Anyone can edit Wikipediaâincluding you. Thatâs right. Thereâs no fee, and you donât have to register. You donât even have to have an email account (but if youâre reading this book, you probably do). As the Introduction explains, all Wikipedia articles are collaborative efforts. You can jump right in and add your own knowledge with just a few clicks and some typing.
This chapter explains what you see when you look at an article in Wikipediaâs editing window and how to practice, preview, and save your edits. Youâll also learn a few more basic editing skillsâhow to create a link from one article to another, and how to edit a section of an article rather than the whole article. Once youâve got these skills under your belt, youâre ready for the first step in for-real Wikipedia editing: identifying an article in need of an edit.
Tip
You can dive right in and start editing without setting up a Wikipedia account (that is, getting a user name). However, there are advantages to having a user nameâincreased privacy and the ability to create new articles and a personal user page, to name two. So you have an option: You can follow the chapters in the order they appear, or you can skip to Chapter 3 and get a user name first, and then read this chapter and Chapter 2.
Experienced Wikipedia editors understand one thing above all else: Wikipedia is a collaboration. Thereâs no need to be intimidated, because youâve got the support of an entire community of researchers, fact-checkers, and proofreaders. Keeping the following points in mind will get you into the right mindset for effective editing:
You donât need to know everything about Wikipedia to edit an article. Wikipedia has literally hundreds of pages of policy, guidelines, and how-to information on topics such as capitalization, categorization, citations, copyrights, disclaimers, foreign language characters, headings, indentation, links, lists, neutrality, pronunciation, quotations, tags, and templates, to name just a few. If you donât get something exactly right, donât worryâno one else gets everything right every time, either.
You donât need to know everything about your subject to edit an article. If you add something thatâs constructive and 90-percent right, thatâs far better than not doing an edit at all. As in sports, you donât need to hit a home run or score a goal on every play to be a valuable contributor. If you donât get something exactly right, someone else is likely to come along and help by fixing or finishing it.
You can contribute without editing at all. If you see a problem in an article, but you donât (yet) know how to fix it, or you do know how to fix it, but you canât edit the article (some articles are fully protected, typically for short periods of time), you can still help by posting a constructive comment on the articleâs talk (discussion) page. (Chapter 8 discusses talk pages in detail.) If you donât want to or canât edit an article directly, you can still help to improve it.
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