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.


-- Wikinews Welcome (talk) 13:20, 12 December 2012 (UTC)Reply

Emir of Qatar hands over the reins of power to the Crown Prince Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani

edit

Hi. When I reviewed the article there was only one sentence, so in my review comments when I talk about 'six times the current length', that's six times what I was looking at when I wrote the comment.

Don't submit an article for review before it's actually ready to review, please.

Also, note that you should select multiple independent sources and read them all before beginning to write. That's partly because it'll be much easier to avoid plagiarism that way. --Pi zero (talk) 15:51, 24 June 2013 (UTC)Reply

Hi. Now under headline Emir of Qatar abdicates throne (I did a history merge for you).
A reviewer reviewed the article, did some work on it, and assessed it not-ready for publication. See the review comments, and history of edits during review. --Pi zero (talk) 19:38, 24 June 2013 (UTC)Reply
Latest review comments. --Pi zero (talk) 17:06, 25 June 2013 (UTC)Reply

Published. Congrats! Please see my review comments.

The article almost got away from us; there's been a lot of competition on the review queue (competition for our limited supply of reviewer attention, I mean). I really, really wanted to catch this one, though, because besides finding the story interesting, I wanted to give you as much feedback as possible.

With some translation help from the reporter — and some more experience on your part with our article style (hence, feedback!) — we might be able to really take advantage of the information that, as you mention, isn't in English news sources and is in non-English sources. --Pi zero (talk) 14:31, 28 June 2013 (UTC)Reply