Talk:Wikimedia Developer Summit/2018/Writing Tips/Examples

Caveat lector: I have no idea if these examples are actually what the committee is looking for. Hopefully they'll get looked at and improved collectively until they *are* a better match for what's expected.

I'm not in a position to say whether or not these are what the committee is looking for, but I want to thank you for providing examples that are not actual possible topics. We discussed providing examples, but didn't want to bias anyone's thinking about what technical topics they should/shouldn't cover.

While I am not on the committee, I want to second what Kevin said. These are good examples.

I edited the page to reflect that we will be using these as official examples!H

"Highly structured" format added to the examples, pending review by program committee.

A more structured format was suggested by Sarah R as well, which might be more suitable for non-native speakers. I've edited her example a little bit to remove actual technical content:

Title: Embracing a new era with partially riped tomatoes

Background: Recent progress with on-demand tomato ripening using Ethylene gas has opened an exciting possibility for our project. We no longer have to ship fully-ripened tomatoes and risk bruising and spoilage.

Advice:

(1) Cooperate with the industry on developing ethylene ripening technology.

(2) Begin to ship partially ripened tomatoes which third-parties can ripen on-demand.

(3) Evaluate the impact: what happens when most consumers want the partially-ripened tomato product. Should we eliminate the divisions between the partially-ripened and fully-ripened products? Should we invest R&D in improvements to ripening technologies to stay on top of this trend?

As discussed on another thread, I worry that terse proposals might lose the unconscious "writing contest" when evaluated by the Program Committee, so I'm reluctant to endorse this abbreviated format w/o feedback from the program committee. OTOH I agree that the bullet-point format might make it easier for those who feel uncomfortable writing a traditional essay-style argument.

@Cscott I agree with this format and the thought that the more structured format provides a more supportive framework for folks who are not as comfortable writing in English.

I am going to move it and add it to your "unofficial" examples now until the program committee provides additional guidance.