Look for Guidance and Examples

Before you start adding sourced content, look for roadmaps to help you decide where to put citations and format text. There are several possibilities:

  • Check the Manual of Style (shortcut: WP:MOS) for topical guidelines. For example, the guideline Wikipedia:Manual of Style (Japan-related articles) might apply to your article.

  • Check the relevant WikiProjects (see the box on Build the Web). Sometimes they have guidelines for articles.

  • Look for a featured article (FA) on a similar topic. You might find a Featured Article or a Good Article close to your topic listed at the WikiProjects you’ve checked for guidelines. Or select one of the two dozen grouping of FAs at the page Wikipedia:Featured articles (WP:FA), and see if it includes a useful article. (If nothing else, you’ll probably get an appropriate listbox template to use.)

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