Wikipedia:WikiProject WikiFundi Content/Help:Wikipedia Essentials modules
Welcome to WikiFundi where you will learn how to write articles on Wikipedia and other Wikimedia projects!
Wikipedia is consistently ranked as one of the top-ten websites on the planet, with more visitors every day than Twitter or CNN.
Wikipedia, however, is free, and written by volunteers. And because so many people rely on it, it’s crucial that the information they find there is accurate. On this page, we're going to show you everything you need to share your knowledge on Wikipedia.
Everything in this training is yours to keep. You can visit any part of the training later on, so feel free to come back whenever you have questions.
Ready? Let’s get started!
This basic introduction to Wikipedia editing can be found at this online link: https://outreachdashboard.wmflabs.org/training/editing-wikipedia/wikipedia-essentials
Five Pillars: The core rules of Wikipedia[edit]
Wikipedia is the encyclopedia anyone can edit, but there's a lot of collaboration behind every article. You'll work with many people to build Wikipedia. To collaborate effectively, you'll want to follow the five key principles, or pillars, of Wikipedia.
Wikipedia's Five Pillars are:
- Wikipedia is an online encyclopedia
- Wikipedia has a neutral point of view
- Wikipedia is free content
- Wikipedians should interact in a respectful and civil manner
- Wikipedia does not have firm rules
Pillar One: Wikipedia is an online encyclopedia[edit]
Wikipedia is an online encyclopedia (although you can access offline Wikipedia on this WikiFundi).
This may seems obvious, but it may be more helpful to think about it as telling you what Wikipedia is NOT.
It’s not an advertising platform, a personal website, an experiment in anarchy or democracy, a collection of random data, or a search engine.
It’s not a dictionary, a newspaper, a book or instruction manual, or a collection of found documents.
It's an encyclopedia, a place where you can go to find a good summary of what's already known about a topic.
Pillar Two: Wikipedia has a neutral point of view.[edit]
Wikipedia articles should document and explain the major points of view in a balanced and impartial manner. Just the facts! Don't:
- Debate or attempt to persuade readers
- Share personal experiences or opinions
- Share your own analysis of the information you find
Of course, facts aren’t always clear cut. Some articles might have to describe multiple points of view. In those cases, present each view accurately, with context. Don’t suggest that one version of the story is "the truth" or "the best."
This is a big deal. Anything you add to an article should be based on a published source of information, and you should always cite that information when you include it. (Don’t worry — we’ll show you how later on). That means citing published, authoritative sources that people trust.
Read in detail about Neutral Point of View (NPOV). This article on words to watch, could help.
Pillar Three: Wikipedia is free content that anyone can edit, use, modify, and distribute.[edit]
Everything on Wikipedia is free to use. So when you contribute information to Wikipedia, you need to make sure it's OK to share freely.
Copying and pasting copyrighted material into Wikipedia is plagiarism. You have to attribute facts to reliable sources, but you must use your own words when you do.
It’s also important to avoid “close paraphrasing.” That’s when you take another person’s words and make minor changes to their word choices, while keeping the overall structure of their writing.
Finding a balance can be tricky at first. The best system is to make sure you really understand the material you’re adding. Think about it, rephrase it from a neutral perspective, and then add it (while still citing the original source).
Pillar Four: Editors should interact with each other in a respectful and civil manner.[edit]
Don't panic if someone else edits your work, or removes your contributions.
Every article has a Talk page where you can interact with the other Wikipedia editors who are working on your article. If you have a disagreement, keep some core Wikipedia values in mind:
Respect and be polite to your fellow Wikipedians, even when you disagree. Avoid personal attacks. Talk to people you disagree with, and try to find consensus. If you don’t agree with someone’s edit, don’t just “change it back.” That’s an edit war, and it could get you both blocked! Act in good faith. Never disrupt Wikipedia to make a point.
Being respectful isn’t limited to disagreements. Being polite means responding to messages left by other editors, thanking people who help, and checking back after your edits to see if anyone has responded. Always be mindful of the community around you.
Pillar Five: Wikipedia does not have firm rules[edit]
OK, we know you just read a bunch of rules. So what does this last one mean?
Rules in Wikipedia are not carved in stone. Their wording and interpretation are likely to change over time.
The principles and spirit of Wikipedia's rules matter more than their literal wording, and sometimes improving Wikipedia requires making an exception to a rule.
Be bold (but not reckless) in updating articles. Dive in, and don’t panic about making mistakes. Prior versions of pages are saved, so mistakes can be corrected. The most important thing to do is communicate through Talk pages — the part of every article where Wikipedians discuss what they're working on — to tell the other editors what you’d like to do, what you’ve done, and why.
Think of it this way: You aren’t going to break Wikipedia (but please don’t try).
Wikipedia editing is about using your best judgment, and you may be asked to explain your decisions. Explaining why you decided to do something is part of being in any community of people.
Read more about the Five Pillars
Verifiability[edit]
Behind every great Wikipedia article is a collection of great sources. Finding good sources is one of the first things you should do.
That’s because content on Wikipedia must be verifiable. People reading and editing the encyclopedia can check its information, see that it is up to date and comes from a reliable source.
You wouldn’t trust everything you read on the internet, and Wikipedia is no different. But at the end of every page, you can see where the facts stated in the body of the article came from: its source. That helps anyone double check facts to make sure that they’re true. When you add content to Wikipedia, you’ll want to give the same opportunity to others.
So, make sure you only share facts that you draw from reliable sources. Reliable sources include:
- Textbooks
- Literature reviews
- Books or publications written by experts in the field, and published by reliable publishers.
Do not use:
- Blog posts
- Press materials intended to show something in a certain light
In some cases, such as articles that involve medical editing, newspapers and pop-press articles aren’t appropriate, either. If that applies to you, we’ll explore more about this later, in our module on editing medical topics.
Read more about verifiability.
Notability[edit]
Wikipedia isn’t a catalog of everything that’s ever existed. Some topics and articles don't exist on Wikipedia because the subject hasn’t been covered enough by outside sources. In other words, it isn’t yet notable.
When you’re thinking of ideas to write about, keep notability in mind. You might be asked why this topic is notable enough to remain in Wikipedia. Find a handful of reliable sources early, so you know your article is notable. Then you can share them through the article’s Talk page as you get started. (We’ll show you how to do this later on)
Notability is an important first step, because it will help you pick your topic. So let’s look a bit closer at what makes a topic notable.
The basic requirement for a topic to have its own article is: significant coverage in reliable sources that are independent of the subject.
- significant coverage means that at least a couple of sources talk specifically about your topic. Significant coverage is more than a trivial mention, though it doesn’t have to be the core focus of the book or article you cite. On the other hand, it should be more than a single mention or single line of text.
- reliable sources generally means that coverage comes from secondary sources from reputable publishers. You want the book, journal article, or other source you're referencing to have a reputation for accuracy and fact-checking. Those sources don’t have to be in English, and they don’t have to be online.
- independent of the subject means the publisher doesn't have a stake in presenting a biased point of view (either positive or negative). For example, self-publicity, advertising, self-published material by the subject of your article, autobiographies, and press releases are not considered independent.
Read more about notability.
No original research[edit]
Writing for Wikipedia is different from academic writing. Wikipedia is not a place to publish your ideas or conclusions about a topic. On Wikipedia, that’s considered “original research.” Of course, you can (and should) do "research" in the traditional sense of finding good information, likely through your library.
"No original research" means your writing for Wikipedia will summarize what other people have said about a topic you’re interested in, so that a Wikipedia reader can get an overview of the current thoughts and understanding of that topic.
While it may be tempting to connect ideas in a Wikipedia article, you shouldn’t make those connections unless someone else makes them in a published, reliable source.
An example of no original research[edit]
Let's say you're writing about a nearby river, and find a government report from 2003 shows that Arghtron Industries, which had a factory nearby, was fined US$6 million for dumping hazardous waste into the river. Let's say you also find an ecology journal that notes the river used to be home to an endangered species of frogs, which went extinct in 2003.
You might be tempted to write something like, "The pollution from Arghtron Industries contributed to the extinction of frogs in the river." But that's original research. You've fused together two ideas (the pollution, and the extinction) and tied them together. Unless another source confirms the link, you can't make that connection on Wikipedia.
Don't make assumptions of facts, or draw conclusions, on Wikipedia. Those conclusions might seem obvious to you, but you can never know what you don't know. So, only write what you can explicitly verify.
Read about no original research for more details.
Copyright and plagiarism[edit]
You might think you know what plagiarism is, and how to avoid it. But Wikipedia is a little bit different. The rules cover not only copy-and-paste plagiarism, but also close paraphrasing and copyright violations. And the stakes are high: the consequences of committing plagiarism in a Wikipedia class assignment are the same as handing in a paper you didn't write.
Plagiarism and copyright violations are disruptive and time-consuming for volunteers to clean up. Except for brief quotations, copying content from copyrighted sources onto Wikipedia is against policy.
There is a video called Wikipedia editing basics:Plagiarism and copyright violation in the videos and resources section on WikiFundi hope page, where you can find out what you need to know to avoid these pitfalls! After you have watched the video, review the forms of plagiarism you learned about in the video.
- Unattributed plagiarism, when a piece of text is copied word-for-word from a source and added to a Wikipedia article without citation.
- Cited plagiarism, when a piece of text is copied word-for-word from a source, and added to Wikipedia with a citation. Even if you acknowledge that the words aren’t yours, you still can’t copy them into a Wikipedia article.
- Close paraphrasing, when a piece of text is copied, but the words are changed bit-by-bit. The basic structure of the sentences stay the same. This is bad news, whether you cite it or not.
How do you avoid these problems? The best bet is to understand what you’re reading first. Then, take notes that phrase your understanding into your own words. Draw from several sources that support your facts, and never directly copy a source. Instead, take notes as if you were explaining it to a friend or colleague. Read about plagiarism.