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This guide presents the typical layout of Wikipedia articles, including the sections an article usually has, ordering of sections, and formatting styles for various elements of an article. For advice on the use of wiki markup , see Help:Editing ; for guidance on writing style, see Manual of Style .
Editors should structure articles with consistent, reader-friendly layouts and formatting (which are detailed in this guide). Where more than one style or format is acceptable under the MoS, one should be used consistently within an article and should not be changed without good reason. Edit warring over stylistic choices is unacceptable. [b]
These include but are not limited to: articles, essays, papers, chapters, reference work entries, newspaper and magazine sections or departments, episodes of audio-visual series, segments or skits in longer programs, short poems, short stories, story lines and plot arcs; songs, album tracks and other short musical works; leaflets and circulars.
Styletips – a list of advice for editors on writing style and formatting. Manual of Style reading schedule – an essay. Related essays. Article development – lists the ways in which you can help an article grow. Basic copyediting – gives helpful advice on copy-editing. Better articles – guidance on how to make articles better.
Articles, essays, papers, or conference presentation notes (stand-alone or in a collected larger work): "The Dos and Don'ts of Dating Online" is an article by Phil McGraw on his advice site. Chapters of a longer work (they may be labeled alternatively, e.g. sections, parts, or "books" within an actual book, etc.)
Articles start with a lead section (WP:CREATELEAD) summarising the most important points of the topic.The lead section is the first part of the article; it comes above the first header, and may contain a lead image which is representative of the topic, and/or an infobox that provides a few key facts, often statistical, such as dates and measurements.
The Manual of Style (MoS or MOS) is an in-depth guide that provides standards on how to format Wikipedia articles. Following these guidelines helps keep the encyclopedia clear, consistent, and stable. The simplest way to do this is to find a well-written article and copy its formatting.
This template includes collapsible groups/sections. When it first appears, one of these groups/sections may be set to be visible ("expanded") while the others remain hidden ("collapsed") apart from their titlebars.