Wikipedia:How to write a featured article
 | This is an essay. It contains the advice or opinions of one or more Wikipedia contributors. This page is not an encyclopedia article, nor is it one of Wikipedia's policies or guidelines, as it has not been thoroughly vetted by the community. Some essays represent widespread norms; others only represent minority viewpoints. |
Featured articles are considered to be some of the best articles Wikipedia has to offer, which makes writing them not an easy task. This essay is a one stop shop of valuable resources, whether you are seriously aiming to write a featured topic or just tweaking a shabby vital article. Each section is designated for an assessment category outlined in Wikipedia:Content assessment for easy navigation.
Stub
A stub is an article deemed too short to provide encyclopedic coverage of a subject. A good example of a stub is Crescent Falls in May 2018. Such article can be tagged with {{stub}} or its variant for easy identification. Some articles will always be a stub due to a lack of reliable source about the topic, but some is just not notable enough to exist and will be nominated for deletion. Because there is so little content available, the usual best course of action is to just add more content via sources, which this topic is discussed thoroughly at the reliable source guideline.
For new editors, Help:Your first article can be helpful as an all-in-one guide. There are some essays that express viewpoints of extremely short or undeveloped stubs, such as Wikipedia:Don't hope the house will build itself, Wikipedia:Don't demolish the house while it's still being built, and Wikipedia:An unfinished house is a real problem. Caution: please use your own words – directly copying other sources without giving them credit is plagiarism, and may in some cases be a violation of copyright.
A good stub contains:
- Adequate context to make it clear what the subject of the article is and for other editors to expand upon it
- A sorted {{stub}} template at the end
- At least one good category at the very end
- Tagged with appropriate WikiProjects at its talk page
- Providing reliable sources that is archived to prevent link rot