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How to Write a Featured Article on wikiHow

Community Q&A

Featured Articles (FAs) showcase wikiHow's best work. New featured articles are displayed daily on the home page, RSS feed, and wikiHow's Twitter page. If you're writing a new article or editing an older article, you can go the extra mile and bring that article up to FA quality.

Steps

  1. 1
    Get the inside scoop. Not only does a featured article need to be comprehensive and informative, the article must be insightful. Usable tips and facts should make readers say "Wow, I didn't know that!" If you're an expert on a topic, you may have plenty of "insider" tips; but even if you're not an expert, you can find them and reference them on wikiHow.
  2. 2
    Fact check. Take time to ensure the information presented is accurate. If you can imagine someone questioning the validity of the advice, find a reputable source to back it up and use a reference to indicate the source.
  3. 3
    Review the instructions carefully. Does the article stick to the wikiHow format as described in the Writer's Guide? Are the steps clear, giving the reader enough information to do the job, but not so overwhelming that the reader gets distracted or bogged down by background information? Are spelling and grammar corrected?
  4. 4
    Provide additional information in the appropriate sections:
    • Tips - Offer optional tidbits of background information advice that don't fit as a "step" in the given procedure.
    • Warnings - Describe any possible dangers and risks relating to the steps involved, and explain how to prevent them.
    • Related wikiHows - Choose wikiHow articles that are of decent quality. Do not choose anything marked as a stub or tagged as needing copyediting, formatting, etc. If you discover a past featured article that is related to the topic, by all means, include it!
    • Things You'll Need - Use this section only for necessary supplies. You may also list ingredients here. This section is optional and not always useful. List physical objects, but don't list ideas or qualities (such as sense of humor and a good attitude). If a positive attitude does matter, for instance, that information would fit better in a step or a tip.
    • Ingredients - Use this section exclusively for food ingredients, and list exact quantities and any important descriptions: one cup of celery, chopped finely. If it is not food but equipment (a wooden spoon, duct tape, goggles), put it in Things You'll Need, instead.
    • Sources and Citations - Use reference tags to provide the neutral and reputable websites, books, and journal articles you used as sources while researching your article. See the the external links policy and How to Reference Sources on wikiHow for details.
  5. 5
    Add pictures! Images make an article shine. Most instructions will benefit from being supplemented by photos, illustrations, or diagrams. Some articles are difficult to visualize without an images. but don't add irrelevant images. Only use photos you took yourself or photos from freely licensed sources, which you can find through wikiHow. If you didn't take the photo yourself, be sure to attribute it correctly.
  6. 6
    Add a video. Good articles will benefit by including a how-to video. Ideally, the video should demonstrate the method explained in the article, or an alternate method is acceptable. If you cannot find a suitable video, do not embed one. No video is better than a bad video.
  7. 7
    Weave links. Go through the article and link to other relevant wikiHow articles. If you've never woven links before, read the internal links policy first. It's important to include links that are relevant to the context of the article. Don't go overboard!
  8. 8
    Invite other wikiHow members to help improve your page. It is recommended to open a discussion in the wikiHow forums. As you are improving the quality of the instructions, consult other editors on wikiHow and ask for their input.
    • If you know that an active contributor on wikiHow might know a lot about the topic at hand, ask them if they'd fact check the article and let you know if it's missing something. Likewise, if you know of a contributor with a particular talent, like a knack for grammar or formatting, ask them to help, too. Collaboration is not a requirement for the selection of a Featured Article, but every contribution creates a more complete and informative article.
  9. 9
    Wait for someone to nominate the article to be featured. When someone sees your article and recognizes that it is a cut above the ordinary article, they will place the {{fac}} on the discussion page. "F.A.C" stands for Featured Article Candidate. This notice will automatically add the article to the list of others being considered.
  10. 10
    Read comments on discussion pages written by other wikiHow members. Some will comment about the merits of featured article while others may criticize it. Respond to their praise and criticisms in a civil manner and use the feedback to improve the quality of the article. Keep in mind that not all pages can be selected as a featured article and all criticism on wikiHow is meant to improve the quality of the article and is not a criticism of your abilities.
  11. 11
    Review the Helpfulness feedback so far. A newer article might not have much feedback yet, but if the topic has been around a while, it may already have gathered reader votes and feedback on its helpfulness. Review the star ratings in the righthand corner, check the accuracy/helpfulness rating on the article's Stats page (available under the green "Edit" menu in the page header), and ask an Admin or New Article Booster to share any detailed feedback from the helpfulness widget with you.
  12. 12
    Wait. If the community approves the page as a featured article, it can take several weeks or even months for the page to reach the top of the featured page list. If the article does not get featured within three months, any editor may then remove the F.A.C template. Don't feel that you did a bad job, though. Sometimes, certain topics don't have wide enough appeal, or may be too controversial to be appropriate as a featured article. Take pride in knowing that you've helped create a high-quality, complete and helpful how-to that excels as an example of what wikiHow contributors can accomplish together.
  13. 13
    Look over other featured articles for inspiration. For example, if a featured article is well-written and contains step-by-step photos, you might want to make your article informative and add photos too.
  14. 14
    Have fun writing the article! Write about a topic of interest, and the rest should come naturally. If you like your article, and it is professional, other people will probably like it, too.

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Tips

Warnings

  • Saving a copy of your article on Microsoft Word or other writing software can help you undo vandalism to your article.
  • Unfortunately, not all pages nominated for featured article status can be featured.
  • Because of the high traffic they generate, featured articles may attract vandals (those who deliberately damage pages) and trolls (those who try to stir up controversy, particularly on an article discussion page). Do not take these attacks personally. Do incorporate valid suggestions, if possible.
  • Before you invest your energy into a particular title, do a little homework to make sure you're not reinventing the wheel. There might already be an existing article on wikiHow written on the very same topic, in which case your work might get merged to that title. Read the merge policy carefully so that you understand what makes a topic distinct enough to remain un-merged, but not so specific that it's considered a vanity page (which would get nominated for deletion).

Article Info

Categories: Writing and Editing

In other languages:

Español: escribir un artículo destacado en wikiHow, Italiano: Scrivere Articoli da Vetrina per WikiHow, Português: Escrever um Artigo de Destaque no wikiHow, Русский: написать избранную статью для wikiHow

Thanks to all authors for creating a page that has been read 172,461 times.

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