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) 04:59, 18 August 2015 (UTC)Reply

Hi. I looked this over, and wrote up review comments. This article was already on its third day since the focal event; I noticed the other article you submitted was even older; you may find our discussion at WN:Freshness helpful. Also watch out for copying — "scuffing up" isn't enough; fwiw, I've found it useful to assemble on my laptop sets of passages from my chosen sources, sorted by aspect of the story, then write my own original text on each aspect with any eye toward explaining the key ideas of each aspect in a way completely different from the way it was put by any of the sources.

Btw, are you a UoW student? If so, we should set up a {{UoW student}} template on your user page. --Pi zero (talk) 18:36, 5 November 2015 (UTC)Reply

Hi. This looks promising. See my review comments. --Pi zero (talk) 14:37, 2 June 2016 (UTC)Reply

UoW?

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Are you a UoW student? (Asking to know whether to place a template; repeating from above, so it stands out more.) --Pi zero (talk) 14:39, 2 June 2016 (UTC)Reply

I'm guessing the answer, from the info you put on an article. --Pi zero (talk) 12:33, 3 June 2016 (UTC)Reply

Pippyclarke (talk) 14:13, 3 June 2016 (UTC)Hello yes I am a UoW student, apologies I don't know how to communicate very well on wikinews. I tried to include the info box template and UoW template as suggested, I don't think I did it currently. Thanks for your reviews. Could you please advise me if the story has proceed to the next stage? I'm worried about article freshness as the focal point is getting old.Pippyclarke (talk) 14:13, 3 June 2016 (UTC)Reply

Hi, Pippyclarke. The student template goes on your user page; I've put it there, hope I got the fields right. I've been doing some preliminary, relatively superficial editing on the article — I find an article can look amazingly better for these simple things — and I'm hoping I can review it soon. When I'm reviewing an article in-depth I put an {{under review}} tag at the top. --Pi zero (talk) 14:27, 3 June 2016 (UTC)Reply
The focal event took place on Thursday (yesterday, as I write this). --Pi zero (talk) 16:14, 3 June 2016 (UTC)Reply

Pippyclarke (talk) 04:43, 5 June 2016 (UTC)Hi Pi Zero, yes all those feilds are correct. Thank you for your help!! Much appreciated! Pippyclarke (talk) 04:43, 5 June 2016 (UTC)Reply

Environmental concerns article

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....has been marked as abandoned. At this point, you might want to spin it off into a new related topic. Thanks for your effort anyway!1 --Bddpaux (talk) 16:55, 19 June 2016 (UTC)Reply