Wikipedia - A beginners guide

A quick guide for new Wikipedia users

I.

Creating a new page

A) Make sure you’re on the correct Wikipedia url before you start! If you’re writing in English, use the English website (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page).

Otherwise the article will be rejected and what you've written will be a hassle to find back!

B) If the page already exists, open it and click on ‘Edit source’ in the top right and add the information you wish to add.

TIP: Your article can be evaluated in three ways: accepted, declined or rejected. If your article is accepted it will immediately be added to the database and visible to anyone.

If your article gets declined, you will get feedback by the wikipedia

volunteer who reviewed it and have the chance to edit it and submit it again. If your article gets rejected it means that there is no hope for your article to ever get published, as it is not appropriate for an

encyclopedia, after which the article will be deleted.

If the page does not yet exist, you have to create it first. Let’s say the new article is called “mynewsubject”. First look it up in the wikipedia database using the search tool.

If the page indeed does not exist it will show up in “Red”, which you have to click on. This will create a draft of the new page with the correct title. Only when the page is accepted by a wikipedia volunteer, you will find it in the database.

II.

Writing your article

A) There’s two ways you can edit your article: Visual editing and Source editing.

This is visual editing, which allows for a more clear overview of your article.

I would use this tool primarily to edit the contents of your text, edit your layout, rearrange your info boxes / images and add references.

This is source editing. This tool allows for more in depth changes and additions such as info boxes. It’s also used to hyperlink keywords to links or change certain fonts, which I will further explain later.

To switch between these two modes click the button with the “Pen” icon.

It’s important to test out and experiment with both options to get a feel for which one you should use when.

B) It’s best to start by creating a lay-out for all the information you’ve gathered.

It’s easier to begin by using the visual editor.

• Start with a short introduction. This has to include the title of your article.

You have to make this title bold, which you have to do in the source editor.

This is done by putting three apostrophes on either side of the title, like this:

Source editor Visual editor

• Use the built in fonts to create titles, subtitles, subsubtitles, etc...

Wikipedia will automatically generate a content box creating the chapters.

• It's important to link certain keywords within the article to other wikipedia articles. This is easily done by adding closed double brackets [[...]] around the

keyword. If it's doesn't link to the correct page you can do it manually using the 'reference' button in the source editor.

Source editor Visual editor

C) Citing your references in the text is very important. Adding a list of references

at the of your text just isn't good enough and your article will be declined if you do this. There are many ways to add in-text citations, but I will show the method I used which seems the easiest and most straightforward.

• Every paragraph or direct quotation needs a number in super script referring it to the correct original source. Put your cursor next the paragraph you want to do this with and click on the 'cite-button' in the visual editor.

• A screen will pop-up allowing you to choose which source you want to address the paragraph to.

• You can add a new source automatically or manually. For internet sources the automatic option works quite well, although you have to use the manual option for books, journals, .... If you already used the source on a different paragraph you can click the 'Re-use' tab and use it again.

• Your list of references will automatically generate at the end of your text.

III.

Rewriting your article

There's many reasons why your article can be declined, so before you submit it, take a look at the problems I was confronted with which you should try to avoid.

A) Make sure your article is written in a neutral tone. In wikipedia they want you to avoid what they call peacock terms: words that may introduce bias. Some

examples are 'legendary', 'great', 'innovative', 'leading', etc... They disrupt

the neutral tone of the article and have to be removed, make sure you stick

to the facts.

B) Avoid information which is outside the scope of the article. In an article that concerns a building you cannot write information about the architect which is not directly related to that building as well.

C) Make sure you cite your references in the text as I showed in the previous page. If this is not done correctly the article will be declined.

D) Copyright issues. This is quite an obvious one but very important. Even if you use a dutch source to write an English article, you cannot directly translate entire sentences and use them. You have to rewrite them into your own words.

E) The 'History' tool is a useful function which you can find in the top right corner.

You can use it to go back to earlier versions of your article: simply click on the date of the revision you want to access and you will be able to read and edit it. By clicking "Publish" on the earlier version, it will be restored as the current one.

You can also use it to view changes made by dierent users. By selecting two revisions and clicking on 'compare', you get a detailed overview of what exactly has been edited. 

I received an interesting tool from a wikipedia moderator which you can use to trace copyright violations:

https://tools.wmflabs.org/copyvios/

IV.

Getting your article reviewed

The review time fluctuates significantly, sometimes it takes 30 minutes, sometimes it can take multiple weeks. There are some methods to get your article reviewed

a bit faster, although this is not foolproof.

A) A method suggested by wikipedia is to add your article to a relevant 'wikiproject'. First you have to find a relevant one for your article. For my CBR Building project I added the wikiproject 'Architecture'. Some other examples are science, mathematics, Belgium, sports, ...

Then click on the 'Talk' button on the top left corner of your article and add it in double closed curly brackets {{...}}.

{{WikiProject Architecture}}

B) Use the help desk feature! You cannot directly use this to ask for reviews, but it often results in a review if the volunteer that answers your question is in the mood.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:WikiProject_Articles_for_creation/Help_desk

Click on the link and then on 'New section' in the top right corner. Follow the instructions to ask your questions. You should receive an answer within 2-5 hours from a volunteer on the bottom of the link above, make sure you check regularly.

C) If the previous methods didn't work it's never a bad idea to contact someone directly. You can either contact the person who declined your work before and ask whether you fixed the results correctly, or contact the person who answered your questions in the help desk.

As an example I will show the user who accepted my first article: Calliopejen1

Click on the link and then on the 'talk' tab as I showed before, where you will see all the questions that she received. Click on 'New section' and ask your question.

V.

Some extra tips

• If you send a message to someone on wikipedia, always sign it by writing '~~~~'. This will automatically add your name and date of writing at the end of your message.

• If you want to add an image to your article you have to use Wikimedia Commons. You can either add your own image to the database or use one which is already uploaded. Any images on this platform are copyright free and can be used and distributed by anyone.

If you end up uploading your own image, you can use the same account as

you use on wikipedia. Make sure the picture you upload is either yours or free to distribute by the original author. There are more in depth rules and guidelines on the website.

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:CBR_Building_facade.jpg

This is an example of an image I uploaded. To use it in your article you have to click on 'Use this file' and copy the link it generated.

Use the source editor and paste this link into your article. Then use your visual editor and change the size of the pictures and how it's aligned.

• Adding an info box is slightly more complicated. There's a plethora of ways you can do this, but I suggest first checking if there's a template you can download by clicking on the 'puzzle piece' icon using the source editor.

There is a good chance you will find the correct template you need. You can always add or delete rows of an info box using the source editor. A good tip is to find another wikipedia page which has a similar info box to the one you need, copy it in the source editor, paste it in your article and modify it.

This is the coding I used in my CBR article. Feel free to copy the code and use it for your own.

• It can be interesting to add categories to your article, linking it to relevant categories and broadening its scope. There are many different categories and you will have to test out which ones already exist. These are the categories I added for my CBR page:

VI.

Conclusion

This quick guide only helps you with the basics when creating an article. If something doesn't work out or if you have more questions, it's always a good idea to analyse existing articles or ask questions in the help centre which I mentioned earlier.

You can also check out the two articles I wrote on Wikipedia:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CBR_Building https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constantin_Brodzki




I will add an image of both articles in the next pages. As the CBR Building was a trial and error for me I will show the first draft I made and the final outcome. You will see how in the process of a couple of weeks the lay-out changed completely, information was deleted (out of the scope of the

article), categories were added, references were fixed, many peacock terms were deleted, etc... 

First draft of the CBR Building article

• Clear lack of an info box and images

• Many peacock words:

- "most prominent pieces" in the introduction

- "Revolutionary design" as a title

- "Ground breaking"

• References are incorrect and no in-text citations

• The entire segment of 'Constantin Brodzki' was out of the scope of the article

• I forgot to rewrite the last sentence of the 'Revolutionary design' subheader, which was a violation of copyright

• Many, many more small mistakes and changes

Final draft of the CBR Article

Final draft of the Constantin Brodzki article