Misplaced Pages

Revision as of 01:00, 29 September 2005

The Misplaced Pages Guide to Layout is an annotated, working example of some of the basics of laying out an article.

This little article is not about how to use wiki markup; see Misplaced Pages:How to edit a page for that. It is not about style; see Misplaced Pages:Manual of Style for that. It is just a summary of what some fairly clean, simple Misplaced Pages articles look like. For more complicated articles, you may want to copy the markup of some existing article you like the looks of.

Introductory material

The subject of the article should be mentioned in bold text ('''subject''') at a natural place, preferably in the first sentence, or else in the first paragraph. The name of the subject is normally identical to the page title, though it may appear in a slightly different form from that used as the title, or may include variations.

If the article is long enough to contain several paragraphs, the first paragraph should be short and to the point, clearly explaining the subject. If further introductory material is needed before the first header, then this can be given in additional paragraphs. It is common for introductions to biographical articles to double as summaries, listing the best-known achievements of the subject.

Introductory paragraphs should precede sections; in particular, they should not be in an ==Introduction== section of their own. The table of contents will automatically follow the introduction, preceding the first named section.

Links

Wikified articles link significant words to the corresponding article. For example, an article might mention pancakes without explaining what they are. Or an article about laser beams might provide helpful background material when mentioned in passing. Not every word should be linked, just helpful ones. Long stretches without links are unusual. Useful links that are not mentioned in the prose paragraphs can be added to the "see also" section near the end. (See below.)

Structure of the article

Paragraphs should be relatively short, as the eye gets tired of following solid text for too many lines. Similarly, articles themselves should be kept relatively short. Articles are generally prose paragraphs, not bullet points. But lists may be included for reference.

Headers also help make an article clearer and determine the table of contents; see Misplaced Pages:Section. Since headers are hierarchical, and some people set their user preferences to number them, you should start with ==Header== and follow it with ===Subheader===, ====Subsubheader====, and so forth. Yes, the ==Header== is awfully big in some browsers, but that can be fixed in the future with a style sheet more easily than a nonhierarchical article structure can be fixed.

On the other hand, overuse of sub-headings should be avoided, as it can make the article look cluttered. Short paragraphs and single sentences generally do not warrant their own sub-heading, and in these circumstances it may be preferable to use bullet points or bolded text instead.

The degree to which subtopics should be kept on a single page or given their own pages is a matter of judgment.

Images

If the article can be illustrated with pictures, find an appropriate place to position these images. For more information, see Misplaced Pages:Picture tutorial.

Standardized appendices

Certain optional standardized sections go at the bottom of the article, as you see below.

Quotations

Under this header, list any memorable quotations that are appropriate to the subject.

• "Misquotations are the only quotations that are never misquoted." — Hesketh Pearson, Common Misquotations (1934)

This header is somewhat deprecated. Usually, the most relevant quotes can be placed directly into the article text in order to illustrate the topic. Lists of quotes are generally moved to Wikiquote and the Quotations section as a whole is replaced with a {{wikiquote}} badge, usually placed at the top of the external links section.

See also

Put here, in a bulleted list, other articles in the Misplaced Pages that are related to this one.

• Misplaced Pages:Manual of Style
• Misplaced Pages:Talk page layout

Related topics ought to be grouped by subject area for ease of navigation. Please also provide a brief explanatory sentence, when the relevance of the added links is not immediately apparent - like so:

• Related person made a similar achievement in 2005.

Or for a less formal feel you can simply use this:

See also: Main page, Recent changes

External links

Put here, in list form, any web sites that you have used or recommend for readers of the article. Describe it if possible (see Misplaced Pages:Guide to writing better articles#Standard appendices)

• Yale Web Style Guide for web pages

(Some editors prefer to list external links under "References"; there is currently no consensus on the desirability of a separate section for on-line citations.)

References

Put under this header, again in a bulleted list, any books, articles, web pages, et cetera that you used in constructing the article and/or recommend as sources of further information to readers.

• Pooh, W. T. & Robin, C. (1926). "How to catch a heffalump" in A. A. Milne (Ed.), The Karma of Kanga, pp. 23–47. Hundred Acre Wood: Wol Press. ISBN 999999999

The most important thing is to include the complete citation information, just as you would for any other bibliography; the precise formatting is still debatable and can be fixed later. See also: Misplaced Pages:Cite your sources and Misplaced Pages:ISBN.

• Misplaced Pages style and how-to