User:AndyZ/Suggestions

This page contains suggestions for peer review, featured article candidates, featured article removal candidates, and other related pages. The following is a list of the common suggestions on WP:PR and objections on WP:FAC, in accordance with What is a featured article? and other guidelines, including WP:MOS and WP:GTL. Press [Show] to find a more detailed explanation for each suggestion listed below (click [Hide] to hide it again). While this advice was written generally for articles aiming at featured status, it can also serve as a helpful page to improve any article. In green is the specific text located at WP:WIAFA, reproduced so that you do not need to shift between this page and WIAFA.

(Please note that this article is still under development. If you have any comments/questions/suggestions/requests, please post a message on my user talk page. In template form, these can be found at User:AndyZ/PR.)

To show all of the hidden text at once, type (copy+paste) the following into your URL address bar and then hit "Enter"/click "Go": Clicking "Go" again will toggle off all of the content and hide it again. If they hinder the readability of the article, try using User:AndyZ/Suggestions 2.

Best work
It exemplifies our very best work.

A featured article should represent some of Wikipedia's best work. (If it meets all of the criteria below, it will probably meet Criterion 1 as well.)

The following is the process for taking an article to featured status; if you are familiar with this process, you may wish to skip the rest of this section.

To get your article to featured status, it is helpful to first put it on peer review, where experienced editors will help to improve your article with suggestions such as those that follow. You may also want to submit the article for peer review by relevant WikiProjects. Currently, the only WikiProjects with active peer reviews are computer and video game peer review, biography peer review‎, and military history peer review.

From there, if you believe that your article meets WP:WIAFA (and the suggestions listed below), put the article on WP:FAC, where more editors will vote on whether or not the article deserves featured status. Be prepared to work on your article during the FAC process in response to reviewers' comments.

General
It is well-written, comprehensive, factually accurate, neutral, and stable. Read Great writing and The perfect article to see how high the standards are set.

(a) Well-written
"Well-written" means that the prose is compelling, even brilliant. When possible, convert lists to prose (paragraph form).
 * An article should not be list-weighty.
 * For example, this list should be converted to prose.
 * Lists are often disruptive to the flow of the text.
 * Having lots of lists in the main text is looked down on in WP:FAC, because it disrupts the flow of the text.
 * However, "See also", "References", and "External links" should be lists.

Watch out for typos; nobody is infallible when it comes to typing. Double-check for grammatical and spelling errors. Check thoroughly for redundancies (you may wish to try these exercises), spelling errors (for example, use spell check in Word or Firefox to double-check all spellings), and other grammatical problems. Sentences should not be run-ons like this sentence because run-ons are too long, are grammatically incorrect, and are disruptive by trailing and on and on, so make sure that sentences avoid using repeatedly repetitive words and break up all run-ons into shorter sentences to patch up the article. No fragments. Consider using well-placed commas to make longish sentences easier to read. Check for errors on the use of prepositions (e.g., here, "on" should be "in"), parallelism, subject–verb agreement, and punctuation.
 * Edit for grammar/spelling errors.

It may be helpful to ask somebody else to copy-edit an article after you have done so—it is often difficult to copyedit an article when you are already accustomed to it.

To satisfy criterion 1(a) of WP:WIAFA, you may wish to take a look at suggestions at User:Tony1/How to satisfy Criterion 1a. Comprehensive lists of grammatical problems may also be found online.

Some ways to fix this include asking another Wikipedian to read over your article and add suggestions to improve its flow (as it is often difficult for a writer to fix this), combining/merging short, stubby paragraphs, "prosifying" lists, and so on. Networking among like-minded contributors will usually result in a better product; besides, it adds to the social element of being a Wikipedian.
 * Make sure your article flows.

Short paragraphs and short sections usually disrupt the flow of an article (occasionally they can be judiciously used to emphasize an important point). Either merge them into another paragraph/section, expand the section with important information, or simply remove the paragraph/section, taking care that you are not deleting an important fact.
 * Expand/merge short paragraphs and short sections.

Paragraphs of one or two sentences often appear short to our readers.

Trivia by definition are trivial, and thus unencyclopedic; we need to keep Wikipedia focused on important information. Trivia sections should be removed, and any important facts should be added to the rest of the article. Other names for "Trivia" sections include:
 * Incorporate/remove "Trivia"
 * Other facts
 * Miscellaneous [facts]
 * In popular culture

(b) Comprehensiveness
"Comprehensive" means that an article covers the topic in its entirety, and does not neglect major facts or details. An article should cover all important aspects of the topic in a balanced way. All articles should contain much relevant information to be comprehensive. This does not mean adding trivia or other miscellaneous unimportant facts about a character. (Incorporate any important “trivia” facts into the rest of the article and remove the ==Trivia== or ==Other facts== or ==Miscellaneous== sections ) They should discuss the notability and importance of a subject, and when applicable, its legacy. Articles in such areas as literature and music should usually include sections on reception and criticism.
 * Make sure the article is comprehensive.

(c) Referencing
"Factually accurate" includes the supporting of facts with specific evidence and external citations (see Verifiability); these include a "References" section in which the references are set out, complemented, where appropriate, by inline citations (see Citing sources). For articles with footnotes or endnotes, we strongly recommend the mw:Extension:Cite.

All articles should contain references, cited per WP:CITE, to keep articles verifiable and not original research.

References are a list of sources used for the creation of a work. They are found in bullet form underneath a ==References== section.
 * Articles need references.

We strongly suggested that you consult several references in the creation of an article, to avoid bias and encourage accuracy.

As of now, the most common method of inline citations is the cite.php footnote system. With this WP:FOOTNOTE system, footnotes are enclosed within, which will appear like this. At the bottom of the page, put:, underneath a "References" or "Notes" section. To make more than one footnote point to the same source, use ; only the first footnote labeled with a name needs the actual footnote content.
 * Articles need inline citations.

All references and footnotes need WP:CITE information. For examples of citation styles, see WP:CITE/ES. Useful templates include:, , , , and. This includes date of access, authors, and date of publication.
 * References and footnotes should be cited according to WP:CITE.

The are fairly easy to use; go to the talk pages of the individual templates to view the parameters that are associated with the template. For the Harvard citations, insert the Harvard citation into the text, and add the Harvard reference template at the bottom in a "References" section.

Articles should preferably contain more than just web references; we strongly encourage you to include paper resources (books, magazines, newspapers) as references. Web references can (and should) be used, but please be sure to check that the sources contain reliable information. Include the date on which you accessed the site. Fan sites are often not reliable and may be biased towards a certain POV.
 * Make sure sources are reliable.

Be aware of the convention of using quote marks where you copy a source word-for-word, at least for more than a phrase or two. Even where you paraphrase another text, consider citing the source, although quote marks will be unnecessary.

Try not to rely heavily on a single source, unless no other sources are available. The astute reader can usually tell that the information-base is narrow.

Even if the source of a quotation is spelled out in the text, it should still have an inline citation. This should be put immediately after the end of the quote, without an intervening space.
 * All quotations should have footnotes.

(d) Neutrality
"Neutral" means that an article is uncontroversial in its neutrality and factual accuracy (see Neutral point of view).

An article should always be expressed in a neutral point of view. Points of view may be presented, as long as you specify who advocates such views, or at least delineate the source of the view; e.g., "... is widely regarded as ...", "many scientists in the 19th century believed that ...", or "authorities in pro-whaling nations advocate ...".
 * Avoid WP:POV and stay WP:NPOV.

The following are common weasel terms: A larger list can be found at WP:AWT. Sentences with weasel terms should be either reworded to remove the weasel term or should include proper inline citations (WP:FOOTNOTEs), and/or be specified as to exactly who advocates such a view.
 * Avoid weasel terms, and make sure that it is listed exactly who supports a view.
 * "consider"
 * "believe"
 * "many people"
 * "it has been"
 * "allegedly"

(e) Stability
"Stable" means that an article does not change significantly from day to day and is not the subject of ongoing edit wars.

An article is stable if it does not undergo many changes each day. Note that vandalism does not have to do with the stability of an article.
 * An article should be stable.

Often, current events will be unstable. There is not much to do about this except to wait for the event to pass so that the article can stabilize naturally.

Do not start an edit war over the content of an article. Please discuss any drastic and controversial changes on the talk page of the article. Mediation is available for intractable disputes; however, it is much better to resolve differences at an early stage through patient negotiation.
 * There should be no edit wars.

Style
It complies with the standards set out in the style manual and relevant WikiProjects. Criteria 3 of WP:WIAFA states that an article should follow style guidelines – WP:MOS, WP:GTL, and others – and should also follow relevant WikiProject guidelines.

Dates and numbers
Per WP:MOSNUM/WP:MOSDATE:

See Manual of Style (dates and numbers). Piped chronological links are sometimes useful if they focus on the topic.
 * Month and day names should not be linked unless they are likely to help the reader to understand the article.

This to allow readers' date preferences to work. See Manual of Style (dates and numbers)
 * If a date includes both a month and a day, then the date may be linked to trigger the auto-formatting function.

When it is possible to give a date/year for a recent or future event, use that date/year instead of using vague terms such as "recently", "a few days ago", "this year", "last month", and "soon". Remember that Wikipedia will be read in the future.
 * Whenever information may become dated, try to give the time at which it was accurate (from WP:MOS)

Be consistent in this respect throughout an article. For example, an article should either have January 22, 1985, or January 22 1985.
 * Full dates should have either two or no commas, depending upon the subject of the article. After a year, there should always or never be a comma.

After a single year, there should consistently be a comma or never be one. Either use "In 2015, this happened" (American) or "In 2015 this happened" (British).

The format for a unit of measure is as follows-. Please note the following (which are covered in the next points):
 * All numbers with measurements in U.S. customary units should have conversions to the metric system. Time units are exempt from this. An example would be: 5 inches (13 cm).
 * There is a nobreak space between the value and the unit of measure- to prevent the unit of measure from appearing alone on the next line.
 * The original unit of measure is spelled out fully (inches), and the conversion in parentheses is abbreviated (cm).
 * Numbers should keep to the same accuracy; instead of 800 miles (1,287.48 km), use 800 miles (1,300 km), unless a case such as 1 mile (1.6 km).

Category:Conversion templates has many useful templates that may be applicable.

The code for such would be:. It appears as: 58 pounds. This nobreak space prevents the number from being separated from the unit of measure.
 * All numbers with units of measure should have a nobreak space- - between the number and unit of measure.

Instead of 5 in (13 centimeters), use 5 inches (13 cm). Note that there are no periods or "s" in the standard abbreviation.
 * Source units should be spelled out in text, while converted units should use standard abbreviations.

It may be helpful to convert currencies to others they may help out readers. This should be done in parentheses along with the year to which the conversion is referring. An example is: "one thousand Swiss francs (approx. US$763, c. 2005)".
 * Follow WP:MOS in terms of currency.

The dollar sign ($) as well as other currency symbols can be ambiguous, as many countries use the same symbol to represent their currencies. For an article specific to a certain country, the $ alone can be used. For a general article, it should be indicated as to which currency a symbol is used; examples include:
 * US$100 million
 * CA$100,000
 * 2000 Chinese renminbi
 * CNR 2000

The dollar sign should always go before the money value (do not do 100$). However, it should go after the country abbreviation (do not do $US100).

Other
Note that these are may/ may not be included in WP:MOS.

Bolding too many terms may be distracting, like this. Generally, bolding should only be done in the lead, where the title of the article re-appears in the first sentence, along with any other alternate spellings/variations. In other cases, limit bolding.
 * Do not extraneously bold terms unless necessary.

Linking too many terms is not good. See WP:CONTEXT for a guideline for wikilinking.
 * Do not extraneously link terms unless necessary.

This is done in WP:FOOTNOTE.
 * Footnotes should appear after the punctuation mark, without a space.

These links usually appear at the end of the page. Category links resemble:, while interwiki/interlanguage links look like: Hola. These should be alphabetized. (Note that in many articles, the link is misplaced at Finnish, while the link is "Suomi".)
 * Alphabetize interlanguage links (and ? categories).

(a) Lead
An article should have a concise lead section that summarizes the entire topic and prepares the reader for the higher level of detail in the subsequent sections.

The lead of an article is what appears above the Table of Contents (ToC), and should "lead" the reader into the article. The lead should briefly summarize the content of the article, including the important aspects of the topic. Depending upon the size of the article, the lead of the article should generally be of two to three paragraphs.

size guidelines

The lead should be a summary of the rest of the article, discussing the major aspects of the subject in question. It should not discuss at length any points that do not appear later in the article. However, the lead should establish some form of notability of an article.
 * The lead should not introduce information that is not discussed in the rest of the article. However, it should establish the notability and importance of the subject.

Some articles should include relevant infoboxes that can help a reader by listing important information. Some examples include and.
 * See if there is an applicable infobox if the article doesn't have one already.

(b) Headings
An article should have a proper system of hierarchical headings.

Per WP:MOS, headings should: For example, in United States, ===Science and technology=== should be changed to ===Science and technology===.
 * Not have wikilinks inside them. Relevant wikilinks should occur in the prose of the section immediately following the heading.

For example, in United States, ===Science And Technology=== should be changed to ===Science and technology===.
 * not contain capitalized words, besides the first letter and proper nouns.

For example, in United States, ===United States military=== should be changed to ===Military===.
 * not repeat the title of the article unless this is necessary.

For example, in United States, ===The largest cities=== should be changed to ===Largest cities===.
 * not start with the word "the", if possible.

For example, in United States, ===Military, including the land, air, and marine forces=== should be changed to ===Military===.
 * be concise.

Many WikiProjects put forth article templates that should be followed. For examples of these, see WikiProject Countries, Cities, States, Albums, Rivers, etc.
 * follow applicable Wikiproject guidelines.

All headings should be presented in a proper hierarchical system. Appropriate subheadings should appear under the correct and relevant headings.
 * be hierarchical.

Guide to layout suggests that the order for the last few sections be the following: (note the capitalization and wording of the sections)
 * follow the order at WP:GTL.
 * 1) See also
 * 2) Notes
 * 3) References
 * 4) Bibliography/Further reading
 * 5) External links

(c) Table of contents
It should have a substantial but not overwhelming table of contents (see Section). The ToC stands for the Table of Contents.

A table of contents should not be too short. This is consistent with the need to be comprehensive (Criterion 2(b)).
 * The ToC should be of substantial size.

A ToC (table of contents) should be hierarchical in structure and should not be too long. There is no exact definition for "too long", but generally articles with many headings and subheadings are considered by readers to be overly complex. For an example of an article with a ToC that is far too long, see User:AndyZ/World War I.
 * Ensure that the ToC is not overly long.

Images
It has images where appropriate, with succinct captions and acceptable copyright status; however, including images is not a prerequisite for a featured article.

See also WP:IMAGE, WP:FUC, WP:IT, and WP:CAPTION.

Alternatively, you can claim fair use for an image. However, if there is a free use image available (free use meaning that it has been released into public domain, according to the image copyright tags), that should be used instead.
 * If the article doesn't already have images, please see if you can get a free use image.

Articles do not need images. However, many articles are significantly enhanced by the judicious use of images.

Preferably, use a free use image.
 * If the article has no image in the top-right hand corner of the lead, please insert an image there.

Note that tags are now obsolete, and that tags with  should be replaced with proper image tags as soon as possible.
 * Double-check that all images have an image copyright tag that is not obsolete- the tag is no longer acceptable and should be replaced by either another tag or a fair-use tag.

A fair-use rationale should claim that an image can be used because there is no free-use image replacement and that it meets the four criteria on WP:FU.
 * Double-check that all images for which fair use is claimed have appropriate fair use rationales- see WP:FUC.

See the entire list of fair use templates at WP:FU.

While images are strongly recommended for articles, do not cause an article to overflow with too many, which can be disruptive and repetitive; select the best, most relevant, most important, and most informative/educational images.
 * Do not inundate the article with images.

Avoid using galleries, as Wikipedia is not a collection of pictures. Images can be moved into a category in the Wikimedia commons (note that fair-use images are not allowed in the commons), and that category can be linked from by the article.

Do not squeeze text between images or make images too large, as they can be disruptive to the text.

The format for a caption would be:. See WP:CAPTION for guidelines. Basic guidelines include that it:
 * All images should have concise captions.
 * 1) clearly identifies the subject of the picture, without detailing the obvious.
 * 2) is succinct.
 * 3) establishes the relevance relevance of the image to the article.
 * 4) provides context for the image.
 * 5) draws the reader into the article.
 * 6) is either a title, such as the title of a book, or consists of one or more complete sentences. A full-stop at the end is not required if the caption is not a real sentence, e.g., "The love scene from the first act".

Length
It is of appropriate length, staying tightly focused on the main topic without going into unnecessary detail; it uses summary style to cover sub-topics that are treated in greater detail in any 'daughter' articles.

The level of detail in an article should be controlled so that it is of a comfortable length; i.e., it should not be so short as to appear "stubby". Length is different from comprehensiveness; a long article covering a broad subject may not be comprehensive; a short article covering a narrow subject may be fully comprehensive.
 * An article should be of appropriate length.

An article should not be too long. It should be concise and comprehensive. Making an article too long can make it uninteresting; other reasons for concision can be found at WP:SIZE. Articles that are larger than around 40 kilobytes in size may benefit from trimming on the basis of WP:SS.
 * Observe summary style.

To contain the size of an article, create subpages—"daughter" articles for more detailed information. For example, for United States, subpages include History of the United States and Education in the United States. The part of the article that concerns a subpage should summarize the content of the more detailed subpage. United States is not nearly as long as History of the United States, but summarizes the larger points. At the top of the section that is related to a daughter article, add  underneath the related subsection.