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Citation Needed! A Guide to Writing and Editing on Wikipedia

  • Editing an Existing Wikipedia Article
  • Creating a New Wikipedia Article
  • Women's History Month
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The Process

  • Create your account and practice editing. Try to make 10 edits before you get started on your assignment. Information on account creation can be found on the ENL 3895 section of this guide.
  • Make sure your article doesn't already exist! Search for it on Wikipedia. If it does exist, you can simply edit the existing article.
  • Use the Article Wizard to start creating your new article. This will help you create a draft space for your article. Make sure to bookmark it and share with your group. Multiple people can edit the same draft, so only one person in your group needs to create the draft.
  • Write! Check out the links in the Helpful Resources box if you need some more guidance.
  • Hit the blue "Publish page..." button when you're done! This will allow the page to either be published, or be sent for review by other Wikipedia editors. Consider saving a copy of your article somewhere to ensure you have an extra copy of it. The 'download as PDF' link on the left is great for doing just that.

make an article wikipedia

Helpful Resources

  • Manual of Style From Wikipedia. "The MoS presents Wikipedia's house style, to help editors write articles with consistent and precise language, layout, and formatting, making Wikipedia easier and more intuitive for users. Plain English works best. Avoid ambiguity, jargon, and vague or unnecessarily complex wording."
  • Your First Wikipedia Article Everything you need to know about writing and creating your first Wikipedia article.
  • Article Development The process by which articles turn from short 'stubs' into useful, longer articles.
  • Examples of Good Articles Language and literature articles that are considered 'good articles' by Wikipedia. These can serve as good examples of what your finished article should look like.
  • << Previous: Editing an Existing Wikipedia Article
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  • Last Updated: Jan 17, 2023 3:01 PM
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How to Contribute to Wikipedia

Last Updated: March 1, 2022 Tested

wikiHow is a “wiki,” similar to Wikipedia, which means that many of our articles are co-written by multiple authors. To create this article, 82 people, some anonymous, worked to edit and improve it over time. There are 10 references cited in this article, which can be found at the bottom of the page. The wikiHow Tech Team also followed the article's instructions and verified that they work. This article has been viewed 114,804 times. Learn more...

Wikipedia is a free encyclopedia project, written collaboratively by volunteers. Many people view Wikipedia articles every day, but don't contribute. This how-to will show you what you can do to constructively edit Wikipedia.

Step 1 Create a Wikipedia...

Community Q&A

Community Answer

  • It takes less than a minute to create an account, and you receive some benefits for account creation, including the ability to move pages. There is no confirmation email process, and the account creation is immediate. Thanks Helpful 0 Not Helpful 0
  • Remember, in order for your account to edit semi-protected articles, it must have at least 10 edits and be four days old. Thanks Helpful 0 Not Helpful 0
  • If you have a problem with something or someone, discuss it. Always remember to be calm and reasonable, and you'll tend to have a better time in disputes. Thanks Helpful 0 Not Helpful 0

make an article wikipedia

  • Do not vandalize Wikipedia. It just makes a headache for everyone when people vandalize Wikipedia, and your edits will not be appreciated. The vandalism must be reverted by someone who could be editing Wikipedia constructively in other ways. Vandalism is usually removed within five minutes, or even within seconds for popular pages. Persistent vandalism could be met with a block by an administrator. If you feel the urge to vandalize with what you consider funny edits, consider editing on Uncyclopedia instead, where your funny edits would be appreciated. Thanks Helpful 8 Not Helpful 1
  • Do not use multiple accounts to vandalize Wikipedia. Wikipedia's CheckUser can detect abusive multiple accounts and they will be banned indefinitely. Thanks Helpful 0 Not Helpful 0

You Might Also Like

Create a Wikipedia Account

  • ↑ https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special:CreateAccount&returnto=Wikipedia%3AWhy+create+an+account%3F
  • ↑ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Why_create_an_account%3F
  • ↑ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Stub
  • ↑ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Uploading_images
  • ↑ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Articles_for_creation
  • ↑ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Spam
  • ↑ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Community_portal
  • ↑ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Maintenance
  • ↑ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:Reverting
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:About

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IMAGES

  1. How to Write a Wikipedia Article: 9 Steps (with Pictures)

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  2. 4 Ways to Write a Wikipedia Article

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  3. 4 Ways to Write a Wikipedia Article

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  4. How to Make a Wikipedia Article

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  5. How to Write a Wikipedia Article: 9 Steps (with Pictures)

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  6. 4 Ways to Write a Wikipedia Article

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COMMENTS

  1. Help:Your first article

    Information on Wikipedia must be verifiable; if no reliable third-party sources can be found on a topic, then it should not have an article. Search Wikipedia first to make sure that an article does not already exist on the subject. An article should follow Wikipedia policies and guidelines, especially: Neutral point of view; Coverage of a ...

  2. How to Write a Wikipedia Article: A Simple Guide

    Make at least 10 Wikipedia article edits. There are two ways you can start making edits to existing Wikipedia articles. First, after submitting your registration information, Wikipedia will automatically send you to a new webpage with a pop-up window asking if you want to edit a suggested article.

  3. Wikipedia:Article creation

    Article creation is the process by which new articles are started, titled, formed, stubbed, categorized, and developed. See Help:Your first article. You may also wish to consider using a Wizard to help you create articles — see the Article Wizard. Note: The ability to create articles directly in mainspace is restricted to autoconfirmed users ...

  4. Wikipedia:How to create a page

    Method 1: searching. Enter text in the search field that you seek to create as a page title. If the title you entered does not already exist, is not technically restricted and is not creation protected, the resulting page will i) tell you that it does not exist; ii) advise that you can create the page, and iii) will provide a red link to the ...

  5. How to Write a New Article on wikiHow

    You'll need to be using the desktop site, not the mobile one. Once you click this option, a new page will open up, and you can start writing. 2. Type in a title for your article. The words "how to" are automatically added, so a title should begin with a verb (e.g. "Walk a Dog").

  6. Creating a New Wikipedia Article

    Try to make 10 edits before you get started on your assignment. Information on account creation can be found on the ENL 3895 section of this guide. Make sure your article doesn't already exist! Search for it on Wikipedia. If it does exist, you can simply edit the existing article. Use the Article Wizard to start creating your new article. This ...

  7. How to Create a Wikipedia Page for Any Notable Topic

    2. Check to verify that the Wikipedia page you want to create doesn't already exist using the search bar. 3. On the search results page for the term you enter, the option to "ask for it to be ...

  8. Making a Wikipedia article

    You can create articles here without fear of them being interfered with by other editors. Log in to your Wikipedia account. Select the red 'Sandbox' link at the top of the screen. Select 'Create' at the top of the page to use the Visual editor. Put your cursor on 'Insert paragraph' and type in a sentence. You need at least one character of text ...

  9. Wikipedia:What is an article?

    A Wikipedia article is a page that has information suitable to be in an encyclopedia . See Special:Allpages for a list of all Wikipedia articles and Wikipedia:Statistics for information on Wikipedia and its growth. "Articles" belong to the main namespace of Wikipedia pages (also called "article namespace") which does not include any pages in ...

  10. Wikipedia:Guide to layout

    The Wikipedia Guide to Layout is only a quick explanation of some of the easy parts of laying out an article. For more detail about style guidelines, see the Simple Manual of Style.For greater detail about how to use wiki markup, see Wikipedia:How to edit a page.. This little article is a summary of what some fairly clean, simple Wikipedia articles look like.

  11. Help:Wikipedia: The Missing Manual/Editing, creating, and maintaining

    Figure 4-3 lists the Wikipedia articles that mentioned Sam Wyly before the Sam Wyly article was created. Figure 4-3. Five articles that mentioned Sam Wyly were found during the process of creating a new article about him. Information from those articles was copied (in this illustration, to the Windows Notepad) because it'll be used in the article.

  12. A Step-by-Step Guide on How to Create a Wikipedia Article

    Wikipedia values current and relevant content, so make a habit of revisiting your article periodically. Monitoring Changes: Wikipedia is a collaborative platform, and others may edit your article.

  13. How to write a Wikipedia article (it's easy)

    Fill out the little form that pops up and click insert. That'll paste the appropriate wiki syntax into your article text. (Here is something I just figured out a few months ago: If you are adding a citation to a book, copy-paste the ISBN into that field first, then click the magnifying glass to its right.

  14. 4 tips for creating a Wikipedia article

    2. How to write your entry. First, to prepare, take some time to look through Wikipedia's policies and guidelines for creating a new Wikipedia article. Take your time. Some of the policy-related pages can be very long, and you may find grasping them all in one go is difficult. View mastering Wikipedia's policies as a long-term project.

  15. New Wikipedia editor features make it easy for everyone to contribute

    New features on Wikipedia are making it easy for everyone to edit Wikipedia, especially those contributing to the site for the first time. Every time you read a Wikipedia article, you are reading the work of a volunteer contributor. Nearly 300,000 people from around the world edit Wikipedia articles each month — they start new….

  16. How to create a Wikipedia page for a person, place, company, or any

    To help you create a Wikipedia page, the website provides a helpful widget to walk users through the process of creating and publishing a new article. Since its launch, Wikipedia has slowly become ...

  17. Wikipedia:Article development

    A PDF brochure by the Wikimedia Foundation about how articles evolve, elements of good quality articles, and signs of poor quality articles.. Some of Wikipedia's articles are comprehensive right from the outset, but most start off as stubs and ideally grow into well-written, comprehensive articles with time.. This page describes the stages in the life of an article and lists the ways in which ...

  18. How to Contribute to Wikipedia: 9 Steps (with Pictures)

    Steps. Download Article. 1. Create a Wikipedia account. Account creation is not required; however, if you register for an account, [1] you will be given more privileges than a non-registered user. For all of these privileges to take place, your account must be at least four days old and have at least ten edits. [2] 2.

  19. How to Create a Wikipedia Article

    Step 6: Practice writing Practice writing an article by composing a draft in the Sandbox, where you can familiarize yourself with the site's editing tools. Get there by typing WP:SB in the Search box and hitting, "Go." Click "Help" in the toolbox to the left of any page for guidance. Step 7: Enter the article Type your subject in a Search box ...

  20. Wikipedia:Writing better articles

    This page advises on article layout and style, and on making an article clear, precise and relevant to the reader. You can post questions about English grammar and usage at Wikipedia:Reference desk/Language.; If you want to read some of Wikipedia's finest articles, have a look at Wikipedia:Featured articles.; For information on how to cite sources, see Wikipedia:Citing sources.

  21. How to Easily Read Wikipedia Articles in Layman's Terms

    fig. 2 — Wikipedia — Simple English Article on Quantum Mechanics The simplified English version is easier to read and understand. While not every page has a simple page, many do.

  22. Wikipedia:What is an article?

    A Wikipedia article or entry is a page on this site that has encyclopedic information on it. A well-written encyclopedia article: identifies a notable topic, summarizes that topic comprehensively, is written in an encyclopedic style of language, has been well copyedited, contains references to reliable sources, and.

  23. Wikipedia

    Wikipedia is a free content online encyclopedia written and maintained by a community of volunteers, known as Wikipedians, through open collaboration and the wiki software MediaWiki.Wikipedia is the largest and most-read reference work in history, and is consistently ranked among the ten most visited websites; as of May 2024, it was ranked fifth by Semrush, and sixth by Similarweb.