Wikipedia:How to copy from another Wikipedia

This page explains the required steps needed to properly and legally copy text content from another Wikipedia to Simple English Wikipedia including how to reword it for Simpler English and how to stay within copyright law using the GFDL license and proper attribution of source.

Steps required

(This applies to all articles regardless of language. Pages copied from other language Wikipedias follow the same instructions but must be translated into English first)

1. Open the page on the other Wikipedia that you want to copy (or translate) from.
2. Edit the page on Simple Wikipedia that you want to copy to, or start a new page on Simple Wikipedia.
3. Copy and paste the information you want to bring over (you don't have to copy the whole page if it's very complex, just copy what is important).
4. Don't save the Simple Wikipedia page yet, but go through the text and change words not in the basic English combined wordlist to words that are in that list.
5. Check that everything is in keeping with both the Simple Wikipedia Manual of Style and How to write Simple English articles, including links, adding parenthetical meanings inline, rewording complex phrases, and removing anything you can't rephrase.
6. Fix any broken images. Per Wikipedia:Image use policy, images used on Simple English Wikipedia must be on Wikimedia Commons. If an image used in the original article is stored on Wikipedia, it cannot be used here. There may be an acceptable alternate image on Wikimedia Commons. If not, the image code may need to be deleted.
7. Fix any broken templates. If they are not needed, they can be removed. If they are needed, either create them here or ask for them to be imported.
8. It is not required to remove all the redlinks (pages that don't exist here) because it may encourage creation of these pages later.
9. Keep using preview to check that it looks like you want it to and that it reads well.
10. For a new article at Simple Wikipedia, select correct categories and create them if needed; see Help:Categories for how to do this.
11. Save it with an edit summary that includes where you got the information; example:
    • Added content using information copied from [[:en:Plants]].
12. Recheck all is as you want it to be and you should be done.

All this satisfies the GFDL and CC-BY-SA requirements and keeps us legal and provides a simplified version for the Simple English Wikipedia. This prevents it from being deleted because it is too complex. You might think that as we're both Wikipedia we have the right to just copy things without crediting the source, but that is not the case. We also do this so that readers here can see the history of the article over at the other Wikipedia.

Consider reading these: WP:How to write Simple English articles, Wikipedia:Basic English combined wordlist, WP:Manual of Style and consider using these tools Online utility for checking Basic English text and How to use Microsoft Word to check a document for Basic English

All of these instructions are important because the Manuals of Style over at other Wikipedias are not the same as the Manual of Style here at Simple English Wikipedia!

See also

• Wikipedia:Copyright
• Help:Contents
• Wikipedia:How to write Simple English articles
• Wikipedia:Examples of simpler English

Other websites

• Online utility for checking Basic English text - supports Basic English and various other dictionaries
• WriteIdea: writers' tool for writing simple text. Both java and web-based versions.
• Wordcount, a very rough, but easy to use, guide on how often words are used.