General Tips

When turning in documents, make sure that they are formatted as follows:

i. Your name on the first page of the document
   ii.   Page numbers
  iii.   Be doubled-spaced
  iv.   Careful proofreading
   v.   Preferred font – Baskerville, size 14 Make sure you are logged in before you write.

  • Always sign your comments with ~~~~ to timestamp.
  • Consider saving after every sentence, so if an editor doesn’t like one of your points, only that sentence will be reverted.
  • Be sure that every assertion in your article is supported with a citation (and carefully review the information on citations referenced above). In-text citations that include the name of the scholar making the claim and information about any studies are superior to simple footnotes. 
  • A good practice is to include a reference after every sentence.  This is especially important for health-related articles.
  • To easily create citations, click on the word “Cite” at the top of the editing box. It will give you a drop-down menu of citation templates for books, journals, websites, and news. You can select a template and it will give you a form with all of the needed fields, and will then format the information for you. If you name the references where the template says “Ref name,” you can re-use them later by clicking on “Named references” and selecting whichever one you want. You put {{Reflist}} under references for Wikipedia to auto-generate your reference list, and if you add a number like {{Reflist|3}}, it will split the references up into that many columns. 
  • Do NOT paste over the entire existing article, or large sections of the existing article. After completing a change, press the “Save page” button. (Be sure to provide a brief explanation of each change in the space provided.) Overwriting entire articles or large sections is more acceptable for articles that are not actively being edited by other Wikipedians (no substantive new edits in several months). If you plan substantial deletions and overwriting to an existing page, make sure that you have provided advance explanations on the article’s Talk page of the problems with the current page, and that you have described your planned revisions and given other Wikipedians time to respond. 
  • Your article should include a number of short sections (many of which you may have included in your proposal). Headings allow a reader to jump around and find the information they want easily. (When you include a heading, a table of contents will be automatically generated when you post to Wikipedia.) Wikipedia allows the creation of article headings with relative ease.
    • Add links from your article to other articles and to your article from other relevant articles. The linking infrastructure is what helps users navigate to and discover new information and will prevent your article from being orphaned and therefore unread. To add a link, [[double-bracket]] the word. Also, add links from your article to other articles. For example, Capabilities Approach would link to the capabilities approach page. A link to a page that doesn’t exist will appear red. (Some of these instructions may be different with the visual editor.)
    • Good Wikipedia articles contain illustrations that help explain the topic visually. Review the Training Module on Contributing Images and Media Files.
    • Click the “watch” button for both the article and talk page for each article you contributed to. As before, be sure to continually check the article’s Talk page and any WikiProject Talk pages for user feedback and suggestions.

New article tips 

  • The easiest way to post a new article on the Wikipedia Mainspace is to log into your account and then type the name of your topic into the search box on the upper right-hand side of the page. If no article exists, you will be prompted to create one. Be sure to search for similar topics as well as articles about broader ideas that may already cover the topic you want to write about. 
  • Do not simply copy and paste your text from your sandbox to the article or there will be no record of your work history. Follow these instructions for how to move your work.
  • When changes are complete, press the “Save page” button.
  • Be sure to include your citations and references when you create your article or it may be deleted swiftly. 
  • If your contribution disappears, don’t panic and also don’t try to force your contribution back on.
  • Check to see if there is an explanation of the edit on the article’s talk page. If not, (politely) ask why it was removed.
  • Click the Get Help button or email the course content expert.