Wikipedia:WikiProject Military history/Academy/Writing a biographical article

Biographical articles are one of the most common kinds of articles that fall under the scope of our project, and some of the easiest to work with for a beginner, as they lend themselves to a structured approach to writing.

Initial research
First of all, search Wikipedia to see if it already has an article on your selected subject. This search should include a few alternative titles, just in case it is listed under one of these instead. Sometimes Google is the best option here. If you find your subject is already there, but under an unexpected version of their name, consider adding a redirect, or an additional entry to one of the disambiguation pages so the next person can find them.

It is possible that you may find mentions of your subject in existing articles. Make a note of these. Some may be red links. Create a list of these in your browser or in an offline document. You will need them later. Take note of the form in which the subject's name appears. This may help you decide what form the name of your article should take.

Next, make sure that the article can be included in Wikipedia. If the subject does not qualify under Wikipedia's notability criteria (in particular our own notability guidelines) the information may be better suited as part of a bigger article.

Before starting on the article, you have to find out more about the subject. Even if you have detailed knowledge, you need to add reliable sources to back up the information you are going to include. We can divide bibliographical subjects into four classes:
 * 1) Subjects about whom much has been written, who have many published biographies;
 * 2) Subjects who have one published biography, or who have biographical pages in the form of entries in a biographical dictionary, or an obituary;
 * 3) Subjects that you believe are notable, but lacking in any of the above; and
 * 4) Subjects that really aren't notable at all.

Subjects in class 1 present special challenges, and almost certainly have an article already. These articles can sometimes be improved, but as this essay is about creating a new article, I do not propose to discuss them here. Instead, consult the academy article on writing a featured article.

Subjects in class 2 also usually have an article already. If they don't, it is probably because the biography has only been recently published. Subjects in this class can invariably be turned in good articles, but may require more work to make into a featured article. Before continuing with the next phase, you need to find a copy of the biography, and read it through from cover to cover. Also have a look through the book's bibliography, if it has one, and seek out further mentions of the subject, then proceed to gather further material. Search through Google and whatever other resources you have access to. The Find sources AFD template is a good start.

Subject in class 3 can be turned into good articles, but considerably more effort is required. Even when you're certain they are notable, you may not be able to find enough information to write an article. The critical issue is distinguishing them from class 4. You must be able to state what makes them notable in a single, succinct sentence. Otherwise, your article stands a good chance of being speedily deleted for lacking a credible claim of significance. This hurdle is much lower than our notability requirement, but still seems to be a formidable barrier to many.

Needless to say, subjects in class 4 do not warrant articles. Nonetheless, it is often possible to write a comprehensive article on someone entirely from primary sources without any notability at all. Such articles often say things like: "He earned the Defence Medal, the War Medal 1939–1945 and the Australia Service Medal 1939–45, and reached the rank of lance corporal before being discharged from the Army on 10 October 1945. He lived quietly in Newtown, New South Wales, until his death on 1 January 2001." Apart from whether it's possible to live quietly in Newtown, there is no indication whatsoever of the subject having done anything notable enough to warrant an article. Remember: no amount of editing can overcome a lack of notability.

On the other hand, "Commander Alexander Karley RN (1785–1859) was a 19th-century British naval commander", while not inspiring confidence, will get through, as it is something that might lead to notability. Much better though, if you can state exactly what he did, or was involved in, that makes him worth an article.

Keep an eye out for images you might want for the article. Search Commons for images, then Google. Sometimes the latter is the easiest way to locate images in the former, as Commons' search engine is poor, and its categories are often disorganised. You may want to upload new images. Your books, journals and website sites may well have images marked as US government images. They may even say: "(c) Wikimedia Commons". The Commons wizard will let you know if you try to upload an image that is already there.

Creation
I advise creating a new article in your user space as User:/. This will keep it out of the hands of the New Page Patrol (in the mainspace) and Articles for Creation (in the draftspace). The former may delete your article if you don't start by specifying a credible claim of notability. (I have seen articles speedily deleted within seconds.) Or they may move it to the draftspace, where it will come under WikiProject Articles for creation.

The downside of this is that if the only image you have is a WP:NFCC one, you won't be able to upload it until your article is moved to the mainspace. Decide what form of English you want to use and use Australian English and use DMY dates (or similar) to let the Bots and other users know what the correct format is.

Infobox
Start with Infobox military person and fill it in. You don't need everything, but I recommend that the following be filled in:
 * name
 * birth_date
 * death_date
 * birth_place
 * death_place
 * image
 * serviceyears
 * servicenumber
 * rank
 * allegiance
 * branch
 * commands
 * battles
 * awards

You should know all of these, except for the death ones in the case of someone who is still alive. Living people these days may also be reluctant to give out a birth date. The service number is surprisingly useful. In Australia, many records are filed under it. In the UK, you can often find records in the London Gazette by service number when the name does not work (or is too common). Biographical subjects with unusual names are therefore usually easier to research than those with common names.

There are two more you could consider: Occasionally there is someone like Dwight Eisenhower or Audie Murphy who has multiple claims to fame. But even a lesser claim to notability in another area may open up new avenues that can be explored. The same goes for famous relatives; it may well be that someone else has done all the heavy lifting for you in a relative's biography. Note however that notability is not inherited: merely having a famous relative will not in itself make your subject notable.
 * laterwork - if something noteworthy
 * relations - if one has a Wikipedia article

Categories
Add these down the bottom, with a colon between the brackets and the "Category:". This will prevent your sandbox article from appearing in the real category for now. This will prevent Bots from editing your article while you're trying to work on it. With the infobox filled in, many of the categories are predictable. Create the categories if known:
 * Date of birth
 * Birth place? No place is too obscure for a "People from .." category
 * Date of death (if dead)
 * Burial place?
 * Education? There are categories for alumni of universities, and some
 * Most types of military officers have their own categories
 * There may also be one like "... people of "
 * Decorations? Most of these have categories

Save
I usually save at this point. Best to preview first to make sure the layout is okay.

Content
Now you can add content. To make it easier, I usually break it up with a simple framework, which can be adapted to the subject: This covers most 20th century military biographies. Provide 1-3 paragraphs for each section.
 * Early life
 * Great War
 * Between the wars
 * Second World War
 * Post-War
 * Later life

There are two ways of working through the content: If your machine is dicky or your internet connection is not what it should be, you should frequently save. Otherwise, frequently preview to check the spelling and the layout.
 * A section at a time,
 * Work through your references, incorporating the material from each.

When they are all done, write the lead as a summary of the article.

You can now add images, because at this point in time you know how exactly much space you have to work with.

Mainspace
Now you can move the article to the mainspace. If you have the page mover privilege, you should check the box that says not to create a redirect. Otherwise, one will be created. Blank it or tag it for speedy deletion with Db-self.

Some minor clean up chores:
 * Edit the new page and remove the colons from the category cards.
 * Upload the NFC image, if you have one. Check that it appears correctly in the infobox. Don't worry about its size; a Bot will come along and resize it for you.
 * Go through the list of articles that reference your subject and check or add links to the new article. This will prevent it being tagged as an orphan.
 * List the article for assessment at WikiProject Military history/Assessment/Requests
 * Optionally, nominate it for WP:DYK or for review at WP:PR or WP:GAN

Additional tips
Some additional tips relating to biographical articles in general can be found at WikiProject Biography such as the list at WP:BTIP. There is lots of guidance there as well relating to writing of biographical articles, much of which will apply to military history biography articles.