User:GreenMeansGo/GMG's tips for editing Wikipedia

These are just personal tidbits that I've found helpful.


 * 1) Don't start an article already knowing what you want to be there. Start with no expectations about the finished product. Go read the best sources you can find, and let the article write itself.
 * 2) Refer to #1. A solid article should be roughly similar regardless of who writes it. The only major, breaking difference should be something like access to sources. Someone with JSTOR access will obviously not write the same thing as someone without.
 * 3) If you need help in a language other than English, this is the best place to look.
 * 4) When in doubt about copyright, ask. Copyright can be insanely complicated. If possible ask someone on Commons. The average Commons user is immensely more familiar with copyright than your average Wikipedia user.
 * 5) Don't use blogs or social media, even if you can squeak by the letter of policy to do so. If you are desperate to, then you've probably already violated rule number one. The rule at WP:SPS about blogs written by experts is a bad one and you should ignore it.
 * 6) Nominate something you've written for WP:GA/WP:FA. Even if you fail, it will teach you how to do better.
 * 7) Don't use unnecessary language. Nobody cares that you learned "recompensatory", or any other word so complicated it get's tagged by your browser as being misspelled. You're writing for native speakers at about the high school senior/college freshman level, and a whole lot of people who learned English as a second language.
 * 8) Take WP:BEBOLD seriously, but be polite about it. Even if you get taken to the place that shall not be named, you can get over it. I did, and what I really needed was people to explain what I was doing wrong.
 * 9) Don't use semicolons. Refer to #7.
 * 10) Don't use the perfect tense. Refer to #7.