As in the body of the article itself, the emphasis given to material in the lead should roughly reflect its importance to the topic, according to reliable, published sources.
As explained in more detail at Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Layout § Standard appendices and footers, optional appendix sections containing the following information may appear after the body of the article in the following order: With some exceptions, any links to sister projects appear in further reading or external links sections.
Succession boxes and navigational footers go at the end of the article, following the last appendix section, but preceding the category and interwiki templates.
A feature of both styles, and of all Wikipedia articles, is the presence of the lead section, a summarizing overview of the most important facts about the topic.
There are three main advantages to using summary style: The exact organizing principle of a particular summary-style article is highly context-dependent, with various options, such as chronological, geographical, and alphabetical (primarily in lists), among others.
This information presentation technique is found in short, direct, front-page newspaper stories and the news bulletins that air on radio and television.
Encyclopedia articles are not required to be in inverted pyramid order and often are not, especially when their substance is detailed and their structure is highly granular.
Common examples are short-term events, concise biographies of persons notable for only one thing, and other articles where there are not likely to be many logical subtopics, but a number of facts to prioritize for the reader.
The lead section common to all Wikipedia articles is, in essence, a limited application of the inverted pyramid approach.
Standards for formal tone vary depending upon the subject matter but should usually match the style used in Featured- and Good-class articles in the same category.
For instance, the "inclusive we" widely used in professional mathematics writing is sometimes used to present and explain examples in articles, although discouraged on Wikipedia even for that subject.
As a matter of policy, Wikipedia is not written in news style (in any sense other than some use of the inverted pyramid, above), including tone.
Especially avoid bombastic wording, attempts at humor or cleverness, reliance on primary sources, editorializing, recentism, pull quotes, journalese, and headlinese.
Similarly, avoid news style's close sibling, persuasive writing, which has many of those faults and more of its own, most often various kinds of appeals to emotion and related fallacies.
This style is used in press releases, advertising, op-ed writing, activism, propaganda, proposals, formal debate, reviews, and much tabloid and sometimes investigative journalism.
Another error of writing approach is attempting to make bits of material "pop" (an undue weight problem), such as with excessive emphasis, over-capitalization, use of contractions, unnecessary acronyms and other abbreviations, the inclusion of hyperbolic adjectives and adverbs, or the use of unusual synonyms or loaded words.
On the other hand, an article entitled "Baroque music" is likely to be read by laypersons who want a brief and plainly written overview, with links to available detailed information.
Here are some thought experiments to help you test whether you are setting enough context: Remember that every Wikipedia article is tightly connected to a network of other topics.
Repetition is usually unnecessary, for example: Shoichi Yokoi was conscripted into the Imperial Japanese Army in 1941.conveys enough information (although it is not a good first sentence).
However, the following is not only verbose but redundant: Shoichi Yokoi was a Japanese soldier in Japan who was drafted into the Imperial Japanese Army in 1941.As explained in more detail at Wikipedia:Lead section § Introductory text, all but the shortest articles should start with introductory text (the "lead").
"[3] An electron is a subatomic particle that carries a negative electric charge.The chief electrical characteristic of a dynamic loudspeaker's driver is its electrical impedance as a function of frequency.Las Meninas (Spanish for The Maids of Honour) is a 1656 painting by Diego Velázquez, ..."Yesterday" is a pop song originally recorded by The Beatles for their 1965 album Help!Sodium hydroxide (NaOH), also known as lye, caustic soda and (incorrectly, according to IUPAC nomenclature) sodium hydrate, is ...Arugam Bay is a bay situated on the Indian Ocean in the dry zone of Sri Lanka's southeast coast.After the first sentence, proceed with a description.
They should provide an overview of the main points the article will make, summarizing the primary reasons for the subject matter being interesting or notable, including its more important controversies, if there are any.
It's much harder to argue constructively over high-level statements when you don't share common understanding of the lower-level information that they summarize.
To speak easily of the scope of a hyponym without confusing the term for the thing, one can simply say that "[hyponym] is any of various [hypernym]" or "any of a class of [hypernym] with trait X", such as "A pine is any conifer in the genus Pinus of the family Pinaceae" (not "Pine refers to any tree in the genus Pinus of the family Pinaceae").
This is a crucial part of citing good sources: even if you think you know something, you have to provide references anyway to prove to the reader that the fact is true.
It is better to write a larger article about the television show or a fictional universe itself than to create all sorts of stubs about its characters that nobody can find.
Similarly, avoid weasel words that offer an opinion without really backing it up, and which are really used to express a non-neutral point of view.
Note that to use this type of superlative adjective format, the most reputable experts in the relevant field must support the claim.
A view on former American President Gerald Ford from Henry Kissinger is more interesting for the reader than one from your teacher from school.
When repeating established views, it may be easier to simply state: "Before Nicolaus Copernicus, most people thought the sun revolved round the earth", rather than sacrifice clarity with details and sources, particularly if the statement forms only a small part of your article.