Best Practices
A comprehensive guide regarding creating articles can be found at Wikipedia:Help:Your_first_article
.
Contents
Choosing a Topic
The beauty of specificity
Entering the rabbithole of a wiki means exploring as deeply as the wiki allows. Short, complete articles about a specific subject are more effective at communicating information than wikipedia:War and Peace
regarding Tyres (or Tires, if you prefer. They both go to the same place). Write about a small topic first.
Search for an existing article
There are several ways to do this. The search bar at the top of the page is a good start. In addition, you may browse the categories below:
Not all articles are categorized (even though they should be). Navigate to Special:AllPages to see all articles.
Gather reference information
Citations
There is an extension for this! When you write a paragraph and wish to cite something, use the <ref>CITATION HERE</ref> Function. Then, at the bottom of the page (in a "references" or "notes" section), write <references />. It'll spit out everything you've cited above in a footnote format.
Reference Format
This is Wikipedia:APA Style formatting.
| Type | Format |
| Book | Author, A. A. (year). Chapter title. In E. Editor (Ed.).Title of the book(pp. page-range). Location: Publisher. |
| Ebook | Author, A. A. (year).Title of the book(xth ed.) [eBook version]. Location: Publisher. Retrieved from URL |
| Online Journal | Author, A. A., & Author, A. A. (year). Title of the article.Title of the Journal, volume(issue), page-page. Retrieved from http://www.hompageofjournal.com |
| Print Journal | Author, A. A., & Author, A.A. (year). Title of the article.Title of the Journal, volume(issue), page-page. |
| Webpage | |
| Blog | Author, A. A. (Year, Month Day). Title of the blog post [Blog post]. Retrieved from http://www.entirewebaddress.com |
| Video [1] | Author, A. A. (Year, Month day).Title of video[Video file]. Retrieved from http://www.entirewebaddress.com |
| More can be found at the Broadview website at https://library.broadviewuniversity.edu/apa/references. | |
Can I upload this?
Figures, images, pdfs, sound bytes, and other files are welcome to be uploaded and linked in articles. The following are not allowed to be uploaded to FSwiki and linked to an article:
- Videos of any type
- Proprietary, copyrighted, classified or otherwise restricted content
- Files behind paywalls
Files
Documentation is an excellent complement to an article. Files may be uploaded at Special:Upload File. When including files, attach them in the following format at the bottom of the page:
File |
Abstract/Synopsis |
Notes |
| https://fswiki.us/File:IMG_0135.jpg | This is my dog | Use the direct link to the file; do not use the square bracket syntax. Using the square bracket syntax embeds the file. |
The following file restrictions are in place:
- Upload limit = 20MB
- Permitted file types: png, gif, jpg, jpeg, webp, flac, mkv, mp3, oga, ogg, ogv, wav, webm.
Write
Build an outline
Continue to make improvements
Avoid Orphaned Articles
- ↑ APA Citation Guide: 2. Reference List. Broadview University Library Connect website: https://library.broadviewuniversity.edu/apa/references
