User:Joeyfjj/First article

Welcome to Wikipedia! This is a guide to some things you should know before creating your first encyclopedia article. We'll explain some of the DOs and DO NOTs of writing an article, then we'll tell you how to create your article. Before you create your first new article, here are some tips that may help you along:


 * 1) Try editing existing articles to get a feel for writing and for using the mark-up language in use at Wikipedia.
 * 2) Search Wikipedia first to make sure that an article does not already exist on the subject, perhaps under a different title.  If the article already exists, feel free to make any constructive edits you feel are necessary.
 * 3) Consider creating the article on user sub-page  To create an article, you must first be a registered user. Once you sign up, you'll find that you have your own user page. You can make your own area there to start working on a new article; you can get it in shape there, take your time, and only move it into the "live" Wikipedia once it is ready for prime time.
 * 4) Remember the article you create will be deleted quickly if it is not acceptable. Wikipedia has a new pages patrol division where people check your new articles shortly after you create them.
 * 5) Gather references both to use as source(s) of your information and also to demonstrate notability of your article's subject matter. Articles that do not meet notability by citing reliable published sources are likely to be deleted.
 * 6) Please do not create pages about yourself or your friends, pages that advertise, personal essays or other articles you would not find in an encyclopedia.
 * 7) Be careful about the following: copying things, controversial material, extremely short articles, and local-interest articles.
 * 8) Gather references to reliable published sources.
 * 9) Create a new page.
 * 10) List references to your sources and show notability.

Gathering references
Gather sources to the information for your article. To be worth including in the encyclopedia a subject must be sufficiently notable and that notability must be verifiable through references to reliable sources.

These sources should be reliable; that is, they should be sources that exercise some form of editorial control. Print sources (and web-based versions of those sources) tend to be the most reliable, though many web-only sources are also reliable. Some examples include (but are not limited to): books published by major publishing houses, newspapers, magazines, peer-reviewed scholarly journals, websites of any of the above, and other websites that meet the same basic requirements as any print-based source.

In general, sources with NO editorial control are not generally reliable. These include (but are also not limited to): books published by vanity presses, self-published zines, blogs, web forums, usenet discussions, BBSes, fan sites, and the like. Basically, if anyone at all can post information without anyone else checking that information, it is probably not reliable.

To put it simply, if there are reliable sources with enough information to write about a subject, then that subject is notable and those sources can verify the information in the Wikipedia article. If you cannot find reliable sources (such as newspapers, journals, or books) that provide information for an article, then the subject is not notable or verifiable. So your first job is to go find references.

Once you have references for your article, you can learn to place the references into the article by reading Citing sources. But do not worry too much about formatting them properly. It would be great if you do that, but the main thing is to get references into the article even if they are not well formatted.

Things to avoid

 * Advertising : Please do not insert external links to your commercial website unless a neutral party would judge that the link truly belongs in the article. However, if you are writing about a product or business be sure you write from a neutral point of view, that you have no conflict of interest, and that you are able to find references in reliable sources that are independent from the subject you are writing about.
 * A single sentence or only a website link: Articles need to have real content of their own.
 * See also:
 * List of bad article ideas
 * Avoiding common mistakes
 * 1000 things not to write your article about

And be careful about...

 * Copying things. Do not violate copyrights
 * To be safe, do not copy more than a couple of sentences of text from anywhere, and document any references you do use. You can copy material that you are sure is in the public domain, but even for public domain material you should still document your source. Also note that most Web pages are not in the public domain and most song lyrics are not either. In fact, most things written since January 1, 1978 are automatically under copyright even if they have no copyright notice or © symbol. If you think what you are contributing is in the public domain, say where you got it, either in the article or on the discussion page, and on the discussion page give the reason why you think it is in the public domain (e.g. "It was published in 1895...") If you think you are making "fair use" of copyrighted material, please put a note on the discussion page saying why you think so. For more information: Copyrights.


 * Good research and citing your sources
 * Articles written out of thin air are better than nothing, but they are hard to verify, which is an important part of building a trusted reference work. Please research with the best sources available and cite them properly. Doing this, along with not copying large amounts of the text, will help avoid any possibility of plagiarism.


 * Advocacy and controversial material
 * Please do not write articles that advocate one particular viewpoint on politics, religion, or anything else. Understand what we mean by a neutral point of view before tackling this sort of topic.


 * Extremely short articles that are just definitions

And then what?
To format your article correctly (and expand it, and possibly even make it featured!), see the links below.


 * Guide to writing better articles
 * The perfect article

Others can freely contribute to the article when it has been saved. The creator does not have special rights to control the later content. See Ownership of articles.