User:Buggie111/Adopt/GREAT

So, now that we are out of the realm of dry, boring maintenance, and clunky, hard to understand code, we can finally move onto the most interesting part of all Wikipedia, article creation. This lesson will show you how to bring an article from 0 to FA with little to no difficulty.

Step 1: Decide on a theme
Before you ever start writing, you need to decide what to write about. Try to pick a topic that has a lot of information on it, but is not too complex. If you want, you can also choose an article that has already been created, and expand it from its current form. Remember that although lots of info means more content in an article, it is also harder to cover anything. This is why such large articles like History and Science have not reached GA or FA, there is a lot of information to be covered and many people have varying opinions on in what way it should be covered. Articles like Russian battleship Sevastopol (1895) would be much less controversial and easier to write.

Step 2: Creation and first guess
The above title probably sounds strange, but it isn't. Take the article of your choice, and create User:YOURNAME/ARTICLENAME. This applies to articles that already exist and ones that have not yet been created. From there, do one of the two things, depending on the state of the article:
 * If the article has not yet been created, write down  anything  you know about the subject of the article (i.e. If it's a political candidate, you probably know what office their running for, age, name, party affiliation...).
 * If it has been created, copy a draft of the article, without categories and Non-free content. This will give you a good "base" from which to work from. After this, create a short outline that shows what "you" think the article should be layed out like.

Step 3: The Hunt
Now that we have our article, we can start looking for sources on it. Open a google tab and search for the name of your article, copying down any link you see that relates to the article. Stick to about 4-5 pages of google links. Now, open Google Books and look there for several different ways of spelling your article (i.e. for Russian battleship Sevastopol 1895, search russian battleship sevastopol, battleship sevastopol, sevastopol 1895, sebastopol battleship, other alternate spellings...). After this is done, gather up any books in your own personal library that may relate to the topic, and keep them near your computer. Then do a search on your local library's online catalog. Pase all this at the bottom of your draft.

Step 4: Research
This step is very simple. Crack open a few of those books/websites and read about your subject. Once you have done this with 3-4 sources, create the outline mentioned above if it still doesn't exist. Bookmark important facts.

Step 5: Writing
This is a very fun step. Using your outline/layout of another similar article, start writing your target article. Go slow, one section at a time. Compare them to articles on the same thing that are already good or featured. After you finish each section, cite it using the proper code described in the previous lesson, adn remove the link at the bottom.

Step 6: Images
By this time, you're probably a month into this article. Go and look for images relating to the article. If its some long-lost battleship, Goggle Images or Wikimedia Commons may help, but be careful about image copyrights. For something you can easily reach in about a day's journey, like a nearby town, take the pics yourself. There won't be any copyright strings attached, which simplifies things.

Step 7: Move and DYK
By this time, your article should look fabulous. Take it, and using the "Move" button in the toolbar uptop, move it from your userspace to the mainspace. check if it meets WP:DYK, and if so, nominate it! However, don't expand an article with fluff solely to nominate it for DYK.

Step 8: GOCE
People are lazy by nature. On Wikipedia, instead of trying to root out any WP:MOS error in your article, you can bring it to the Guild of Copy Editors. There, a volunteer will fix up your article for the reviews ahead.

Step 9: GAN
Once all this is done, your next step is to nominate your article to become a good article. A reviewer will take your article up after a period of about 2 weeks to a month and provide you with criticism of the article. You then are able to fix you article. Once a week has gone by, the reviewer will decide whether or not to promote the article. If it is promoted, repeat Step 3, just extending your range by several google pages. If it is not, take it to WP:PR, and follow the advice there.

Step 10: FAC
Once you are all done with this, and have incorporated info from Step 3 V2 into your article, take the article to WP:FAC. Here it will be assessed by a group of editors over the course of two weeks to, at most, two months. They will provide you with info and, if you fix the mistakes they highlight, will promote the article to an FA. If so, great job, your done! If you want to, take your article to WP:FAR yearly to make sure it retains the quality of writing it was at when it was promoted. If your article was not promoted, go to the end of Step 9 and start from there.

Assignment
Replace "USER" with your username.