One of the most productive ways to contribute to Wikipedia is to create articles. This page provides a step by step guide on a possible way of creating such articles. Please note that knowledge of basic wiki markup is required to create an article.
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Process
There is a basic process used to create articles.
Step 1: Find and add sources
To start creating an article, sources must be found in order to find and verify information that will appear on the article. This is crucial because if information is not cited, it may be immediately removed from the article.
Finding sources
The easiest way to find sources is to simply to perform a Google search on the name of the article.
Adding sources
There are a variety of ways to display sources in an article. The most common way to outline the reference is to add <ref> at the beginning of the referenced text added to the article and </ref> at the end of that referenced text. Then, at the end of the article, add the heading 'References' and {{reflist}} under it. This will show the references at the end of the page.
The reference then needs to display the source. There are a large amount of templates that can be used to do this, depending on what the sources is. A list of all the citation templates can be found here.
Below are some of the main templates:
| Use | Template page | Template (short versions) |
|---|---|---|
| Websites | Template:Cite web | {{Cite web| last = | first = | authorlink = | coauthors = | title = | work = | publisher = | date = | url = | format = | doi = | accessdate = }}
</code> |
| Books | Template:Cite book | {{Cite book | last = | first = | authorlink = | coauthors = | title = | publisher = | date = | location = | pages = | url = | doi = | id = | isbn = }}
</code> |
| Videos | Template:Cite video | {{Cite video | people = | title = | medium = | publisher = | location = | date = }}</code> |
Once you have selected an appropriate template, add the code at the beginning of the reference so that it appears '<ref here>'. For example, if I am referencing Wikipedia, I would add '{{cite web | url = http://en.wikipedia.org/}}' at that spot.
Of course, not all the details in a template need to be filled out, however as many as possible should be to show as much information about the source as possible.
Step 2: Create main information
Step 3: Add media
To add another form of information to an article and make it more resourceful, various forms of media can be added - usually images. These allow the subject of the article to be experienced by the viewer in a way that encyclopedic writing simply can't do.
Finding media
To start finding media content for an article, begin searching through Wikimedia Foundation wiki projects. The best places to find media are:
- Wikimedia Commons - search here
- English Wikipedia - search here
Adding media
If not enough or no media is found searching on Wikimedia Foundation websites, you may have to upload media yourself; either media you have created or media you have found from another source.
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