User:Magiemay5/sandbox

This is a page about writing your first article, not the place to write it!

If you'd like to experiment, please use the sandbox or your user page. To actually create an article, try the Article Wizard. Welcome to Wikipedia!

This is a guide to starting your first encyclopedia article. We will explain some of the DOs and DON'Ts, then show you how to create an article. When you're ready to start writing, consider using the Article Wizard to help you create articles — it will walk you through these steps. Here are some tips that may help you along the way:

Wikipedia covers certain kinds of subjects and not others. If the topic is likely to be suitable for an encyclopedia, go ahead; if you're unsure or the article is about you or something you are closely connected to, you can read more on and ask questions about what makes a topic suitable here. You can create a new article once you've registered an account — you need only to choose a username and password. If you don't want to register for an account, registered and unregistered users alike may submit their article for review and publishing at the Articles for Creation project. Before starting, try editing existing articles to get a feel for writing and for using Wikipedia's mark-up language. Also search Wikipedia first in case an article already exists on the subject, perhaps under a different title. If the article already exists, feel free to make any constructive edits to improve it. Gather references both to use as source(s) of the information you will include and also to demonstrate notability of your article's subject matter. References to blogs, personal websites, MySpace and YouTube don't count — we need reliable sources. The best advice for a relevant source of information is to find information that was from a site that includes something with a .gov, .org, or .edu ending to it or a reliable news article. Extra care should be taken to make sure that articles on living persons have sources — articles about living people without sources may be deleted. Consider requesting feedback. You can request feedback on articles you would like to create in a number of places, including the talk page of a related WikiProject or the Drawing Board. Consider creating the article first in your user space. As a registered user, you have your own user space. You can start the new article there, on a subpage; you can get it in shape, take your time, ask other editors to help work on it, and only move it into the "live" Wikipedia once it is ready to go. To create your own subpage, see here. When the new article is "ready for prime time", you can move it into the main area. (Notes. The Article Wizard has an option to create these kinds of draft pages. Even in user space, unacceptable articles (see below) are liable to be nominated for deletion.) Remember that if the article is not acceptable, it will be deleted quickly. Wikipedia has a new pages patrol division where people check your new articles shortly after you create them. Articles that do not meet notability guidelines and do not cite reliable published sources are likely to be deleted. Do not create pages about yourself, your company, your band or your friends, nor pages that advertise, nor personal essays or other articles you would not find in an encyclopedia. Be careful about the following: copying things, controversial material, extremely short articles, and local-interest articles.