 | Thisguideline is a part of the English Wikipedia'sManual of Style. Editors should generally follow it, thoughexceptions may apply.Substantive edits to this page should reflectconsensus. When in doubt, discuss first onthis guideline's talk page. |
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This guide presents the typicallayout of Wikipedia articles, including the sections an article usually has, ordering of sections, and formatting styles for various elements of an article. For advice on the use of wikimarkup, seeHelp:Editing; for guidance on writing style, seeManual of Style.
Asimple article should have, at least, (a) a lead section and (b) references. The following list includes additional standardized sections in an article. A complete article need not have all, or even most, of these elements.
Articles longer than astub are generally divided into sections, and sections over a certain length are generally divided into paragraphs: these divisions enhance the readability of the article. Recommended names and orders of section headings mayvary by subject matter, although articles should still follow good organizational and writing principles regarding sections and paragraphs.
Headings introduce sections and subsections, clarify articles by breaking up text, organize content, and populate thetable of contents. Very short sections and subsections clutter an article with headings and inhibit the flow of the prose. Short paragraphs and single sentences generally do not warrant their own subheadings.
Headings follow a six-level hierarchy, starting at 1 and ending at 6. The level of the heading is defined by the number of equals signs on each side of the title. Heading 1 (= Heading 1 =) is automatically generated as the title of the article, and is never appropriate within the body of an article. Sections start at the second level (== Heading 2 ==), with subsections at the third level (=== Heading 3 ===), and additional levels of subsections at the fourth level (==== Heading 4 ====), fifth level, and sixth level. Sections should be consecutive, such that they do not skip levels from sections to sub-subsections; the exact methodology is part of theAccessibility guideline.[g] Between sections, there should be asingle blank line: multiple blank lines in the edit window create too much white space in the article. There is no need to include a blank line between a heading and sub-heading. When changing or removing a heading, consider adding ananchor template with the original heading name to provide forincoming external links andwikilinks (preferably using{{subst:anchor}} rather than using{{anchor}} directly—seeMOS:RENAMESECTION).
Because of the diversity of subjects it covers, Wikipedia has no general standard or guideline regarding the order of section headings within the body of an article. The usual practice is to order body sections based on the precedent of similar articles. For exceptions, seeSpecialized layout below.
When a section is asummary of another article that provides a full exposition of the section, a link to the other article should appear immediately under the section heading. You can use the{{Main}} template to generate a "Main article" link, in Wikipedia's"hatnote" style.
If one or more articles provide further information or additional details (rather than a full exposition, see above), links to such articles may be placed immediately after the section heading for that section, provided this does not duplicate a wikilink in the text. These additional links should be grouped along with the{{Main}} template (if there is one), or at the foot of the section that introduces the material for which these templates provide additional information. You can use one of the following templates to generate these links:
For example, to generate a "See also" link to the article onWikipedia:How to edit a page, type{{See also|Wikipedia:How to edit a page}}, which will generate:
Sections usually consist of paragraphs of running prose, each dealing with a particular point or idea. Single-sentence paragraphs can inhibit the flow of the text; by the same token, long paragraphs become hard to read. Between paragraphs—as between sections—there should be only asingle blank line. First lines arenot indented.
Bullet points should not be used in the lead of an article. They may be used in the body to break up a mass of text, particularly if the topic requires significant effort to comprehend. Sometimes, it may be preferable to use bullet points instead of having a series of very short paragraphs. However, bulleted lists are typical in the reference, further reading, and external links sections towards the end of the article. Bullet points are usually not separated by blank lines, as that causes an accessibility issue (seeMOS:LISTGAP for ways to create multiple paragraphs within list items that do not cause this issue).
When appendix sections are used, they should appear at the bottom of an article, with==level 2 headings==,[h] followed by the various footers. When it is useful to sub-divide these sections (for example, to separate a list of magazine articles from a list of books), this should be done using level 3 headings (===Books===) instead ofdefinition list headings (;Books), as explained in theaccessibility guidelines.
Contents: A bulleted list, usually ordered chronologically, of the works created by the subject of the article.
Heading names: Many different headings are used, depending on the subject matter. "Works" is preferred when the list includes items that are not written publications (e.g. music, films, paintings, choreography, or architectural designs), or if multiple types of works are included. "Publications", "Discography" or "Filmography" are occasionally used where appropriate; however, "Bibliography" is discouraged because it is not clear whether it is limited to the works of the subject of the article.[8][i] "Works" or "Publications" should be plural, even if it lists only a single item.[j]
A "See also" section is a useful way to organizeinternal links to related or comparable articles and "build the web". However, the section itself is not required; many high-quality and comprehensive articles do not have one.
The section should be a bulleted list, sorted either logically (for example, by subject matter), chronologically, or alphabetically. Consider using{{Columns-list}} or{{Div col}} if the list is lengthy.
Contents: Links in this section should be relevant and limited to a reasonable number. Whether a link belongs in the "See also" section is ultimately a matter of editorial judgment andcommon sense. One purpose of "See also" links is to enable readers to explore tangentially related topics; however, articles linked should be related to the topic of the article or be in the same defining category. For example, the article onJesus might include a link toList of people claimed to be Jesus because it is related to the subject but not otherwise linked in the article. The article onTacos might includeFajita as another example of Mexican cuisine.
The "See also" section shouldnot includered links, links todisambiguation pages (unless used in a disambiguation page forfurther disambiguation), orexternal links (including links to pages withinWikimedia sister projects). As a general rule, the "See also" section shouldnot repeat links that appear in the article's body.[9]
Editors should provide a brief annotation when a link's relevance is not immediately apparent, when the meaning of the term may not be generally known, or when the term is ambiguous. For example:
The " – " dash can be generated using{{snd}},
If the linked article has ashort description then you can use{{Annotated link}} to automatically generate an annotation. For example,{{Annotated link|Winston Churchill}} will produce:
Other internal links:{{Portal}} links are usually placed in this section. As an alternative,{{Portal bar}} may be placed with the end matter navigation templates. See relevant template documentation for correct placement.
Heading name: The standardized name for this section is "See also".
Contents: This section, or series of sections, may contain any or all of the following:
Editors may use any citation method they choose, but it should be consistent within an article.
If there are both citation footnotes and explanatory footnotes, then they may be combined in a single section, or separated using thegrouped footnotes function. General references and other full citations may similarly be either combined or separated (e.g. "References" and "General references"). There may therefore be one, two, three or four sections in all.
It is most common for only citation footnotes to be used, and therefore it is most common for only one section ("References") to be needed. Usually, if the sections are separated, then explanatory footnotes are listed first, short citations or other footnoted citations are next, and any full citations or general references are listed last. General references should be sorted logically (for example, by subject matter), chronologically, or alphabetically.
Heading names: Editors may use any reasonable section and subsection names that they choose.[k] The most frequent choice is "References". Other options, in diminishing order of popularity, are "Notes", "Footnotes" or "Works cited", although these are more often used to distinguish between multiple end-matter sections or subsections.
Several alternate titles ("Sources", "Citations", "Bibliography") may also be used, although each is questionable in some contexts: "Sources" may be confused withsource code in computer-related articles, product purchase locations, river origins,journalism sourcing, etc.; "Citations" may be confused with official awards, or a summons to court; "Bibliography" may be confused with the complete list of printed works by the subject of a biography ("Works" or "Publications").
If multiple sections are wanted, then some possibilities include:
With the exception of "Bibliography", the heading should be plural even if it lists only a single item.[j]
Contents: An optional bulleted list, usually alphabetized, of a reasonable number of publications that would help interested readers learn more about the article subject. Editors may include brief annotations. Publications listed infurther reading are formatted in the samecitation style used by the rest of the article. The Further reading section should not duplicate the content of the External links section, and should normally not duplicate the content of the References section, unless the References section is too long for a reader to use as part of a general reading list. This section is not intended as a repository forgeneral references or full citations that were used to create the article content. Any links to external websites included under "Further reading" are subject to the guidelines described atWikipedia:External links.
Contents: A bulleted list of recommendedrelevant websites, each accompanied by a short description. These hyperlinks should not appear in the article's body text, nor should links used as references normally be duplicated in this section. "External links" should be plural, even if it lists only a single item.[j] Depending on the nature of the link contents, this section may be accompanied or replaced by a"Further reading" section.
Links toWikimedia sister projects and{{Spoken Wikipedia}} should be placed in the last section of the page, which is usually "External links". If the article does not already have an "External links" section, then you may choose whether to place larger sister link(s) (such as{{Sister project links}} or{{Commons category}}) in whatever the last section is (usually "References"), or to create an "External links" section and use the less commoninline form of these templates (e.g.,{{Commons-inline}}).
{{Commons category}}, shown here for thec:Category:Wikipedia logos at Commons) have to be put at the beginning of the last section of the article so that boxes will appear next to, rather than below, the list items. (Donot make a section whose sole content is box-type templates.){{Commons category-inline}}, create links to sister projects that appear as list items, like this: Media related toWikimedia Foundation at Wikimedia CommonsAn article may end withNavigation templates and footer navboxes, such assuccession boxes and geography boxes (for example,{{Geographic location}}). Most navboxes do not appear in printed versions of Wikipedia articles.[l]
Stand-alone lists andtalk pages have their own layout designs.
Certain topics have Manual of Style pages that provide layout advice, including:
Some WikiProjects haveadvice pages that include layout recommendations. You can find those pages atCategory:WikiProject style advice.
Each image should ideally be located in the section to which it is most relevant, and most should carry an explanatorycaption. An image that would otherwise overwhelm the text space available within a1024×768 window should generally be formatted as described in relevant formatting guidelines (e.g.WP:IMAGESIZE,MOS:IMGSIZE,Help:Pictures § Panoramas). Try to harmonize the sizes of images on a given page in order to maintain visual coherence.
If "stacked" images in one section spill over into the next section at 1024×768 screen resolution, there may be too many images in that section. If an article overall has so many images that they lengthen the page beyond the length of the text itself, you can use agallery; or you can create a page or category combining all of them atWikimedia Commons and use a relevant template ({{Commons}},{{Commons category}},{{Commons-inline}} or{{Commons category-inline}}) to link to it instead, so that further images are readily available when the article is expanded. SeeWikipedia:Image use policy § Image galleries for further information on galleries.
Use|upright=scaling factor to adjust the size of images; for example,|upright=1.3 displays an image 30% larger than the default, and|upright=0.60 displays it 40% smaller. Lead images should usually be no larger than|upright=1.35.
Avoid article text referring to images as being to the left, right, above or below, because image placement varies with platform (especially mobile platforms) and screen size, and is meaningless to people using screen readers; instead, use captions to identify images.
Horizontal rules are sometimes used in some special circumstances, such as inside{{sidebar}} template derivatives, but not in regular article prose.
As explained atMOS:COLLAPSE, limit the use of{{Collapse top}}/{{Collapse bottom}} and similar templates in articles. That said, they can beuseful in talk pages.
== Heading 2 == to==== Heading 4 ==== without=== Heading 3 === in the middle, violatesWikipedia:Accessibility as it reduces usability for users of screen readers who use heading levels to navigate pages.==See also==*[[Wikipedia:How to edit a page]]*[[Wikipedia:Manual of Style]]
Which produces:
See also
