Information:Article development

Some of BattleTechWiki's articles are comprehensive right from the outset, but most start off as stubs and ideally grow into well-written, comprehensive articles with time.

This page describes the stages in the life of an article and lists the ways in which you can help an article grow into the next stage. Skipping stages is not just permissible—it is, in fact, recommended! The following categories should give you an idea of how articles typically grow on BattleTechWiki.

Stages of an article

Uncreated articles

Every article starts with an idea in the mind of a contributor. You can create articles about anything, as long as they belong in BattleTechWiki. It is a good idea to search first, so you are sure there has not been an article on the subject; if there is, a redirect may be appropriate. If you see a red link that strikes your fancy, create an article! (If you've not created an article before, see Your First Article.)

For more suggestions on how to think of subjects to contribute on, see BattleTechWiki:Contributing to BattleTechWiki.

Stubs

If you do not have the time to write a full article, consider writing a "stub". Stubs are very short articles—generally just a few sentences. These are the "ugly ducklings" of BattleTechWiki. With effort, they can mature into "swans". (To find stub templates appropriate for an article, see BattleTechWiki:WikiProject Stub sorting/Stub types for more information on existing stub types.)

Good ways to find stub articles and grow stubs:

• Category:Stub categories
• Special:Newpages
• Special:Randompage
• Special:Shortpages

Developing articles

Once a stub has real content, it is a real article and the article's stub template(s) can be removed. The vast majority of articles fall into this category. They may have weaknesses, so you are encouraged to copyedit them and, where you have the knowledge or do the necessary research, to add content. Good ways to find and improve developing articles (see below for more information):

• BattleTechWiki:Cleanup
• BattleTechWiki:Task Center
• Category:Pages with to-do lists
• Category:Article maintenance
• BattleTechWiki:WikiProject (and/or Information:WikiProject Directory)
• BattleTechWiki:Writing better articles

How to develop an article

Suppose you want to create a good, or even perfect, BattleTechWiki article, the following are great steps to follow.

Research

• Once you have decided on an page topic, use BattleTechWiki's search engine to find out what related material we already have. That way, you discover what already exists and can later create good links to and from other relevant articles.

Writing

See also: BattleTechWiki:Writing better articles

• Start your article with a concise lead section or introduction, defining the topic and mentioning the most important points. The reader should be able to get a good overview by only reading the lead, which should be between one and four paragraphs long, depending on the length of the article. See BattleTechWiki:Manual of Style/Lead section.
• Remember that, although you will be familiar with the subject you are writing about, readers of BattleTechWiki may not be, so it is important to establish the context of your article's subject early on.
• See our editing help for the format we use to produce links, emphasize text, lists, headlines etc. Make sure to link to other relevant BattleTechWiki articles. In addition, where appropriate, add links in other articles back to your article.
• As a general rule, do not copy-and-paste from sources. Doing so usually constitutes both a copyright violation and plagiarism. This general rule includes copying material from websites of news publications, from BattleTech products in general even if free, and all sources without a copyright notice. If a work does not have a copyright notice, assume it to be under copyright-protection.
• Superficial changes of copyright-protected text is not enough. BTW articles must be written in the author's own words.
• It is often a good idea to separate the major sections of your articles with section headlines.
• Make sure to keep a Neutral point of view.
• Try to get your spelling right. BattleTechWiki does not yet contain a spell checker, but you can write and spell-check your article first in a word processor or text editor (which is a lot more comfortable than the BattleTechWiki text-box anyway) and then paste it into said text-box. Another option is an extension that can be installed on your web browser and used as a spell checker in text boxes.
• Keep articles and other content in an encyclopedic style, as in it should be written in a formal tone. Standards for formal tone vary depending upon the subject matter.
• Be objective: avoid personal comments (or turn them into general statements, but only when they coincide), do not use personal forms (I found that...). The BattleTechWiki Manual of Style can help you with your English.
• Try to avoid using euphemisms, such as "passed away" for "died", or "made love" for "had sexual intercourse".
• At the end, you should list the references you used. These references are what will allow BattleTechWiki to be the most trusted, reliable resource it can be.

Finishing touches

• If a good relevant image or graphic exists, particularly if it is appropriate for the infobox, include it. Please do not link to images on other servers; instead use the upload page. The sizing of images and other issues concerning images in articles are set out in the Manual of Style.
• One way to get a good article is to bounce it back and forth between several Editors. Use the Talk pages to refine the topic, ask for their confirmations, note their doubts: it is usually interesting to discover that, perhaps from the other side of the planet, after a while, some other contributors can check other sources, or propose different interpretations. The composition of a commonly agreed interpretation is the most important ingredient of a serious BattleTechWiki article.
• Do not neglect the Notes and References sections. The most useful and accurate material that you have found with your research might make good points for a reader, too.
• In addition, remember to create links to your article from related articles and subjects. This includes any redirects your article may need, for instance, redirects for other capitalizations of your article title, abbreviations, plural versions, alternative spellings or common misspellings. This helps people find your article and may even help you find a related, already-written article. You can also create redirects from related subjects or subtopics which do not yet have their own articles (redirects with possibilities).

Peer review

See also: BattleTechWiki:Discord

• You are encouraged to ask for feedback about the quality of an article at any time.
• Ask your fellow editors for their opinions, list outstanding issues, and areas to improve on article talk pages, get other editors involved.
• Networking to identify like-minded editors is one of the most important (and enjoyable) aspects of the project.
• It is best to have a reasonably well-developed article before you do this so that those giving feedback have something substantial to analyze.