Wikipedia:External links creation

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article describes how to create the links which appear in the "Wikipedia:External links" section of an article. For instructions on using links in citations, see Wikipedia:Citing sources.

[edit] Formats

There are two basic formats for external links. The most common is to add a list of external links at the end of an article. Put here, in list form, any web sites that you have used or recommend for readers of the article. The standard format for these is to have a level 2 header (i.e. == Header ==) named "External links" followed by a bullet list of links.

If an article has a large number of external links, it may be helpful to use subheaders to classify them. This can be done using another level of section heading, usually the fifth, which will then appear in the table of contents, like this:

==== Sub-header of links ====
* [http://example.com/link_1 Link 1]
* [http://example.com/link_2 Link 2]

... or with the "semicolon" syntax, like this:

; Sub-header of links
* [http://example.com/link_1 Link 1]
* [http://example.com/link_2 Link 2]

which both yield:

Sub-header of links

If you link to another website, you should give your reader a good summary of the site's contents, and the reasons why this specific website is relevant to the article in question. If you cite an online article, try to provide as much meaningful citation information as possible.

[edit] "External links" vs "External link"

Some editors use the header External link if there is only one link, but others use External links in all cases. There is currently no consensus on the preferred style. Editors who always use the plural form may prefer it for any of the following reasons:

  1. Experience shows that future editors often add links without changing the section heading.
  2. Some contributors may be dissuaded from adding links to a section titled External link, since it seems to suggest that there should only be one link.
  3. Using External links gives greater stylistic consistency to Wikipedia.
  4. Changing a heading breaks any links directly to the External links section.
  5. The purpose of the section is to provide External links rather than a single External link, so it does not matter how many actual links are listed.

The converse arguments are:

  1. Wikipedia's community-editing usually leads to prompt correction of such oversights.
  2. There is no evidence to show that a significant number of contributors may be dissuaded from adding links to a section titled External link.
  3. In one sense, the use of External links to head a section containing a single link is grammatically incorrect.