User:AndyZ/Suggestions - Wikipedia

• An article should not be list-weighty.

When possible, convert lists to prose (paragraph form).

• For example, this list should be converted to prose.
• Lists are often disruptive to the flow of the text.
• Having lots of lists in the main text is looked down on in WP:FAC, because it disrupts the flow of the text.
• However, "See also", "References", and "External links" should be lists.

• Edit for grammar/spelling errors.

Watch out for typos; nobody is infallible when it comes to typing. Double-check for grammatical and spelling errors. Check thoroughly for redundancies (you may wish to try these exercises), spelling errors (for example, use spell check in Word or Firefox to double-check all spellings), and other grammatical problems. Sentences should not be run-ons like this sentence because run-ons are too long, are grammatically incorrect, and are disruptive by trailing and on and on, so make sure that sentences avoid using repeatedly repetitive words and break up all run-ons into shorter sentences to patch up the article. No fragments. Consider using well-placed commas to make longish sentences easier to read. Check for errors on the use of prepositions (e.g., here, "on" should be "in"), parallelism, subject–verb agreement, and punctuation.

It may be helpful to ask somebody else to copy-edit an article after you have done so—it is often difficult to copyedit an article when you are already accustomed to it.

To satisfy criterion 1(a) of WP:WIAFA, you may wish to take a look at suggestions at User:Tony1/How to satisfy Criterion 1a. Comprehensive lists of grammatical problems may also be found online [1] [2].

• Make sure your article flows.

• Expand/merge short paragraphs and short sections.

Short paragraphs and short sections usually disrupt the flow of an article (occasionally they can be judiciously used to emphasize an important point). Either merge them into another paragraph/section, expand the section with important information, or simply remove the paragraph/section, taking care that you are not deleting an important fact.

Paragraphs of one or two sentences often appear short to our readers.

• Incorporate/remove "Trivia"

Trivia by definition are trivial, and thus unencyclopedic; we need to keep Wikipedia focused on important information. Trivia sections should be removed, and any important facts should be added to the rest of the article. Other names for "Trivia" sections include:

• Other facts
• Miscellaneous [facts]
• In popular culture

• Make sure the article is comprehensive.

• Articles need references.

References are a list of sources used for the creation of a work. They are found in bullet form underneath a ==References== section.

We strongly suggested that you consult several references in the creation of an article, to avoid bias and encourage accuracy.

• Articles need inline citations.

• References and footnotes should be cited according to WP:CITE.

All references and footnotes need WP:CITE information. For examples of citation styles, see WP:CITE/ES. Useful templates include: {{Cite book}}, {{Cite web}}, {{Cite news}}, {{Harvard citation}}, and {{Harvard reference}}. This includes date of access, authors, and date of publication.

The {{Cite (something)}} are fairly easy to use; go to the talk pages of the individual templates to view the parameters that are associated with the template. For the Harvard citations, insert the Harvard citation into the text, and add the Harvard reference template at the bottom in a "References" section.

• Make sure sources are reliable.

Articles should preferably contain more than just web references; we strongly encourage you to include paper resources (books, magazines, newspapers) as references. Web references can (and should) be used, but please be sure to check that the sources contain reliable information. Include the date on which you accessed the site. Fan sites are often not reliable and may be biased towards a certain POV.

Be aware of the convention of using quote marks where you copy a source word-for-word, at least for more than a phrase or two. Even where you paraphrase another text, consider citing the source, although quote marks will be unnecessary.

Try not to rely heavily on a single source, unless no other sources are available. The astute reader can usually tell that the information-base is narrow.

• All quotations should have footnotes.

• Avoid WP:POV and stay WP:NPOV.

• Avoid weasel terms, and make sure that it is listed exactly who supports a view.

The following are common weasel terms:

• "consider"
• "believe"
• "many people"
• "it has been"
• "allegedly"

A larger list can be found at WP:AWT#Examples. Sentences with weasel terms should be either reworded to remove the weasel term or should include proper inline citations (WP:FOOTNOTEs), and/or be specified as to exactly who advocates such a view.

• An article should be stable.

An article is stable if it does not undergo many changes each day. Note that vandalism does not have to do with the stability of an article.

Often, current events will be unstable. There is not much to do about this except to wait for the event to pass so that the article can stabilize naturally.

• There should be no edit wars.

• Whenever information may become dated,
  try to give the time at which it was accurate (from WP:MOS#Time)

• Full dates should have either two or no commas, depending upon the subject of the article.
  After a year, there should always or never be a comma.

Be consistent in this respect throughout an article. For example, an article should either have January 22, 1985, or January 22 1985.

After a single year, there should consistently be a comma or never be one. Either use "In 2015, this happened" (American) or "In 2015 this happened" (British).

• All numbers with measurements in U.S. customary units should have conversions to the
  metric system. Time units are exempt from this. An example would be: 5 inches (13 cm).

The format for a unit of measure is as follows- 159 inches (404 cm).
Please note the following (which are covered in the next points):

• There is a nobreak space between the value and the unit of measure-  to prevent the unit of measure from appearing alone on the next line.
• The original unit of measure is spelled out fully (inches), and the conversion in parentheses is abbreviated (cm).
• Numbers should keep to the same accuracy; instead of 800 miles (1,287.48 km), use 800 miles (1,300 km), unless a case such as 1 mile (1.6 km).

Category:Conversion templates has many useful templates that may be applicable.

• All numbers with units of measure should have a nobreak space-  -
  between the number and unit of measure.

• Source units should be spelled out in text,
  while converted units should use standard abbreviations.

• Follow WP:MOS in terms of currency.

It may be helpful to convert currencies to others they may help out readers. This should be done in parentheses along with the year to which the conversion is referring. An example is: "one thousand Swiss francs (approx. US$763, c. 2005)".

The dollar sign ($) as well as other currency symbols can be ambiguous, as many countries use the same symbol to represent their currencies. For an article specific to a certain country, the $ alone can be used. For a general article, it should be indicated as to which currency a symbol is used; examples include:

• US$100 million
• CA$100,000
• 2000 Chinese renminbi
• CNR 2000

The dollar sign should always go before the money value (do not do 100$). However, it should go after the country abbreviation (do not do $US100).

• Do not extraneously bold terms unless necessary.

• Footnotes should appear after the punctuation mark, without a space.^[3]

^ This is done in WP:FOOTNOTE.

• Alphabetize interlanguage links (and ? categories).

< 15,000 characters	medium size	> 30,000 characters
one or two paragraphs	two or three paragraphs	three or four paragraphs

• The lead should not introduce information that is not discussed in the rest of the article.
  However, it should establish the notability and importance of the subject.

• See if there is an applicable infobox if the article doesn't have one already.

• Not have wikilinks inside them. Relevant wikilinks should occur in the prose
  of the section immediately following the heading.

• not contain capitalized words, besides the first letter and proper nouns.

• not repeat the title of the article unless this is necessary.

• not start with the word "the", if possible.

• be concise.

• be hierarchical.

• follow the order at WP:GTL.

Guide to layout suggests that the order for the last few sections be the following:

1. See also
2. Notes
3. References
4. Bibliography/Further reading
5. External links

(note the capitalization and wording of the sections)

• The ToC should be of substantial size.

• Ensure that the ToC is not overly long.

• If the article doesn't already have images, please see if you can get a free use image.

Alternatively, you can claim fair use for an image. However, if there is a free use image available (free use meaning that it has been released into public domain, according to the image copyright tags), that should be used instead.

Articles do not need images. However, many articles are significantly enhanced by the judicious use of images.

• If the article has no image in the top-right hand corner of the lead,
  please insert an image there.

• Double-check that all images have an image copyright tag that is not obsolete-
  the {{PD}} tag is no longer acceptable and should be replaced by either another tag or a fair-use tag.

• Do not inundate the article with images.

While images are strongly recommended for articles, do not cause an article to overflow with too many, which can be disruptive and repetitive; select the best, most relevant, most important, and most informative/educational images.

Avoid using galleries, as Wikipedia is not a collection of pictures. Images can be moved into a category in the Wikimedia commons (note that fair-use images are not allowed in the commons), and that category can be linked from by the article.

Do not squeeze text between images or make images too large, as they can be disruptive to the text.

• All images should have concise captions.

The format for a caption would be: [[Image:Imagename.jpg|200px|THE CAPTION]]. See WP:CAPTION for guidelines. Basic guidelines include that it:

1. clearly identifies the subject of the picture, without detailing the obvious.
2. is succinct.
3. establishes the relevance relevance of the image to the article.
4. provides context for the image.
5. draws the reader into the article.
6. is either a title, such as the title of a book, or consists of one or more complete sentences. A full-stop at the end is not required if the caption is not a real sentence, e.g., "The love scene from the first act".

• An article should be of appropriate length.

• Observe summary style.

An article should not be too long. It should be concise and comprehensive. Making an article too long can make it uninteresting; other reasons for concision can be found at WP:SIZE. Articles that are larger than around 40 kilobytes in size may benefit from trimming on the basis of WP:SS.

To contain the size of an article, create subpages—"daughter" articles for more detailed information. For example, for United States, subpages include History of the United States and Education in the United States. The part of the article that concerns a subpage should summarize the content of the more detailed subpage. United States#History is not nearly as long as History of the United States, but summarizes the larger points. At the top of the section that is related to a daughter article, add {{main article|NAME OF SUBPAGE}} underneath the related subsection.