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User:Charles Matthews/20 Things

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Twenty Things to Know and Do when editing Wikipedia

[edit]
  1. Know how to add bold, italic and other format from the editing bar
  2. Use the cite button and autofill, and {{reflist}} in a footer, to create footnotes
  3. Start new sections with the Talk page button, indent with colons, sign with ~~~~
  4. Use your Sandbox for drafting, graduating to the Draft: namespace
  5. Currently, new accounts cannot create new articles
  6. You become autoconfirmed by doing a number of edits and waiting 72 hours
  7. Copy-paste moves are deprecated: use the move button
  8. Articles need a topic sentence, and at least one reference
  9. Notability of the topic needs to be established, for example with three decent references
  10. Give context in the lead section
  11. Build up drafts with referenced sentences, then rewrite for flow
  12. Use understated and neutral language, avoiding editorial comment
  13. Expect to: re-order (moving refs); divide sentences; sort into sections
  14. Establish a good "logical flow" and then tweak wording
  15. Add incoming and outgoing wikilinks to articles
  16. Carry out major edits in a series of smaller steps with good edit summaries
  17. Add categories and images: you can see how this done in the sources of articles
  18. Use repositories: Google Books, Internet Archive, Wikimedia Commons
  19. Be civil, and concentrate on content rather than debating points (not Twitter)
  20. Beware conflict of interest, and back off if you are too close to the topic