Can you write an environmental (or any) DK Diary? Sure, assuming that you know about something of interest and can tell a story at all. There are some mechanical issues, like the DK editor and scheduler, and search engines, and so on, that I can help with.
- Some think they can't write. That can't be true if they can talk.
- Some think they lack ideas, in spite of the fire hose of important news coming at us.
- Some are afraid of the DK editor and scheduler. There you do need help, and you need to take it one step at a time.
I'm going to focus today on the mechanics of creating and posting a Diary, with the bare minimum on the editor, and most of our attention on where, when, and how.
I am about to start from scratch. Let's choose a topic. Something significant, but not too urgent, ripped from today's news…I have it! Kazakhstan!
OK, let's get started.
Our Purpose
Gentlemen, you are now about to embark on a course of studies which will occupy you for two years. Together, they form a noble adventure. But I would like to remind you of an important point. Nothing that you will learn in the course of your studies will be of the slightest possible use to you in after life, save only this, that if you work hard and intelligently you should be able to detect when a man is talking rot, and that, in my view, is the main, if not the sole, purpose of education.
John Alexander Smith (1863–1939), Professor of Moral Philosophy at Oxford University.
Statement recorded in 1914.
Exposing rot and telling the truth is certainly the main point of DK. That's how we keep our opponents from getting us to give up, and how we get to More and Better Democrats.
Diary plan
If you would like to participate
- Know your sources, and keep watch on them.
- Learn how to talk to Google.
- Learn all of the Diary editing controls—Try them. You won't break anything.
- Learn all of the Image Library controls and metadata editing.
A simple diary plan:
- Pick a bit of new news—I chose Kazakhstan for this demonstration.
- Ask Wikipedia and Google about it
- Start a Diary—There are various DK pages with a line that says Diaries New •Drafts. Click the New button.
- Title—Enter an informative name that will attract the attention of those interested in the topic. Let's say, Kazakhstan, Environmental Disaster Area
- Pic—See if there is a relevant picture in the DK Image Library. Let me know if you need a lesson on that.
- Tags—You can't publish a Diary without tags, so do them first. #Kazakhstan #AralSea
- Lede, the first few lines that have to tell readers what this is about—Welcome New Users: Do I Want to Read Your Diary? (Don't Bury Your Lede). Look at the first paragraph here.
- Tell the essence of the story briefly
- Your connection
- Who, What, When, Where, Why, How
- Data
- Causes and effects
- Story Break—There is a button above, with an icon of a sheet of paper with a bent corner and a dotted line below. Click it to put in a break, so that the Diary list will show your Diary down to the break, not the whole thing. This is an important courtesy to readers.
- Go into more detail, and include images and video. In the case of Kazakhstan, you could put in some local music or dance.
- Links with quotes and comments—Examples below.
- Save early and often—There are two kinds of computer users, those who have lost data, and those who are going to.
- Queue to group—Use the Add a publish group button to pick from DK groups you belong to. Ask for membership in other groups you would like to publish in. (Another lesson?)
- Go to group queue to schedule—Click the name of a group to open a tab showing its queue. There is a schedule later button. Click it, then click a day and enter a time. Click the SCHEDULE button. Verify the date and time you just set.
- Be part of the discussion—You know about that, right? It's one of the best features of Good News.
- Promote your Diaries—Put links and a brief quotation in appropriate places, like Open Thread Diaries or Diaries in the same or related groups.
Examples
What follows is the raw results of some searches, with minimal editing. They are not ordered to tell a story, and they are not culled to those links relevant to a particular topic, such as the Aral Sea disaster, or human rights, or petroleum vs. renewable energy in Kazakhstan.
Choose relevant links from your searches. At a minimum you want a meaningful short quotation for each link. In some cases, there is more specific information worth quoting. You can also add a comment on the validity of the claims made.
Of course, it helps if you have some background on what is important about your topic.
The name "Kazakh" comes from the ancient Turkic word qaz, "to wander", reflecting the Kazakhs' nomadic culture. The name "Cossack" is of the same origin. The Persian suffix -stan means "land" or "place of", so Kazakhstan can be literally translated as "land of the wanderers".
Aral Sea
Formerly the fourth largest lake in the world with an area of 68,000 km2 (26,300 sq mi), the Aral Sea has been shrinking since the 1960s after the rivers that fed it were diverted by Soviet irrigation projects. By 1997, it had declined to 10% of its original size, splitting into four lakes: the North Aral Sea, the eastern and western basins of the once far larger South Aral Sea, and one smaller intermediate lake.[5] By 2009, the southeastern lake had disappeared and the southwestern lake had retreated to a thin strip at the western edge of the former southern sea; in subsequent years, occasional water flows have led to the southeastern lake sometimes being replenished to a small degree.[6] Satellite images taken by NASA in August 2014 revealed that for the first time in modern history the eastern basin of the Aral Sea had completely dried up.[7] The eastern basin is now called the Aralkum Desert.
In an ongoing effort in Kazakhstan to save and replenish the North Aral Sea, the Dike Kokaral dam project was completed in 2005; in 2008, the water level in this lake had risen by 12 m (39 ft) compared to 2003.[8] Salinity has dropped, and fish are again found in sufficient numbers for some fishing to be viable.[9] The maximum depth of the North Aral Sea is 42 m (138 ft) (as of 2008).[2]
The shrinking of the Aral Sea has been called "one of the planet's worst environmental disasters".[10][11] The region's once-prosperous fishing industry has been devastated, bringing unemployment and economic hardship. The water from the diverted Syr Darya river is used to irrigate about two million hectares (5,000,000 acres) of farmland in the Ferghana Valley.[12] The Aral Sea region is also heavily polluted, with consequential serious public health problems.
General search results may be of use, but usually you want to click News to get the latest.
Edit the format of entries you copy for style, line breaks, and spacing.
Block Quote quotations to look like this.
Central Asia :: Kazakhstan — The World Factbook
Ethnic Kazakhs, a mix of Turkic and Mongol nomadic tribes with additional Persian cultural influences, migrated to the region in the 15th century. The area was conquered by Russia in the 18th and 19th centuries, and Kazakhstan became a Soviet Republic in 1925. Repression and starvation associated with forced agricultural collectivization led to a massive number of deaths in the 1930s. During the 1950s and 1960s, the agricultural "Virgin Lands" program led to an influx of settlers (mostly ethnic Russians, but also other nationalities) and at the time of Kazakhstan’s independence in 1991, ethnic Kazakhs were a minority. Non-Muslim ethnic minorities departed Kazakhstan in large numbers from the mid-1990s through the mid-2000s and a national program has repatriated about a million ethnic Kazakhs (from Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Mongolia, and the Xinjiang region of China) back to Kazakhstan. As a result of this shift, the ethnic Kazakh share of the population now exceeds two-thirds.
Kazakhstan's economy is the largest in the Central Asian states, mainly due to the country's vast natural resources. Current issues include: diversifying the economy, obtaining membership in global and regional international economic institutions, enhancing Kazakhstan's economic competitiveness, and strengthening relations with neighboring states and foreign powers.
Kazakhstan, also spelled Kazakstan, officially Republic of Kazakhstan, Kazakh Qazaqstan Respublikasï, country of Central Asia.
Since independence in 1991, the Kazakhstan government prioritized economic development over political and human rights reforms. However, President ...
Kazakhstan - The New York Times
News about Kazakhstan, including commentary and archival articles published in The New York Times.
Reuters
NUR-SULTAN (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo urged Kazakhstan on Sunday to join Washington in pressing Beijing over its ...
Xinhua
NUR-SULTAN, Feb. 2 (Xinhua) -- Visiting U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Sunday that Kazakhstan is a reliable partner of the ...
ABC News
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is in Kazakhstan pressing authorities to be wary of Russian and Chinese investment and influence.
Al Jazeera America
Human Rights Watch reports physical violence, forced sedation and an attitude of neglect towards children with disabilities in Kazakhstan state ...
msnNOW
NUR-SULTAN, Kazakhstan (AP) — U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is in Kazakhstan pressing authorities to be wary of Russian and ...
Radio Free Europe/ Radio Liberty
Kazakhstan says it has evacuated 83 of its citizens from the Chinese city of Wuhan, considered the epicenter of the coronavirus epidemic, as a ...
CNA
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Sunday during a visit to Kazakhstan that he carried a "perfect message" of global press freedom, ...
Military.com
NUR-SULTAN, Kazakhstan (AP) — U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Sunday pressed Kazakhstan to be wary of Chinese investment ...
Other Resources
Depending on the aspect of your chosen topic that you want to highlight, there will be many more specialized resources available. For Kazakhstan it could be human rights organizations, the environment, the oil business, international politics, and much more. We have found some in a Google search, but it is useful to have a list of resources bookmarked on your particular topic.
Questions?
Now, ask me anything about writing Diaries. I will know, or someone will know, or we will find out. If necessary, I will write another Diary in this series.