Welcome to Wikinews

A nice cup of coffee for you while you get started

Getting started as a contributor
How to write an article
  1. Pick something current?
  2. Use two independent sources?
  3. Read your sources before writing the story in your own words?. Do choose a unique title? before you start.
  4. Follow Wikinews' structure? for articles, answering as many of who what when where why and how? as you can; summarised in a short, two- or three-sentence opening paragraph. Once complete, your article must be three or more paragraphs.
  5. If you need help, you can add {{helpme}} to your talkpage, along with a question, or alternatively, just ask?

  • Use this tab to enter your title and get a basic article template.
    [RECOMMENDED. Starts your article through the semi-automated {{develop}}—>{{review}}—>{{publish}} collaboration process.]

 Welcome! Thank you for joining Wikinews; we'd love for you to stick around and get more involved. To help you get started we have an essay that will guide you through the process of writing your first full article. There are many other things you can do on the project, but its lifeblood is new, current, stories written neutrally.
As you get more involved, you will need to look into key project policies and other discussions you can participate in; so, keep this message on this page and refer to the other links in it when you want to learn more, or have any problems.

Wikipedia's puzzle-globe logo, © Wikimedia Foundation
Wikipedia's puzzle-globe logo, © Wikimedia Foundation
  Used to contributing to Wikipedia? See here.
All Wikimedia projects have rules. Here are ours.

Listed here are the official policies of the project, you may be referred to some of them if your early attempts at writing articles don't follow them. Don't let this discourage you, we all had to start somewhere.

The rules and guides laid out here are intended to keep content to high standards and meet certain rules the Wikimedia Foundation applies to all projects. It may seem like a lot to read, but you do not have to go through it all in one sitting, or know them all before you can start contributing.

Remember, you should enjoy contributing to the project. If you're really stuck come chat with the regulars. There's usually someone in chat who will be happy to help, but they may not respond instantly.

The core policies
Places to go, people to meet

Wiki projects work because a sense of community forms around the project. Although writing news is far more individualistic than contributing to Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, people often need minor help with things like spelling and copyediting. If a story isn't too old you might be able to expand it, or if it is disputed you may be able to find some more sources and rescue it before it is listed for deletion.

There are always discussions going on about how the site could be improved, and your input is of value. Check the links here to see where you can give input to the running of the Wikinews project.

Find help and get involved
Write your first article for Wikinews!

Use the following box to help you create your first article. Simply type in a title to your story and press "Create page". Then start typing text to your story into the new box that will come up. When you're done, press "save page". That's all there is to it!



It is recommended you read the article guide before starting. Also make sure to check the list of recently created articles to see if your story hasn't already been reported upon.


Hi! There were some problems with the article, so it's not ready yet for publication. My review comments are here. Given the ongoing nature of the story, it seems there's a good chance it can be gotten into shape for publication — even if it takes a while to get the kinks worked out, updates can keep it fresh, or restore its freshness when the court ruling comes out if things slow down for a while between now and then. --Pi zero (talk) 16:28, 20 December 2011 (UTC)Reply

Published. Congratulations! Well done.
Most of the late edits you made were real improvements, by the way, and (on balance) appreciated, although it can also be quite frustrating to try to review a moving target, hence my use of the {{under review}} template at the very end. --Pi zero (talk) 23:26, 20 December 2011 (UTC)Reply
Thank you Pi zero for your review (and training on the job). Regards, Cinosaur (talk) 00:24, 21 December 2011 (UTC)Reply

Hi. Found not ready when reviewed; review comments. --Pi zero (talk) 22:17, 28 December 2011 (UTC)Reply

Published. No review comments, but of course there are the edit summaries during review. (I wish I'd held on to the browser tab I had open last night to the ET source.) --Pi zero (talk) 16:27, 29 December 2011 (UTC)Reply

Hi. I found it not ready; review comments. --Pi zero (talk) 03:16, 17 March 2012 (UTC)Reply