Help:Your first article

A notable topic is one that has reliable sources that each meet all three of the following criteria:

• Secondary. A
  primary sources
  .
• Independent of the subject. This means that nobody involved in writing or publishing the source has a financial or other connection to the subject. A source is not
  independent
  of the subject if any of the following are true:
  • if the subject paid for it, including all forms of
    sponsored content
    ,
  • if the content within the source originates from the subject, including most
    press releases, even if published by a third-party (sometimes called "churnalism
    "), or
  • it was
    published by the subject itself
    , on behalf of the subject, or by someone related to the subject.
• Significant coverage. The sources must discuss your subject
  lots of good examples
  of what is considered significant.

If you discover the topic is not notable, stop here. Non-notable topics do not qualify for a separate article. Consider expanding a relevant existing article related to the topic or select a new topic. If you are stuck, ask for guidance at the Teahouse.

It's a good idea to look at several existing Wikipedia articles on subjects similar to yours to see how such articles are formatted. The quality of our existing articles varies and lower quality articles should not be used as a model. The

Once you've verified that there § isn't already an article out there about your topic, § gathered your sources, and § established notability, you're ready to start writing!

Wikipedia provides various editing tools, and you have a choice of what tool best suits your needs:

• Source editor – edits the wikitext of the article, which uses some special characters, like adding [[brackets]] to create a link to another page, or asterisks to make bullet points.
• Visual Editor – a tool similar to a word processor, for editing articles without the need to understand any special codes or markup.

Users of mobile devices are automatically redirected to the official mobile version of Wikipedia at en.m.wikipedia.org. If you don't want to use the mobile version, tap the Desktop link at the bottom of any page to switch to the desktop version at en.wikipedia.org.

Where will you develop your draft? You have several options:

• in "
  Draftspace
  " – this is a special area of Wikipedia dedicated to creating new articles, and is a good choice because other editors can find your draft here and help out.
• in
  your sandbox
   – this is a page you can always easily find, by clicking 'Sandbox' at the top of any page at Wikipediaby tapping the user icon in the top right corner to show the menu linking your sandbox. Downside: you can only create one article at a time there, and it's not so easy for other editors to find.
• in a
  here
  .

The easiest way is with the Article Wizard, which will create your article in Draft space and guide you through the steps of creating a draft.

Writing a Wikipedia article:

• Summarize the most important things your sources say.
  • Don't
    changing a few words around
    here and there.
  • Only add information
    your own knowledge
    or expertise.
• Make sure you
  fringe
  views or those held only by a tiny minority.
• Don't
  promotional language
  .
• Write in a
  loaded
  language.
• Add
  citations
  as you go. This is much easier than writing first and trying to remember later where you found each piece of information.
• You don't have to write the article all at once! Save your progress frequently, with an appropriate
  edit summary
  . The Publish button saves your progress.
• You can add images, templates like a an infobox at the top, or a stub at the bottom, and categories to your article.

Sources are the published books, academic articles, reputable magazines and newspapers, and other locations where you find the information you will be writing about. You will need to find sources before you start writing, because all content in articles at Wikipedia must be

The best way to demonstrate verifiability, is by creating a

The best sources tend to have some form of editorial oversight and a reputation for fact-checking and accuracy. Some websites are reliable; many are not. If you're not sure about the reliability of a website, you can

Here are some "Do"s and "Don't"s, to highlight some of the most important points about writing your first article:

When your draft is ready, you have two options for publishing it: you can do so directly yourself, or ask another editor to review it first. If you don't have an account, if your account is not yet confirmed, or if you have a conflict of interest with the article topic, you will have to ask for a review. Otherwise, the choice is up to you. In either case, you should take some time to double check that the draft is ready first.

Take another look at your draft to see if it meets the criteria required for a Wikipedia article. Make sure that:

• The
  first sentence
  defines the article topic, and tells the reader who or what the subject is in plain English.
• There are citations to
  reliable sources
  in the article (most reviewers look for at least three sources).
  • Some
    living persons
    (negative, positive, or neutral).
• The article is written from a
  neutral point of view
  .
• Any controversial claims about
  living people
  are impeccably sourced.

Alternatively, ifIf you think your article is ready but would like another editor to check it, you can

Congratulations, you've created your first article! We have some suggested next steps at Help:After your first article, but do pat yourself on the back. Not many people have successfully created an article on Wikipedia!

• The best places to ask for assistance is at the Teahouse, which is dedicated to answering newer editors' questions.
• For a list of informative, instructional and supportive pages, see the
  Help directory. More can be found at the request directory
  .
• Click here to ask for help on your talk page. A volunteer will visit you there shortly!
• Alternately, you can ask a question via IRC chat at the #wikipedia-en-help ^connect channel.
• Via the #help channel at Wikipedia:Discord.
• Wiki Education offers a library of training modules for new Wikipedia editors and students.