This page in a nutshell: The topic of the articlemust benotable: itmust havein-depth coverage inreliable sources that areindependent of the topic. If you areconnected to the topic, don't write about it. Find another topic instead. Make sure thereisn't already an article about the topic. The article you writemust includecitations to the sources you used. Use your own words to write the article; youmust notcopy from sources word-for-word.

Welcome to Wikipedia! Creating a new article is one of many ways to contribute to theencyclopedia, but can be difficult for new editors. Please take the time to read through this guide. Also consider looking at ourintroductory tutorials orcontributing to Wikipedia to learn the basics about editing. Working on existing articles is a great way to learn Wikipedia's protocols andstyle conventions; see theTask Center oryour homepage for articles that need your assistance and tasks you can help out with.

Before creating your first article, it's highly recommended to practice inyour sandbox. Choose a notable topic supported by reliable, independent sources. Write in a neutral tone, avoid promotional language, and make sure your references are verifiable. If you're unsure, theArticle Wizard can help guide you step-by-step through the process. Don't worry if it's not perfect—every experienced editor started with their first try!

Once you are familiar with thebasics of Wikipedia editing, this page will guide you through the process of creatingyour first article! Specifically, you will learn how to:

• Determine whether Wikipedia should have a new article on the given subject
• Identify and use reliable sources to support assertions in the article
• Create a draft of the article
• Submit the draft for publication into the encyclopaedia itself

All new articles start by researching a topic usinghigh-quality, published sources. Even an expert on a topic cannot directly use their knowledge; published sources are needed. High-quality sources includebooks by reputable publishers,respected newspapers, peer-reviewed scientific andacademic journals, and other sources with areputation for fact-checking and accuracy. This may include some high-quality websites, but excludes personal and company websites,blogs,social media, and any site wherethe public can contribute, like forums and evenWikipedia itself.

Wesummarize such high-quality, published sources in Wikipedia articles. That is all we do! Please make sure that everything you write on Wikipedia is based on such sources, and be sure to includeinline citations along with the content you write. Whileprimary sources can be used, they should be used sparingly and carefully, usually only to support basic facts. Primary sources do not contribute to establishing notability.

If you have a personal or professional relationship with what you want to write about, it is best if you do not create the new article yourself. Editing with aconflict of interest, regardless of whether you feel you can do so neutrally, gives the appearance of bias and undermines public confidence in Wikipedia. If you create an article despite your conflict of interest, youmustdisclose your relationship and make sure that it is reviewed by another editor. If you have afinancial conflict of interest in the topic (for example if you have been paid to edit it) youmust make the requiredpaid-contribution disclosure and abide by the community'srestrictions on paid editing.

The English Wikipedia already has 7.0 million articles. Before creating a new one, try to make sure there is not already an article (or a Draft in development) on the same topic, perhaps under a different spelling, or even a different name.

If you're sure that there is no article or draft available for your topic, then there is just one big task to do before you start writing your first article: you have togather sources about the topic in order toestablish its notability.

As described above in§ The basics, Wikipedia articles are written based on published sources. If you need some help finding sources, seethis helpful guide.

For some common sources, you may findthese assessments by the Wikipedia community helpful. Please note these assessments certainly do not list all possible sources: if a source is not listed, that only means it has not met the criteria for listing. If a source meets thereliable source criteria, you are welcome to use it. If you have questions, please do ask at theTeahouse.

Your topicmust benotable,as Wikipedia uses the term, in order to warrant an article. Wikipedia has articles on many topics, but notevery topic. Notability is tricky to define, but in a nutshell, if there are multiple publishedreliable sources about a topic, then it may be notable. A topic is not notable if there aren't sufficient reliable sources about it. (Important: unreliable ones likeblogs,social media, andwebsites anyone can edit don't count!) Thegeneral notability guideline gives more details on how to tell if a topic is notable or not. If you're not sure if your topic is notable, ask for help at theTeahouse.

A notable topic is one that hasmultiple reliable sources that each meetall three of the following criteria:

• Secondary. Asecondary source provides thought and reflection based on primary sources, generally at least one step removed from a topic. It containsanalysis, evaluation, interpretation, or synthesis of the facts, evidence, concepts, and ideas taken fromprimary 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 isnotindependent of the subject ifany of the following are true:
  • if the subject paid for it, including all forms ofsponsored content,
  • if the content within the source originates from the subject, including mostinterviews and allpress releases, even if published by a third party (sometimes called "churnalism"), or
  • it waspublished by the subject itself, on behalf of the subject, or by someone related to the subject.
• Significant coverage. The sources must discuss your subjectin depth, in multiple paragraphs. Trivial mentions, such as one or two sentences or the appearance of your subject in a table or list, is not enough to help establish notability. The special notability guideline for businesses haslots of good examples of what is consideredsignificant andtrivial.

  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 theTeahouse.

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. TheTalk page of the article may have aquality rating in the shaded box at the top. If an article has been assessed asB-class, or as aGood Article orFeatured Article, it is safe to use as an organizational template for your article. You can also consult Wikipedia'sManual of Style for guidance on how to structure an article.

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

• Source editor – edits thewikitext 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 ormarkup.

Visual Editor is the default. To switch your default editing interface, select an option from the "Editing mode" menu inyour preferences.

Users ofmobile devices are automatically redirected to theofficial mobile version of Wikipedia aten.m.wikipedia.org. If you don't want to use the mobile version, tap theDesktop link at the bottom of any page to switch to the desktop version aten.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.
• inyour 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 auser subpage. You can find more information about subpageshere.

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'tcopy/paste wording from your sources; instead,summarize the ideas in the source using your own words. Summarization is more than justchanging a few words around here and there.
  • Only add informationsupported by your sources. Don't add fromyour own knowledge or expertise.
• Make sure youshow all major viewpoints fairly. Do not coverfringe views or those held only by a tiny minority.
• Don'ttake sides or usepromotional language.
• Write in aprofessional tone; avoidloaded language.
• Addcitations as you go. This is much easier thanwriting 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 appropriateedit summary. ThePublish button saves your progress.
• You canadd images,templates like aninfobox at the top, or astub at the bottom, andcategories 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 beverifiable—that is, backed up byreliable sources.

The best way to demonstrate verifiability, is by creating acitation to a reliable source that you found, andembedding it in-line as you write your article.

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 canread what editors think about them. It's okay to usenon-English sources,offline sources, and subscription-only or fee-based sources, as long as they are reliable.

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 yetconfirmed, or if you have aconflict 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:

• Thefirst sentence defines the article topic, and tells the reader who or what the subject is in plain English.
• There are citations toreliable sources in the article (most reviewers look for at least three sources).
  • Somespecific types of informationrequireinline citations, namely:direct quotations, and anycontentious material aboutliving persons (negative, positive, or neutral).
• The article is written from aneutral point of view.
• Any controversial claims aboutliving people are impeccably sourced.

Alternatively, ifIf you think your article is ready but would like another editor to check it, you cansubmit it for review by an experienced editor by clicking theSubmit the draft for review! button at the top of your draft. If the button isn't there, you can instead add{{subst:submit}} to the top of the draft. A reviewer will then look at your draft and either publish it or give you feedback on how to improve it. You may continue to edit the page, even while waiting for a review. This may take some time (maybe weeks); please have patience, we are all volunteers.

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

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