Help:Introduction to the Manual of Style/3
The MoS
A vast resource
Article sections
Making articles readable
Images and refs
Enriching the text
Linking
Tying the encyclopedia together
Consistency
Final little things to think about
Summary
Review of what you've learned
Images should support the body of the article without overwhelming it, and references should be made for information that is controversial or likely to be challenged.
Images
Images are excellent for helping readers understand an article. You should add or replace images only if they are better than the existing ones or add to the article—they are there to support the text of the article. When creating and uploading an image, try to make sure it is high resolution, and in the appropriate file format.
Images should be spread evenly within the article, be relevant to the sections in which the images are located and include a caption that explains the image. Images are shown as small thumbnails and aligned to the right of the article by default to maintain visual coherence within the page. If necessary, other formats are possible, e.g. left-aligned, galleries, or panoramas.
Avoid stacking too many images within a short section, since they then overflow into the next section and can reduce readability (standard layout is aimed at a 1024×768 screen resolution).
- See also
Citing
- Don't use quotes much, if at all
- Use reliable sources of information
- Cite the sources that you're using
- Use existing reference style, with reference list at bottom of the article
Sources should be cited when adding material that is controversial or likely to be challenged, when quoting someone, when adding material to the biography of a living person, and when uploading an image. While you should try to write citations correctly, what matters is that you add your source—provide enough information to identify the source, and others will improve the formatting if needed.
Each article should use the same citation method throughout. If an article already has references, adopt the method in use or seek consensus before changing it.
The first thing you do is to create a section where the references will appear. The references section contains either <references /> or {{reflist}}, and is placed near the end of the article, below the "See also" section and above the "External links" section. It is usually titled "References". e.g.
==References=={{Reflist}}
The next step is to put a reference in the text. Here is the code to do that. It goes at the end of the relevant phrase, sentence, or paragraph to which the note refers, without a space (to prevent separation through line wrap):
<ref> </ref>
Whatever text you put in between these two tags will become visible in the "References" section as your reference. In these reference tags you can place any identifying information; while this is frequently a website's web address it can also be basic specific referencing information about a book, newspaper or journal article.
- See also