Wikipedia:Guide to layout
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This page is part of the Manual of Style, and is considered a guideline for Wikipedia. The consensus of many editors formed the conventions described here, and Wikipedia articles should heed these guidelines. Before making any major changes to these guidelines, please use the discussion page to ensure that your changes reflect consensus. |
The Wikipedia Guide to Layout is an annotated, working example of some of the basics of laying out an article. It is a summary of what some articles look like. For more complicated articles, you may wish to copy the markup of an existing article that appears to have an appropriate structure.
This guide is not about how to use wiki markup (see Help:Editing for that); nor is it about style (see Wikipedia:Manual of Style for that).
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[edit] Lead section
Unless an article is very short, it should start with a lead section consisting of one or more introductory paragraphs. The lead is shown above the table of contents (for pages with more than three headings). The appropriate lead length depends on the length of the article, but should be no longer than four paragraphs. The lead should not be explicitly entitled == Introduction == or any equivalent header.
The subject of the article should be mentioned in bold text ('''subject''') at a natural place, preferably in the first sentence. If the article is about a work of art, literature or an album, note that the first mention of the subject should be both bold and italic ('''''subject''''').
Normally, the first paragraph summarizes the most important points of the article. It should clearly explain the subject so that the reader is prepared for the greater level of detail and the qualifications and nuances that follow. If further introductory material is needed before the first section, this can be covered in subsequent paragraphs. Introductions to biographical articles commonly double as summaries, listing the best-known achievements of the subject. Keep in mind that sometimes this is all that is read, so the most important information should be included.
[edit] First paragraph
The title or subject should almost always be part of the first sentence or elsewhere in the first paragraph.
- The Pythagorean theorem is named after and attributed to the 6th century BC Greek philosopher and mathematician Pythagoras
The '''Pythagorean theorem''' is named after and attributed to the [[6th century BC]] Greek philosopher and mathematician [[Pythagoras]]
If the subject of the article has more than one name, each new form of the name should be in bold on its first appearance.
'''Sodium hydroxide''' ([[sodium|Na]][[oxygen|O]][[hydrogen|H]]), also known as '''caustic soda''' or '''lye'''....
If an article's title has a parenthetical disambiguator, it should not be included in the bold text.
- Egg (food) should start with "An egg is an ovum produced by...", not "An egg (food) is an ovum produced by...".
Make the context clear in the first few words.
- In quantum physics, the Heisenberg uncertainty principle...
In [[quantum physics]], the '''Heisenberg uncertainty principle'''...
Avoid links in the bold title words, and avoid circular definitions. However, most words describing titles should be linked to more detail.
- Buddhist meditation, meditation used in the practice of Buddhism, "includes any method of meditation that has Enlightenment as its ultimate aim." (Kamalashila 1996)
'''Buddhist meditation''', [[meditation]] used in the practice of [[Buddhism]], "includes any method of meditation that has Enlightenment as its ultimate aim." (Kamalashila 1996)
[edit] Disambiguation templates
A "for topics of the same name..." line is sometimes put at the beginning, to link to an article about another meaning of the word, or in the case of a link that many readers are likely to follow instead of reading the article. Do not make this initial link a section. In such cases, the line should be italicized and indented using templates. A horizontal line should not be placed under this line. See also Wikipedia:Hatnote
[edit] Links
Adding square brackets ([[...]]) around a word or phrase is an important part of Wikifying articles. This links significant words to a corresponding article that contains information that will help the reader to understand the original article. For example, an article might mention 'pancakes' without explaining what they are, although a brief phrase explaining the term might be more appropriate in many instances. An article about laser beams might provide helpful background material when mentioned in passing. It is important to follow the links that you have added and check that they lead to the right page. For advice about what to link and what not to link, see Wikipedia:Make only links relevant to the context, Wikipedia:Manual of Style (links)#Internal links and Wikipedia:Manual of Style (dates and numbers)#Date formatting. Useful links that are not mentioned in the prose paragraphs can be added to the "see also" section.
[edit] Body sections
[edit] Headers and paragraphs
The number of single-sentence paragraphs should be minimized, since these can inhibit the flow of the text. By the same token, paragraphs become hard to read once they exceed a certain length.
Headings help to make an article clearer, and populate the table of contents, which users can choose under 'Preferences' to view (the default) or not to view; see Wikipedia:Section and Wikipedia:Manual of Style (headings). Headings are hierarchical, so you should start with ==Header== and follow it with ===Subheader===, ====Subsubheader====, and so forth. The 'second-level' ==Header== is overly large in some browsers, but that can be fixed for individual viewers with a style sheet more easily than a non-hierarchical article structure can be fixed (see help:User style).
Articles generally comprise prose paragraphs, not bullet points; however, sometimes a bulleted list can break up what would otherwise be an overly large, grey mass of text, particularly if the topic requires significant effort on the part of readers. Bulleted lists should not be overused in the main text, but are typical in the reference and reading sections at the bottom. Just as for paragraphs, any sections and subsections that are very short will make the article look cluttered and inhibit the flow. Short paragraphs and single sentences generally do not warrant their own subheading, and in these circumstances, it may be preferable to use bullet points. See also Wikipedia:Guide to writing better articles#Paragraphs
Between paragraphs and between sections, there should be only a single blank line. Multiple blank lines unnecessarily lengthen the article and can make it more difficult to read.
The degree to which subtopics should appear in a single article or be given their own pages is a matter of judgement and of controlling the total length of the article.
If the order in which sections should appear is not clear, use an alphabetical or chronological order. An alphabetical order is especially useful when sections are divided for countries, states, or other divisions.
[edit] If a section is a summary of another article
When a section is a summary of another article, it should have a link before the text (but after the section heading):
{{main|Circumcision and law}}
which produces:
[edit] "See also" for one section
If the "See also" refers to a particular section, references to related articles that have not been linked from free links in the text may be placed before the text (but after the section heading):
{{See also|troll|flame}}
which produces:
Note: In short articles without sections, this is equivalent to the top note (above).
Rather than scattering such additional references throughout the text of a section, they should be grouped together at the beginning of the section for easy selection by the reader:
[edit] Images
- See also: Wikipedia:Images and Wikipedia:Picture tutorial
You should always be watchful not to overwhelm an article with images by adding more just because you can. If better or more appropriate images already exist, they should probably be left in place.
Images should ideally be spread evenly within the article, and relevant to the sections they are located in. All images should also have an explicative caption. An image should not overwhelm the screen; 300px may be considered a limit, as this is approximately half Wikipedia's text space's width on a 800x600 screen. It is a good idea to try and maintain visual coherence by aligning the width of images and templates on a given page.
Some users prefer images to be all located on the right side of the screen (aligned with boxes), while others prefer them to be evenly alternated between left and right. Both options are valid, although in both cases care must be taken for the images not to clash with nearby contents.
In general, it is considered poor layout practice to place images at the same height on both the left and right side of the screen. Not only does this unnecessarily squeeze text, but this might also cause images to overlap text due to interferences. It is usually not a good idea to place an image intended to illustrate a given section above the header for that section. Placing an image to the left of a header, a list, or the Table of Contents is also frowned upon.
When placing images, be careful not to stack too many of them within the lead, or within a single section to avoid bunching up several section edit links in some browsers. Generally, if there are so many images in a section that they strip down into the next section at 1024x768 screen resolution, that probably means either that the section is too short, or that there are too many images.
If an article has many images, so many, in fact, that they lengthen the page beyond the length of the text itself (this also applies if a template like {{taxobox}} or {{Judaism}} is already stretching the page.), you can try to use a gallery, but the ideal solution might be to create a page or category combining all of them at Wikimedia Commons and use a relevant template ({{commons}}, {{commonscat}}, {{commons-inline}} or {{commonscat-inline}}) and link to it instead, so that further images are readily found and available when the article is expanded.
[edit] Horizontal dividing line
The use of horizontal dividing lines (----) in articles is deprecated. They were once used to separate multiple meanings of a single article name. These days, a disambiguation page should be used instead.
They are occasionally used to provide separation inside some templates (e.g. {{politbox}} derivatives).
[edit] Standard appendices and descriptions
Certain optional standard sections should be added at the bottom of an article. There is currently no consensus on whether the singular or plural form of the section name should be used, although plural is more common. Changing section names breaks links (hence the utility of permalinks), so it is best not to change already-established article section names. Common appendix sections:
- Quotations (deprecated)
- See also
- Notes
- References (or combined with "Notes" into Notes and references)
- Further reading (or Bibliography)
- External links
Note:
- It is okay to change the sequence of these appendices, but the Notes and References sections should be next to each other. For example, you may put "Further reading" above "Notes and references" or vice versa.
- "Notes" is only for footnotes (explanations or comments on any part of the main text). "References" is only for referenced materials (books, websites etc. cited in the main text). Otherwise "Notes and references" should be combined.
- All succession boxes and navigational footers should go at the very end of the article, following the last appendix section, but preceding the "categories and interwiki links".
[edit] Quotations
- Note: This header is largely deprecated.
Under this header, list any memorable quotations that are appropriate to the subject.
- "Misquotations are the only quotations that are never misquoted." — Hesketh Pearson, Common Misquotations (1934)
Usually, the most relevant quotes can be placed directly into the article text in order to illustrate the topic, and only a few quotes should ever be part of such a section. Longer lists of quotes are generally moved to Wikiquote and the Quotations section as a whole is replaced with a {{wikiquote}} badge, usually placed at the top of the "External links" section.
[edit] See also
The "See also" section provides an additional list of internal links to other articles in the Wikipedia that are related to this one as a navigational aid, and it should ideally not repeat links already present in the article. Mostly, topics related to an article should be included within the text of the article as free links.
Links are presented in a bulleted list. A less common practice is to name the section "Related topics". "See also" is the most appropriate place to link a Portal with {{portal}}.
It should be a heading of level 2 so that it appears in the table of contents. For example:
==See also== *[[Wikipedia:Manual of Style]] *[[Wikipedia:How to edit a page]]
Which produces:
Related topics should be grouped by subject area for ease of navigation. Also provide a brief explanatory sentence when the relevance of the added links is not immediately apparent - like so:
- Related person made a similar achievement on April 4, 2005.
[edit] Notes
- See also: Wikipedia:Footnotes, Wikipedia talk:Footnotes/Mixed citations and footnotes, and Wikipedia:Citing sources
A footnote is a note placed at the bottom of a page of a document that comments on, and may cite a reference for, a part of the main text. The connection between the relevant text and its footnote is often indicated with a number or symbol which is used both after the text fragment and before the footnote. The note following this sentence is one example.[1] Syntax:
According to scientists, the Sun is pretty big.<ref>Miller, E: "The Sun.", page 23. Academic Press, 2005</ref> The Moon, however, is not so big.<ref>Smith, R: "Size of the Moon", Scientific American, 46(78):46</ref>
==Notes==
<!--See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Footnotes for an explanation of how to generate footnotes using the <ref(erences/)> tags-->
<references/>
[edit] References
- See also: Wikipedia:Citing sources, Wikipedia:ISBN, and Wikipedia talk:Footnotes/Mixed citations and footnotes
Put under this header, again in a bulleted list, any books, articles, web pages, et cetera that you used in constructing the article and have referenced (cited) in the article.[1] While not required, using a generic citation template segregates the reference into useful metadata that can be machine-interpreted. Additionally, notes should be added to the end of any reference that may not be self-evident. If you are dealing with controversial issues, it is useful to point out which sources take which stance, and maybe separate the links by proponents and critics. Example:
- "Wikipedia Reaches 1,000,000 Articles", Slashdot, March 1, 2006. Popular tech community mentions Wikipedia milestone.
[edit] Further reading
This section may also be titled "Bibliography".
Put under this header, again in a bulleted list, any books, articles, web pages, et cetera that you recommend as further reading, useful background, or sources of further information to readers.[1] This section follows the same formatting rules as the "References" section, but is generally for resources on the topic that are not specifically cited in the article.
If an item used as a reference covers the topic beyond the scope of the article, and has significant usefulness beyond verification of the article, you may want to include it here as well. This also makes it easier for users to identify all the major recommended resources on a topic.
[edit] External links
Put here, in list form, any web sites that you have used or recommend for readers of the article.[1] Unlike wikilinks, which are often used within the article's text, external links are generally limited to the "External links" section. This section follows the same formatting rules as the "References" section.
External links used as references should accordingly be listed in the "References" section. Other links may also be under "Further reading", as suggested in Wikipedia:Citing sources: Further reading/external links.
Links to Sister projects should be under the last appendix section. If there is no external links section to integrate the {{commons}}, {{wikibooks}}, {{wikinews}}, etc., template into, inline versions ({{commons-inline}}, {{wikibooks-inline}}, {{wikiquote-inline}}, etc.) version is usually available. See Category:Interwiki link templates to check whether one exists.
[edit] See also
- Help:Preferences
- Wikipedia:Talk page guidelines shows how to use headings on talk pages
[edit] Notes
Since the introduction of <references/> this section is often named "Footnotes"
- ^ a b c d This is an example footnote. The "Notes" section generally only requires a <references/> tag. This is automatically populated with <ref> notes made throughout the article. See Wikipedia:Footnotes for details about this developing practice. The system of presenting notes (as well as "References," "Further reading," and "External links") in a Wikipedia article may change over time; it is more important to have clarity and consistency in an article than to adhere to any particular system.
| Writing guides | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Guide to writing better articles | Guide to layout | Article development | The perfect article | Manual of Style |
| A collection of advice | How to structure articles | Suggested stages of an article | A checklist of components | Comprehensive style guide |
