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Citation Needed! A Guide to Writing and Editing on Wikipedia

  • Editing an Existing Wikipedia Article
  • Creating a New Wikipedia Article
  • Women's History Month
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The Process

  • Create your account and practice editing. Try to make 10 edits before you get started on your assignment. Information on account creation can be found on the ENL 3895 section of this guide.
  • Make sure your article doesn't already exist! Search for it on Wikipedia. If it does exist, you can simply edit the existing article.
  • Use the Article Wizard to start creating your new article. This will help you create a draft space for your article. Make sure to bookmark it and share with your group. Multiple people can edit the same draft, so only one person in your group needs to create the draft.
  • Write! Check out the links in the Helpful Resources box if you need some more guidance.
  • Hit the blue "Publish page..." button when you're done! This will allow the page to either be published, or be sent for review by other Wikipedia editors. Consider saving a copy of your article somewhere to ensure you have an extra copy of it. The 'download as PDF' link on the left is great for doing just that.

how to write a page in wikipedia

Helpful Resources

  • Manual of Style From Wikipedia. "The MoS presents Wikipedia's house style, to help editors write articles with consistent and precise language, layout, and formatting, making Wikipedia easier and more intuitive for users. Plain English works best. Avoid ambiguity, jargon, and vague or unnecessarily complex wording."
  • Your First Wikipedia Article Everything you need to know about writing and creating your first Wikipedia article.
  • Article Development The process by which articles turn from short 'stubs' into useful, longer articles.
  • Examples of Good Articles Language and literature articles that are considered 'good articles' by Wikipedia. These can serve as good examples of what your finished article should look like.
  • << Previous: Editing an Existing Wikipedia Article
  • Next: ENL 3895 >>
  • Last Updated: Jan 17, 2023 3:01 PM
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How to Edit a Page in Wikipedia

Last Updated: May 21, 2024

wikiHow is a “wiki,” similar to Wikipedia, which means that many of our articles are co-written by multiple authors. To create this article, 48 people, some anonymous, worked to edit and improve it over time. This article has been viewed 62,022 times. Learn more...

Sometimes, while taking a look at a Wikipedia article, you might find a mistake in it. Here's how to edit a page.

It's recommended to create an account before doing this action. If you already have an account, log in. If you don't, you might want to create one to keep all your contributions in your account under your username. If you want to edit without an account, then continue below.

Editing an Unprotected Page

EditingaWikipediapage2.png

  • Take a look again. Did you accidentally remove a word? Is there is anything else you could correct?

EditingaWikipediapage5.png

Editing a Protected Page

  • 1 Go to the protected page.
  • 2 Click on "View source".
  • 3 Click Submit an edit request .
  • 4 Fill in the space between {{subst:trim|1= and }} stating unambiguously what you want to do. If what you are doing is ambiguous, consider discussing the edit on the talk page before making the edit.
  • 5 Click on Show preview . This allows you to view how the changes will appear on the talk page.
  • 6 Click Publish changes .

Community Q&A

Hello903hello

Wiki formatting

Putting in:.

  • section headings between two equals signs, e.g.: ==Hello there== ;
  • subheadings between three equals signs, e.g.: ===Hello there=== ;
  • italic text between two apostrophes (NOT double quotes) - e.g. '' Hello there'' makes: Hello there ;
  • bold text between three apostrophes - e.g. ''' Hello there''' makes: Hello there ;
  • bold "and" italic text between five apostrophes - e.g. ''''' Hello there''''' makes: Hello there ;
  • [[Say Hello in Different Languages|Say Hello]] would link in a wikiHow article to: Say Hello and
  • external web-link entire URL between single square brackets (check spelling & punctuation) - e.g. [http://www.hello-there.com] (with "http://") will link to the webpage at http://www.hello-there.com . Basically, external links are set up like internal links, only with one set of brackets, and a space instead of a | separator;
  • "block indent" of unnumbered line or paragraph, put a colon (:) beginning the line (2 colons = double indent) actually skips lines ;
  • more bullet points within a bulleted list , use a double star (**) beginning each line
  • Third level bullet points within a bulleted list , use a triple star (***) beginning each line
  • (That was done here and the one above for example) .
  • But, that would disrupt a numbered list... See the note at the end of the numbering section.

Automatic wiki numbering:

  • numbered list , put a hash (#) beginning each line.
  • insert a new numbered line , strike "Enter" where you want the line and put a hash (#) and write your text and it will automatically renumber all the lines below. That's the basics of numbering!
  • bullet point list within the main numbered list , put a hash and a star (#*) beginning each line
  • To add extra blank lines as above before the bulleted sub-list, and also below before the indented numbered list use <br><br> at the end of the line before where extra lines are desired.
  • put a double hash (##) beginning each line
  • Third level numbering put a triple hash (###) beginning each line
  • "br" means line break (to break the line and go to the next line) so several of them will make several blank lines...
  • Use this extra formatting for a good reason not for fun.

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  7. Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Layout

    This guide presents the typical layout of Wikipedia articles, including the sections an article usually has, ordering of sections, and formatting styles for various elements of an article. For advice on the use of wiki markup, see Help:Editing; for guidance on writing style, see Manual of Style .

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    To help you create a Wikipedia page, the website provides a helpful widget to walk users through the process of creating and publishing a new article.

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    From Wikipedia. "The MoS presents Wikipedia's house style, to help editors write articles with consistent and precise language, layout, and formatting, making Wikipedia easier and more intuitive for users. Plain English works best. Avoid ambiguity, jargon, and vague or unnecessarily complex wording."

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  12. How to Create a Page on Wikipedia: The Definitive Guide

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  15. Creating a Wikipedia Page: Everything You Need To Know

    Step 1: Creating Your Account on Wikipedia. Coming back to the initial question of how to make a Wikipedia page, the first step will be to create a Wikipedia account for yourself or your business. This is an important step because only registered accounts on Wikipedia are allowed to publish or edit any content on the platform.

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    Learn everything you want about Wikipedia with the wikiHow Wikipedia Category. Learn about topics such as Simple Ways to Write a Wikipedia Article, How to Delete Your Wikipedia Account, How to Edit a Page in Wikipedia, and more with our helpful step-by-step instructions with photos and videos.

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    How to Create My Own Wikipedia Page (10 Important Steps) Choose a topic: Pick a subject that you're knowledgeable about and can write about in detail. Research: Verify that the subject is notable and check for existing Wikipedia articles on the same topic. Create an account: Register for a Wikipedia account.

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