 | While this page explains a fast method you might find helpful, please note the caveats at the bottom. Thanks! |
To create your first article, you can follow these simple steps. Copy and paste the following box of text into your sandbox as a starting point – as long as you're logged in with an account. You might need to click "Edit source" once at your sandbox to open the page for editing.
'''Your topic''' and then define it in the first sentence if you can.<ref>Add a reliable source people can find to verify your info here.</ref> Say something important about the topic.<ref>Add another reference here.</ref><ref>Add even another important looking reference here so people can see this topic is actually important and worthy of Wikipedia's attention.</ref>
==References==
{{reflist}}
Click "Save page". It will appear as it does in the box below. Adapt it by adding info, sources, and by replacing "your topic" with the name/title of your new topic. When you're done, copy and paste its contents into the page you want to create for new topic. To get there, just 1) type in the new article's title in the Wikipedia search bar and press enter. Then 2) click on the red link after the part that says "You may create the page..." Then 3) paste the content in, leave an edit summary like "new article", and click "Save page" at the bottom and you're done!
Your topic and then define it in the first sentence if you can.[1] Say something important about the topic.[2][3]
References
- It's really that simple most of the time! Please ensure the article doesn't already exist under an alternate title. Just create a redirect for the synonymous and specific title in that case (see the cheatsheet for further wikimarkup details on how to create redirects). Click here for the detailed "your first article" version. Click here for a list of possibly notable uncreated article topics. Click here then on "Ask a question" to ask a question about Wikipedia. Click here to leave a question about or a recommendation for this page.
- A note: You don't have to have three sources, it will just generally protect your article from being deleted if you have more than one. Just make sure you establish notability (keep reading). Once created, find other Wikipedia articles that should naturally link to your article to make sure it is integrated into the site (and not an "orphan"). You can also add a category or three at the bottom of the page with:
[[Category:Whatever category it fits into]]. Usually, just copying a couple categories from the bottom of an article that is a similar topic helps.
- Another note: Your topic should be notable (i.e. it should have some detailed coverage in good references from independent sources). Wikipedia is an encyclopedia – not something else. Please respect copyright law and avoid defamatory content. Feel free to be bold and create the article with a limited knowledge of norms here, but other editors might choose to delete it if it's not seen as belonging.
- Complications: You don't have to make the beginning of your article an exact text match of your title. See electrical characteristics of dynamic loudspeakers, for example. And the title you may type into the search bar might turn out to be a redirect that should be a separate article. If you think it is best for the encyclopedia (see the arguments listed at the previous link on "should be") to turn a redirect like UK into an article, you need to click on the "UK" where it says "(Redirected from...)" Then you can paste your content in there after you click "Edit source". In this case, there really isn't a good reason to start an article off the redirect UK.
- Yet another note: Thanks for contributing to Wikipedia. =)