User:Joegrohens/Tips for Your Wikipedia Articles

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The following topics are important to know about for your Wikipedia Articles.

Tips for Wikipedia[edit]

Choosing a Topic[edit]

Procedural Tips[edit]

  • Check the source code of other articles to see how things are done
  • Annotate Your References List

Important Help Pages[edit]

Search Techniques[edit]

When searching in Wikipedia:

  • You can use the syntax "Wikipedia:searchterm" to find out how to do things in Wikipedia. For example, typing "Wikipedia:references" into the Wikipedia search box will bring you to the Wikipedia documentation on Citing Sources.
  • You can also use the prefix "Help" as in "Help:references". Typing this search string will bring you to the Wikipedia Help page for Footnotes.
  • You can use Google to search for help on Wikipedia formatting. Restrict your search to the Wikipedia.org domain, as in this example:
site:wikipedia.org help editing pages

(Note: The box above is created by putting a one-character space at the beginning of the line.)

  • Searching for Images
Places to look for images:

Read the help pages for Images and Media for more ideas.

  • How to use the Library to find sources

Using Images[edit]

See also "Searching for Images" in the previous section.


Using Tables and Info Boxes[edit]

Adding a Table[edit]

Adding an Info Box[edit]

See Infobox in the Help manual for general information about the infobox templates.

I recommend that you search for a template that matches your subject area, copy it and paste it into your article, and then modify it.

  • Or browse articles that are similar to yours and copy an infobox that looks right for your purposes.

Linking[edit]

Read this page on Linking to learn guidelines about what to make links to, how to make good linkes, and when something is overlinked or underlinked.

Repeated links[edit]

In general, link only the first occurrence of an item. This is a rule of thumb that has many exceptions, including the following:

  • where a later occurrence of an item is a long way from the first.
  • where the first link was in an infobox or a navbox, or some similar meta-content.
  • tables, in which each row should be able to stand on its own.

References[edit]

See this page: Citing Sources. It discusses when to cite sources, and how.

Also, read the page Referencing for Beginners

I recommend that you use the "inline citation" style, which means using footnotes. The quickest reference on this is the help page on Footnotes

If you are using one reference multiple times, I recommend using a "named reference". See: Wikipedia:NAMEDREFS

See also: Citation templates


Example of Citing Sources[edit]

(Copied from the article on Michael Jordan):

Michael Jeffrey Jordan (born February 17, 1963) is a retired American professional basketball player and active businessman. His biography on the National Basketball Association (NBA) website states, "By acclamation, Michael Jordan is the greatest basketball player of all time." [1]Jordan was one of the most effectively marketed athletes of his generation and was instrumental in popularizing the NBA around the world in the 1980s and 1990s.

[[[ text deleted ...]]]

Jordan won numerous awards and set many records during his career. The following are some of his achievements:[1][2]

[[[ text deleted ...]]]

References

  1. ^ a b Jordan's Streak Crashes and Burns at Indy, nba.com, December 27, 2002, accessed March 3, 2007.
  2. ^ Cover of December 23, 1991 issue of Sports Illustrated sportsillustrated.cnn.com, December 23, 1991, accessed January 16, 2007.

Example of Use of Citation Template[edit]

"By acclamation, Michael Jordan is the greatest basketball player of all time." [1] Jordan won numerous awards and set many records during his career. The following are some of his achievements:[1]

  1. ^ a b "Jordan's Streak Crashes and Burns at Indy". nba.com. December 27, 2002. Retrieved March 3, 2007. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
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