Help:Lesson, Essay and Debate namespaces

If you want to work with special spaces then you will need to follow a slightly different procedure when creating pages and when searching for them.

=Namespaces= Every wiki has numerous "namespaces". Many users never have to concern themselves about them as their edits will go, by default, into mainspace. This is where the majority of the Teflpedia articles are. We do, however have three specialized namespaces which will be of interest to users and which are used to differentiate personal opinion or works from encyclopaedic content.

What special spaces do we have?
Our special spaces are Lesson space, Essay space and Debate space.

Lesson space - where teachers can showcase and share their lessons
This is a space where teachers can upload examples of their own work (frequently lesson plans) for use by others. They may wish to link to it from their user pages so that others may get an idea of their style of working. Alternatively teachers may simply wish to donate their work to the community and let it be edited by others. Please use the category "Lesson".

If you wish to specify that your lesson should not be edited by others then please put this code: at the top of the page. It will put up a box requesting that other users don't edit your work, but suggesting that they comment on the talk page.

If you are quite happy for other teachers to modify your lesson then please put this code: at the top of the page, as this will tell them they have freedom to edit it.

To obtain credit for your work
Both the above templates allow you to enter a parameter to identify yourself. After the name of the template enter "|" followed by your user page link. For example if you had recently created a lesson which you did not want to be edited you would put. This would include your user page link in the banner.

Essay space
This is a space which teachers - or, for that matter, students - may use to let off steam, make a point about methodology, introduce new ideas for community comment or whatever they wish to write about. These essays may not be edited by other users, though they are encouraged to comment on the talk page. Please also use the category "essay" and the template  which will generate the following banner:

To "sign" your essay
You can add your user page link to the template above. After the name of the template enter "|" followed by your user page link. For example if you had recently created a essay and your username was John Smith then you would put This would include your user page link in the banner.

Debate space
The debate space is used for debate between users, be they teachers, students or simply someone interested in a given topic. Typically, a user will post a contentious an interesting point and invite others to comment for or against. Please also use the category "debate" and the template  which will generate the following banner:

To identify the starter of the debate
You can add your user page link to the template above. After the name of the template enter "|" followed by your username. For example if you had recently created a debate and your username was John Smith then you would put This would include your user page link in the banner.

Creating articles in special spaces
It is easy to create an article in a special namespace. Let's imagine that you want to create an essay, "New thoughts in TEFL". You need to go to the little search box to the left and type Essay:New thoughts on TEFL. No page will be found but you will be given the opportunity to create one. Begin writing and when you are finished save it.

If you wish to start a new debate then type: Debate:Are teachers paid enough?

If you wish to donate a lesson called "Find the banana" then type: Lesson:Find the banana

In other words it is the use of the "namespace" followed by the colon which puts the article in the special namespace.