sports, national and international sports events, and other notable sports activity such as non-team sports.