Misplaced Pages

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The Misplaced Pages Guide to Layout is an annotated, working example of some of the basics of laying out an article. It is a summary of what some articles look like. For more complicated articles, you may wish to copy the markup of an existing article that appears to have an appropriate structure.

This guide is not about how to use wiki markup (see Help:Editing for that); nor is it about style (see Misplaced Pages:Manual of Style for that).

Introductory material

Main project page: Misplaced Pages:Lead section.

Unless an article is very short, it should start with a lead section comprising one or more introductory paragraphs. The lead should not be explicitly entitled == Introduction == or any equivalent header.

The subject of the article should be mentioned in bold text ('''subject''') at a natural place, preferably in the first sentence, or elsewhere in the first paragraph. The name of the subject is normally identical to the page title, although it may appear in a slightly different form from that used as the title, and may include variations, e.g., 'The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (usually shortened to the United Kingdom or the UK) is a country off the north-western ...'.

Normally, the first paragraph clearly explains the subject so that the reader is prepared for the greater level of detail to follow. If further introductory material is needed before the first section, this can be covered in subsequent paragraphs. Introductions to biographical articles commonly double as summaries, listing the best-known achievements of the subject.

The lead is automatically followed by a table of contents, unless a user has selected the option of not viewing tables of contents. The first section follows the table of contents.

Links

Wikified articles link significant words to the corresponding article, provided that the corresponding article contains information that will help the reader to understand the original article. For example, an article might mention 'pancakes' without explaining what they are, although a brief phrase explaining the term might be more appropriate in many instances. An article about laser beams might provide helpful background material when mentioned in passing. For advice about what to link and what not to link, see Misplaced Pages:Make only links relevant to the context, Misplaced Pages:Manual of Style (links)#Internal links and Misplaced Pages:Manual of Style (dates and numbers)#Date formatting. Useful links that are not mentioned in the prose paragraphs can be added to the "see also" section.

Structure of the article

The number of single-sentence paragraphs should be minimized, since these can inhibit the flow of the text. By the same token, paragraphs become hard to read once they exceed a certain length.

Articles generally comprise prose paragraphs, not bullet points; however, sometimes a bulleted list can break up what would otherwise be an overly large, grey mass of text, particularly if the topic requires significant effort on the part of readers. Bulleted lists should not be overused in the main text, but are typical in the reference and reading sections at the bottom.

Headings help to make an article clearer, and comprise the table of contents; see Misplaced Pages:Section, which users can choose under 'Preferences' to view (the default) or not to view. Headings are hierarchical, so you should start with == Header == and follow it with === Subheader ===, ==== Subsubheader ====, and so forth. The 'second-level' == Header == is overly large in some browsers, but that can be fixed for individual viewers with a style sheet more easily than a nonhierarchical article structure can be fixed (see help:User style).

Just as for paragraphs, sections and subsections that are very short will make the article look cluttered and inhibit the flow. Short paragraphs and single sentences generally do not warrant their own subheading, and in these circumstances, it may be preferable to use bullet points.

The degree to which subtopics should appear in a single article or be given their own pages is a matter of judgment and of controlling the total length of the article.

Between paragraphs and between sections, there should be only a single blank line. Multiple blank lines unnecessarily lengthen the article and can make it more difficult to read.

Images

If the article can be illustrated with pictures, find an appropriate place to position these images and get them from Wikimedia Commons. For more information, see Misplaced Pages:Picture tutorial and Misplaced Pages:Images

Templates

You can use the template messages.

Standard appendices

Certain optional standard sections should be added at the bottom of an article.

See also

Put here, in a bulleted list, other articles in the Misplaced Pages that are related to this one.

• Misplaced Pages:Manual of Style
• Misplaced Pages:Talk page layout

Related topics should be grouped by subject area for ease of navigation. Please also provide a brief explanatory sentence, when the relevance of the added links is not immediately apparent - like so:

• Related person made a similar achievement in 2005.

Individual sections in the "Main article" may have their own "See also" which should be placed before any other text in the section. Use the template:

{{See also|:Misplaced Pages:Section#.22See_also.22_for_one_section}}

which produces:

References

Put under this header, again in a bulleted list, any books, articles, web pages, et cetera that you used in constructing the article and have referenced (cited) in the article.

• Pooh, W. T. & Robin, C. (1926). "How to catch a heffalump" in A. A. Milne (Ed.), The Karma of Kanga, pp. 23–47. Hundred Acre Wood: Wol Press. ISBN 999999999

The most important thing is to include the complete citation information, just as you would for any other bibliography; the precise formatting is still debatable and can be fixed later. See also: Misplaced Pages:Cite sources and Misplaced Pages:ISBN.

Bibliography

Put under this header, again in a bulleted list, any books, articles, web pages, et cetera that you recommend as further reading, useful background, or sources of further information to readers.

External links

Put here, in list form, any web sites that you have used or recommend for readers of the article. Describe it if possible (see Misplaced Pages:Guide to writing better articles).

• Yale Web Style Guide for web pages

Some editors prefer to list external links under "References"; there is currently no consensus on the desirability of a separate section for on-line citations.

Quotations

Under this header, list any memorable quotations that are appropriate to the subject.

• "Misquotations are the only quotations that are never misquoted." — Hesketh Pearson, Common Misquotations (1934)

This header is largely deprecated. Usually, the most relevant quotes can be placed directly into the article text in order to illustrate the topic. Lists of quotes are generally moved to Wikiquote and the Quotations section as a whole is replaced with a {{wikiquote}} badge, usually placed at the top of the external links section.

• Misplaced Pages how-to
• Misplaced Pages style guidelines