Wikipedia:Basic copyediting

For general help with editing articles, see Wikipedia:How to edit a page.

The discovery of pages in need of editing may surprise new visitors to Wikipedia. This is the "encyclopedia that anyone can edit," and they do! This challenge is easily addressed via the process of ongoing proofreading, copy-editing, fact checking, and rewriting by the community of Wikipedia users. Here are some quick and easy ways to improve Wikipedia pages.

Common edits

• See also sections should be long-form if relevant to most of the article, but short-form if relevant only to a specific section.

• Words that are being defined, described, or referenced as words should be italicized. Example: The term style also refers to the layout of an article.

• Headings should generally be noun phrases (History of...), and not prepositional phrases (About the history of ...).

• Headings begin with a single capital letter. The only other capital letters in headings are in proper nouns and acronyms: Differences in defining art, Critical response to Moby Dick, Landscape architecture and urban planning in the United Kingdom, UNESCO.

• Titles of works of art, literature, etc., should be italicized rather than in quotation marks, e.g., Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. Notable exceptions are titles of songs or brief poems, e.g., "Can't Buy Me Love" or "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening". Italics are required, though, for a song cycle such as Winterreise or the title of a longer poem such as Four Quartets. The name of an individual episode of a TV series should also be in quotation marks, while the series name itself is italicized: "Welcome to the Hellmouth" is the premiere episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

• Unless forming part of a quotation, shortened word forms (don't, can't, etc.) should be changed to non-contracted forms (do not, cannot, etc.).

• Confusing its and it's is a very common mistake. It's, a contraction of it is or it has, should not be used unless it occurs in a quotation, as with other contracted forms (see the previous rule). Its, the possessive of it, should be used in the same way as my, his, her, our, etc.

• When not at the end of a sentence, constructions such as London, England, call for a comma after the second element. (Examples: He was born in London, England, during the Great Fire. Or: She was working in Atlanta, Georgia, while the city was making its long and expensive preparations for the Olympic Games.) Similarly, dates written in the American style demand a comma after the year unless the date falls at the end of the sentence. (Example: On January 15, 1947, she decided to send her landmark paper to the British journal, The Lancet.)

• External links generally belong at the end of an article, under the heading External links. References are an exception and should match the link in the reference section; these are then handled automatically.

• With a few exceptions, terms conventionally considered unnecessarily formal should be eliminated. Words and phrases such as whereas, due to the fact that, and utilize are unnecessary in an encyclopedia; instead, use while, because, and use, respectively. (Exceptions exist primarily when there are variations in usage that are geographically based. Example: In American English, "whilst" is considered archaic or formal, while, in England, "whilst" is used nearly as often, in written and spoken form, as "while." If you are unsure about an incidence of a word in question, just leave it, as someone will undoubtedly come along and fix it if it is incorrect.)

• Vague terms of size, such as a number of and a vast majority of, are usually redundant; consider several and most as alternatives, or request/insert specific numbers.

• Some articles are excessively wordy. Vigorous, effective writing is clear and concise. See Plain English.

• The name of a decade has no apostrophe before the s, unless it is possessive, in which case it is not a decade, but a specific, single year: She was born in the 1980s, but: 1980's commencement address was exceptional. (If referring to a decade without its century, remember to add an apostrophe in its place: She was born some time in the '80s.)

Edit summaries

See also: WP:Civility

When you make a copy-edit, leave a note in the Edit summary field detailing your changes. Summary notes for copy-edits should be concise, and ought to mention whether the edit is a correction or an enhancement. Spelling and grammar corrections generally count as minor edits, which you can denote by checking the box labeled "This is a minor edit"; stylistic corrections are generally major and call for written summaries.

Some examples of acceptable edit summaries:

• copy-edit: Fact-checked names of ships
• copy-edit: Reworded introductory paragraph for clarity
• copy-edit: Reworked history section for encyclopedic style

Generally speaking, detailed information in edit summaries is not necessary. If they are curious, users can always consult an article's history (see the history tab at the top of the article) and compare all of the differences between edits since the article first appeared.

Always avoid uncivil edit summaries; it's not helpful or necessary to comment on the previous editor's language skills. If you are doing a follow-up copy-edit, it is usually best to stay silent about previous copy-edits; instead, you may want to refer to your work as follow-up edits or additional improvements.

For common Edit summary abbreviations, see Wikipedia:Edit summary legend.

Spelling

Further information: American and British English spelling differences

Please correct spelling mistakes and typos; correcting them contributes greatly to the quality of Wikipedia. You are free to use spell-checking software; however, please remember that no spell-checker is completely accurate. Also, be extremely careful when editing pages written in languages in which you are not fluent.

When there is no strong national or regional relationship to a topic, Wikipedia has no preference for American, British, or any other variety of English. Generally, an article about a certain English-speaking region or place should be written in the form of English used there. It is important, however, for usage to remain consistent within an article. See Wikipedia:Manual of Style#National varieties of English for guidelines. Make sure to review the entire article before deciding that an author has mistakenly written flavour, colour, centre or defence (or flavor, color, center, or defense). Many words spelled with -ize in Canada and the USA are spelled with -ise in Britain, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa. Again, check for consistency within an article. As always, when in doubt, look it up!

Also, please check the talk page. Some talk pages may have banners that indicate which spelling is used throughout the article. If not, please consider putting one of the four main spelling banners at the header of the talk page:

• {{American-English}}
• {{Australian-English}}
• {{British-English}}
• {{Canadian-English}}

Technical and stylistic questions

If you have a question about English grammar, punctuation, or style, you may wish to seek advice at Wikipedia:Reference desk/Language or Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Grammar.

More advice

• Wikipedia:Guide to improving articles
• Wikipedia:Manual of Style
• Wikipedia:Policies and guidelines
• Wikipedia:Writing better articles
• User:AndyZ/Suggestions
• User:Tony1/How to satisfy Criterion 1a
• Wikipedia:Peer review/volunteers
• Wikipedia:WikiProject Guild of Copy Editors

External links

• Guide to Grammar and Style