Wikipedia:Lead section
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This page documents an English Wikipedia style guideline. It is a generally accepted standard that editors should follow, though it should be treated with common sense and the occasional exception. When editing this page, please ensure that your revision reflects consensus. When in doubt, discuss first on the talk page. |
The lead section, lead, lede, or introduction of a Wikipedia article is the section before the first heading. The lead serves both as an introduction to the article below and as a short, independent summary of the important aspects of the article's topic.
The lead should be able to stand alone as a concise overview of the article. It should establish context, summarize the most important points, explain why the subject is interesting or notable, and briefly describe its notable controversies, if there are any. The emphasis given to material in the lead should roughly reflect its importance to the topic according to reliable, published sources. While consideration should be given to creating interest in reading more of the article, the lead nonetheless must not "tease" the reader by hinting at—but not explaining—important facts that will appear later in the article. The lead should contain up to four paragraphs, should be carefully sourced as appropriate, and should be written in a clear, accessible style so as to invite a reading of the full article.
The table of contents, if displayed, appears after the lead section and before the first heading.
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[edit] Formatting
- See also: Wikipedia:Manual of Style#Article titles
[edit] Bold title
The article's subject should be mentioned at the earliest natural point in the prose in the first sentence, and should appear in boldface. Avoid links in the bold title words. The name of the subject is often identical to the page title, although it may appear in a slightly different form from that used as the title, and it may include variations. For example, in the article "United Kingdom":
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom, the UK, or Britain, is a sovereign island country located off the northwestern coast of mainland Europe.
If the topic of an article has no commonly accepted name, and the title is simply descriptive — like Electrical characteristics of dynamic loudspeakers or Effect of Hurricane Katrina on New Orleans — the title does not need to appear verbatim in the main text; if it does happen to appear, it should not be boldface:
A dynamic loudspeaker driver's chief electrical characteristics can be shown as a curve, representing the …
This avoids needlessly awkward phrasing, repeated words, and allows for direct links to the general topics ("The electrical characteristics of a dynamic loudspeaker are a dynamic loudspeaker driver's chief electrical characteristics").
[edit] Sections and table of contents
Although the lead section is considered a section, it has no section heading; an "Introduction" heading should not be added at the beginning of an article. When displayed, the optional table of contents generally appears between the lead section and the first section heading (though this can be changed).
Editing the lead section can be cumbersome in long articles, because by default there is no edit link. Registered users can override this default via a checkbox on Special:Preferences > Gadgets > User interface gadgets called "Add an [edit] link for the lead section of a page". Another way to work around this is by clicking "edit" for any section, and in the resulting URL, replace the trailing §ion=n with §ion=0. A more cumbersome alternative is to open the entire article in the editing window by clicking on "edit this page". However, this method introduces the risk of edit conflicts in popular articles, and may cause problems in some web browsers if the page being edited is too large. There are also some user-written scripts that enable you to edit section 0.
[edit] Content of the lead
[edit] Establish context
The first paragraph needs to unambiguously define the topic for the reader. It should establish the context in which the topic is being considered, by supplying the set of circumstances or facts that surround it. For example:
- Introduction (essay): "In an essay, an introduction is..." or,
- Introduction (music): "In music, the introduction is..."
It is best to use as few links as possible before the bolded title, to avoid overwhelming the reader. The first paragraph should begin with a straightforward, declarative sentence. Ideally, this opening sentence should immediately provide the reader who knows nothing at all about the article's subject the answer to the questions 'What is it?' or 'Who is he/she?' and 'Why is this notable?'.
[edit] Provide an accessible overview
The lead section should briefly summarize the most important points covered in an article in such a way that it can stand on its own as a concise version of the article. It is even more important here than for the rest of the article that the text be accessible. Consideration should be given to creating interest in reading the whole article. (See news style and summary style.)
In general, specialized terminology should be avoided in an introduction. Where uncommon terms are essential to describing the subject, they should be placed in context, briefly defined, and linked. The subject should be placed in a context with which many readers could be expected to be familiar. For example, rather than giving the latitude and longitude of a town, it is better to state that it is the suburb of some city, or perhaps that it provides services for the farm country of xyz county. Readers should not be dropped into the middle of the subject from the first word; they should be eased into it.
[edit] Etymology and pronunciation
Footnotes, quote boxes, or separate sections can be used rather than parenthesis for long encyclopedic dictionary-like information - see Ethics.
[edit] Relative emphasis
In general, the relative emphasis given to material in the lead should reflect its relative importance to the subject according to reliable sources. Significant information should not appear in the lead if it is not covered in the remainder of the article, although specific facts, such as birthdates, titles, or scientific designations will often appear in the lead only, as may certain quotations. This should not be taken to exclude information from the lead, but to include it in both the lead and body: in a well-constructed article, the relative emphasis given to information in the lead will be reflected in the rest of the text. Do not tease the reader by hinting at startling facts without describing them. Avoid lengthy paragraphs and over-specific descriptions, especially if they are not central to the article as a whole.
[edit] Biographies
When writing about controversies in the lead of the biography of a living person, notable material should neither be suppressed nor allowed to overwhelm: always pay scrupulous attention to reliable sources. Write clinically, and let the facts speak for themselves.
Well-publicized recent events affecting an article subject, whether controversial or not, should be kept in historical perspective. What is most recent is not necessarily what is most notable: new information should be carefully balanced against old, with due weight accorded to each. When an article subject dies, the lead does not need to be radically reworked. Unless the cause of death is itself a reason for notability, a single sentence describing it is usually sufficient.
[edit] Citations
- Further information: Wikipedia:Verifiability and Wikipedia:Citing sources
The lead must conform to verifiability and other policies. The verifiability policy advises that material that is challenged or likely to be challenged, and quotations, should be cited. Because the lead will usually repeat information also in the body, editors should balance the desire to avoid redundant citations in the lead with the desire to aid readers in locating sources for challengeable material. Leads are usually written at a greater level of generality than the body, and information in the lead section of non-controversial subjects is less likely to be challenged and less likely to require a source; there is not, however, an exception to citation requirements specific to leads. The necessity for citations in a lead should be determined on a case-by-case basis by editorial consensus. Complex, current, or controversial subjects may require many citations; others, few or none. Contentious material about living persons must be cited every time, regardless of the level of generality.
[edit] Stubs
Where the article is a stub, a lead may not be necessary at all. Wikipedia encourages expanding stubs, but if reliably sourced information is not available, this may not be possible. Once an article has been sufficiently expanded, generally to around 400 or 500 words, editors should consider introducing section headings.
[edit] Length
The appropriate length of the lead section depends on the total length of the article. As a general guideline, the lead should be no longer than four paragraphs. The following suggestion may be useful:
| < 15,000 characters | around 32 kilobytes | > 30,000 characters |
|---|---|---|
| one or two paragraphs | two or three paragraphs | three or four paragraphs |
For the planned Wikipedia 1.0 — a static version of Wikipedia distributed on CD, DVD, or paper — one recommendation is that the articles will consist of just the lead section of the web version. Summary style and news style can help create a concise intro that works as a stand-alone article.
[edit] Examples
[edit] Cleanup
For a list of template messages related to the clean-up of lead sections, see Wikipedia:Template messages/Cleanup#Introduction. Editors are encouraged to improve leads rather than simply tagging them.
