• WP:UMASSWP:UMASS

Afeatured article exemplifies Wikipedia's very best work and is distinguished by professional standards of writing, presentation, and sourcing. In addition to meeting thepolicies regarding content for all Wikipedia articles, it has the following attributes.

1. It is:
   1. well-written: its prose is engaging and of a professional standard;
   2. comprehensive: it neglects no major facts or details and places the subject in context;
   3. well-researched: it is a thorough and representative survey of the relevant literature; claims areverifiable against high-qualityreliable sources and are supported by inline citationswhere appropriate;
   4. neutral: it presents viewsfairly and without bias;
   5. stable: it is not subject to ongoingedit wars and its content does not change significantly from day to day, except in response to the featured article process; and
   6. compliant withWikipedia's copyright policy and free ofplagiarism ortoo-close paraphrasing.
2. It follows thestyle guidelines, including the provision of:
   1. a lead: a conciselead section that summarizes the topic and prepares the reader for the detail in the subsequent sections;
   2. appropriate structure: a substantial but not overwhelming system of hierarchicalsection headings; and
   3. consistent citations: where required by criterion 1c, consistently formatted inline citations using footnotes—seeciting sources for suggestions on formatting references. Citation templates are not required.
3. Media. It hasimages and other media, where appropriate, with succinctcaptions andacceptable copyright status. Images follow theimage use policy.Non-free images or media must satisfy thecriteria for inclusion of non-free content andbe labeled accordingly.
4. Length. It stays focused on the main topic without going into unnecessary detail and usessummary style where appropriate.

1. Prose. It features professional standards of writing.
2. Lead. It has an engaginglead that introduces the subject and defines the scope and inclusion criteria.
3. Comprehensiveness.
   • (a) It comprehensively covers the defined scope, providing at least all of the major items and, where practical, a complete set of items; where appropriate, it has annotations that provide useful and appropriate information about the items.
   • (b) statements aresourced where they appear, and they provideinline citations if they contain any of thefour kinds of material absolutely required to have citations.
   • (c) In length and/or topic, it meets all of the requirements forstand-alone lists and includes at minimum eight items; does not violate thecontent-forking guideline, does not largely duplicate material from another article, and could not reasonably be included as part of a related article.
4. Structure. It is easy to navigate and includes, where helpful,section headings andtable sort facilities.
5. Style. It complies with theManual of Style and its supplementary pages.
   • (a)Visual appeal. It makes suitable use of text layout, formatting,tables, andcolour; and a minimal proportion of items are redlinked.
   • (b)Media files. It hasimages and other media, if appropriate to the topic, that follow Wikipedia'susage policies, with succinctcaptions.Non-free images and other media satisfy thecriteria for the inclusion of non-free content andare labeled accordingly.
   • (c)Accessibility. Ituses proper formatting to beaccessible to all readers.Bulleted and unbulleted lists andtables are structured correctly. Visual media, if included, utilizealternative (alt) text.
6. Stability. It is not the subject of ongoingedit wars and its content does not change significantly from day to day, except in response to the featured list process.

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 withno original research:
   1. it contains a list of all references (sources of information), presented in accordance withthe layout style guideline;
   2. reliable sources arecited inline. All content thatcould reasonably be challenged, except for plot summaries and that which summarizes cited content elsewhere in the article, must be cited no later than the end of the paragraph (or line if the content is not in prose);
   3. it containsno original research; and
   4. it contains nocopyright violations orplagiarism.
3. Broad in its coverage:
   1. it addresses themain aspects of the topic; and
   2. it stays focused 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, bymedia 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.

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 does not need to beof the standard of featured articles. 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. The article should not assume unnecessary technical background andtechnical terms should be explained or avoided where possible.

• A useful picture or graphic
• Multiple links that help explain or illustrate the topic
• A subheading that fully treats an element of the topic
• Multiple subheadings that indicate material that could be added to complete the article