How can I start writing or editing for Wikipedia?

A web-based encyclopedia, Wikipedia is open to every individual who wants to write or edit. Wikipedia enjoys its badge of being the world’s largest wiki at present. If you want to start writing/editing for this platform follow these steps.

Choose Your Language

Go to the Main Page of Wikipedia or you can pick the language if you want to choose other than English. You can go to the international page click on your language.

Check for the Topic

Now, type in the topic in the search bar and check whether your topic already exists or not. If you are going to write on a well—known subject, personality and phenomenon, there are chances that it already exists. Let’s suppose an article on the subject you are writing already there; it will be reflected. But if no such article exists, the page will display a list of search results.

Just check the list. Possibly, the topic you are going to cover already exists with a little different heading. If you find that this is not the article you are going to write and you are redirected to another article. This clearly means that you can still create your article as a stand –alone.

Ask Yourself

Once you have found that no article exists and you will go ahead with the one you want to create. First of all, ask yourself the following questions −

• Is the subject you have picked worthwhile to publish on Wiki?

• Will it ever prove to be helpful for its readers?

• Can it be verifiable (Is there any reference available to it, especially on the internet, or in books.

If the answer to any of the question comes in ‘no’, please don’t bother to write an article. Because articles that are not notable and verifiable are deleted along with your hard work.

Create Yours

If you can see a ‘Create this article’ link, click on the search page, click on it. If you do not see, look under where ‘Search’ is available and type in, e.g., ‘policy for reserve agriculture land in India’. It will be converted into a link as soon as you type in the topic-i.e. click on it. Afterward, click on “Start the policy for reserve agriculture land in India article”.

Create an Account

Editing in Wikipedia can be done even if you don’t have an account; however, to create an article from scratch, an account will be required. Since you are a new user, click on ‘Create an Account’. Once you create an account, you are all set to go. Users without any account can also submit their article through the Articles for creation system, but it will only be reflected as an 'article' once it is approved by a registered user.

Find User Page and Start Writing

A User Page is nothing but space for writing the article before you publish it. Go to User: where you see your User Name, your article name, where you can edit. Click on the ‘create’ tab. You will now see a large empty box where you have to write your article. Create a short introduction (known as ‘lead’ section), followed by the key structure of your write-up. Stretch it up to a reasonable length and keep it informative. Proofread the entire content before you hit save. Click on the ‘save button’, once you are done.