Wikipedia Style


Wikipedia style, culture, and standards

 

Wikipedia is not just an online encyclopdia. Given the collaborative nature of the project, it is also a community. In all your writing, you need to consider who you are writing for, and what that audience's norms are.

 

 

What Wikipedia is not

 

Wikipedia has an entire page devoted to what Wikipedia is not.

 

One of the important things to remember is that Wikipedia, like most encyclopedias, is not for the publication of original research. Compare that to the scholarly books and articles you are using as sources.

 

 

Wikipedia and copyright

 

Wikipedia gives guidance for dealing with copyright.

 

Copyright on Wikipedia is a double-edged sword. You are not allowed to post material that is copyrighted by others; at the same time, by publishing your work on Wikipedia you are giving up your own copyright to your work and releasing it under the GNU Free Documentation License. Not to mention giving up any reasonable expectation of control over your article, as any idiot with an internet connection can change it.

 

 

Editing Wikipedia

 

While you don't need an account to make edits to Wikipedia, I believe you do need one to create new articles. Please sign up for an account. It needn't be linked to your real-world identity if you don't want it to be.

 

Wikipedia has a large number of help pages (many of which are at least partially redundant). Here are some that might be particularly helpful:

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:List_of_policies

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:Contents

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:Contents/Editing_Wikipedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:Editing

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Editing_FAQ

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Guide_to_writing_better_articles

 

Creating a new page

 

It seems likely that you will want to create a new page for your Wikipedia article. You can do that at the page linked below. Don't forget that you need a Wikipedia account to create a page.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:Starting_a_new_page

 

 

Images

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Uploading_images

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Image_use_policy