This is anessay. It contains the advice or opinions of one or more Wikipedia contributors. This page is not an encyclopedia article, nor is it one ofWikipedia's policies or guidelines, as it has not beenthoroughly vetted by the community. Some essays represent widespread norms; others only represent minority viewpoints.

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Thisessay could benefit from being converted into ahow-to-guide. It contains some non-opinionated instructional content related to the processes or procedures of some aspect(s) of Wikipedia's norms and practices.

This page in a nutshell: There are many resources to improve articles of all quality levels.

Featured articles are considered to be some of the best articles Wikipedia has to offer, which makes writing them not an easy task. This essay is aone stop shop of valuable resources, whether you are seriously aiming to write afeatured topic or just tweaking a shabbyvital article. Each section is designated for an assessment category outlined inWikipedia:Content assessment for easy navigation.

Astub is an article deemed too short to provide encyclopedic coverage of a subject, usually only a few sentences long. This is one of the most common types of article on Wikipedia, with a good example beingCrescent Falls in May 2018. Such article can be tagged with {{stub}} or its variant for easy identification. Some articles willalways be a stub due to a lack of reliable source about the topic, but some are just notnotable enough to exist and will benominated for deletion. Because there is so little content available, the usual best course of action is to justadd more content via sources, which this topic is discussed thoroughly at thereliable source guideline.

For new editors,Help:Your first article can be useful as an all-in-one guide. There are some essays that express viewpoints of extremely short or undeveloped stubs, such asWikipedia:Don't hope the house will build itself,Wikipedia:Don't demolish the house while it's still being built, andWikipedia:An unfinished house is a real problem. A word of caution: please use your own words – directly copying other sources without giving them credit isplagiarism, and may in some cases be a violation ofcopyright.

A good stub contains:

• Adequate context to make it clear what the subject of the article is and for other editors to expand upon it
• Asorted {{stub}} template at the end
• At least one goodcategory at the very end
• Tagged with appropriateWikiProjects at its talk page
• Providing sources that is archived to preventlink rot
• Some appropriatewikilinks to preventorphaning

A Start-class article provides some meaningful content but is still weak in many areas. A good example of such an article beingring-tailed cardinalfish in June 2018. Somesectioning is attempted to categorize new information in the article. Even though the definition of a Start-class article can vary between editors,Wikipedia:Content assessment defined it as an article that "should [not] be in any danger of beingspeedily deleted." This means that the article must follow very basic policies about content, such as having aneutral point of view,verifiable, and containsno original research. In some cases, they also need to satisfyarticle title,biographies of living persons,image use, and "what Wikipedia is not" guidelines.

Most Start-class articles are sourced, though usually toquestionable ones. Therefore, a good way to improve the article is to add more content,clean up the layout, and reformat the article to be up to standards. Grammar, spelling,jargon use and writing style can also be improved viacopyediting, though the latter should never be based on personal preferences. SinceWikipedia is a work in progress, not all articlemust be better than Start-class, though it is generally agreed that any Start-class article has a potential to be a B-class or even agood article.Collaboration between editors happens much more often starting from this stage.

Finding a Start-class article is easy as it is the most numerous on Wikipedia. Therefore, the most problematic ones can be found atWikipedia:Cleanup,Wikipedia:Community portal/Open tasks,Category:Wikipedia pages with to-do lists, andCategory:Articles needing attention. Some Start-class articles can be merged to have enough content, though this practice iscontroversial to many editors.

A good Start-class article contains all of the above criteria and:

• A few sections to categorize information
• No {{stub}} template at the end
• Providing reliable information from reputableprimary,secondary ortertiary source
• An image, preferablyfreely licensed
• Metcore policies about content
• Intelligible grammar and formatting
• Bold first instance of the word

This article rating isn’t currently being used.

A C-class article is defined as "still missing important content or contains much irrelevant material" byWikipedia:Content assessment, and usually considered to be an "average" article quality by many editors. An example of a C-class article beingwing in June 2018.

A B-class article is generally considered to be comprehensive by casual readers, likehuman in April 2019. This is generally an advised end goal for an article that is about a very obscure topic. Unlike prior assessments, B-class hassix concrete criteria:

1. The article issuitably referenced, withinline citations – it hasreliable sources, and any important or controversial material which islikely to be challenged is cited. Any format of inline citation is acceptable: the use of<ref> tags andcitation templates such as{{cite web}} is optional.
2. The article reasonably covers the topic, and does not contain obvious omissions or inaccuracies – it contains a large proportion of the material necessary for anA-Class article, although some sections may need expansion, and some less important topics may be missing.
3. The article has a defined structure – content should be organized into groups of related material, including alead section and all the sections that can reasonably be included in an article of its kind.
4. The article is reasonably well-written – the prose contains no major grammatical errors and flows sensibly, but it does not need to be "brilliant". TheManual of Style does not need to be followed rigorously.
5. The article contains supporting materials where appropriate – illustrations are encouraged, though not required. Diagrams, aninfobox etc. should be included where they are relevant and useful to the content.
6. The article presents its content in anappropriately understandable way – it is written with as broad an audience in mind as possible. Although Wikipedia ismore than just a general encyclopedia, the article should not assume unnecessary technical background andtechnical terms should be explained or avoided where possible.

Agood article is reviewed by an impartial editor, likediscovery of the neutron article in April 2019 andits review. For a reader, the article is of very high quality with no obvious omissions. It must satisfy the following criteria:

1. Well written:
   1. the prose is clear, concise, andunderstandable to an appropriately broad audience; spelling and grammar are correct; and
   2. it complies with themanual of style guidelines forlead sections,layout,words to watch,fiction, andlist incorporation.
2. Verifiable with no original research:
   1. it contains a list of all references (sources of information), presented in accordance withthe layout style guideline;
   2. allinline citations are fromreliable sources, including those for direct quotations, statistics, published opinion, counter-intuitive or controversial statements that are challenged orlikely to be challenged, and contentious material relating to living persons—science-based articles should follow thescientific citation guidelines;
   3. it containsno original research; and
   4. it contains nocopyright violations norplagiarism.
3. Broad in its coverage:
   1. it addresses themain aspects of the topic; and
   2. it staysfocused on the topic without going into unnecessary detail (seesummary style).
4. Neutral: it represents viewpoints fairly and without editorial bias, giving due weight to each.
5. Stable: it does not change significantly from day to day because of an ongoingedit war or content dispute.
6. Illustrated, if possible, by media such asimages,video, oraudio:
   1. media aretagged with theircopyright statuses, andvalid non-free use rationales are provided fornon-free content; and
   2. media arerelevant to the topic, and havesuitable captions.

An A-class article is often considered as a transition between good article and featured article status. It was originally created to serve as a buffer between B-class and featured article, though now it saw limited use by some largeWikiprojects. An example is theBattle of Nam River andits review in June 2014.

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