Wikipedia:Wikipedia essays
This help page is a how-to guide. It details processes or procedures of how to create a Wikipedia essay. It is not one of Wikipedia's policies or guidelines, and may reflect varying levels of consensus and vetting. |
On Wikipedia, an
How to write a simple essay
Brief guide
- Check to see if the topic of the essay has been covered by skimming through content-forkingthem.
- Start the essay as a draft in the userspace.
- Be concise and to the point.
- Tag the essay with {{essay}}.
- Use {{nutshell}} to summarize the gist of the essay.
- Create a shortcutthat redirects to the essay.
- Categorize the essay, and use any relevant navigational templates.
- Move the essay to the project space when finished.
Creating the essay page
A Wikipedia essay may be written by anyone. Before creating an essay, it is a good idea to check if similar essays already exist. Check the "see also" section of relevant guidelines and related essays, or perform a search of Help and Project pages.
If you find an essay similar to the one you intend to write, it is recommended you modify the existing one to include your ideas.
Labeling the page as an essay
Most pages in the Wikipedia namespace have a template at the top describing their purpose. (For some pages, however, editors may agree that
The various "essay" templates available are:
- {{essay}} – Essays that don't fit into other categories listed below.
- {{civility.
- {{essay in development}} - Essay in development
- {{humorous essay}} - contains comments by one or more Wikipedia contributors and may contain advice
- {{policies or guidelines, without having any status as policy.
- {{deletion essay}} – Essays pertaining to deletion
- {{policy or guidelinein the future.
- {{notability
- {{notability written by one or more WikiProjects.
- {{wikiProject style advice}} - Essays pertaining to style written by one or more WikiProjects.
- {{contentwritten by one or more WikiProjects.
Categories: The above templates should add an essay category to the essay. However, consider adding
Other templates
There are other templates you may wish to include on your essay page:
Shortcuts
You may want to include one or more
Nutshell
You may want to include a brief summary of what the essay is about at the top of the page. To do this, use the template {{nutshell}} below the line with the essay tag: {{nutshell|Your desired text}}
.
It is also possible to add one or more navigational templates to your essay, called
- {{Civility}} - Civility essay Navbox
- {{Essays on building Wikipedia}} - Essays on building Wikipedia Navbox
- {{Humorous essays}} - Humorous essay Navbox
- {{Wikipedia fauna}} - Essays characterizing "species" of Wikipedia editors Navbox
- {{
- {{Notessays}} - Notability essay Navbox
- {{College Football Project Essays}} - College Football Project essay Navbox
It is also possible to include links to a handful of closely related pages in a "See also" section. To keep your essay from being an
Recognition templates
- {{orphaned essay}} - Few or no project pages link to this page.
Improving existing essays
You do not have to be the one who originally created an essay in order to improve it. If an essay already exists, you can add to, remove from, or modify it as you wish, provided that you use good judgment.
It is important to keep in mind that like anything else on Wikipedia, essays are
Essays placed in
Acceptance of essays
The Wikipedia community has historically tolerated a wide range of subjects and viewpoints on essay pages. However, there are a handful of "essay" pages that tend to get
- Writings that have no relationship to Wikipedia whatsoever. The purpose of an essay is to aid the encyclopedia itself (by providing information, instructions, interpretations, or advice) and not any unrelated outside causes.
- Writings that violate one or more Wikipedia policies, such as what Wikipedia is not.
- Writings that contradict or subvert policy (or other pages with established consensus), especially if they are intended to undermine, not just disagree with, those pages. Such oppositional views are, however, generally tolerated within user essays.