Cleanup is an important job on Wikipedia. Cleanup is loosely defined as editing articles to conform to a higher standard of quality. While some on Wikipedia take encyclopedia articles and make them better, cleanup takes articles that aren't even encyclopedia articles and turns them into encyclopedia articles.
Articles that need clean up have this tag or a similar tag on them:
Problems with articles that need cleanup include (but are not limited to):
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One of the difficulties in Cleanup is not being able to help. You can't fix everything and you shouldn't try. Wikipedia is a collaboration.
The other problem is being able to help but not quite seeing the problem. Sometimes we read over an article and we don't quite see a contradiction in the text or see any problem in the article's tone or know what's wrong with the style. Nobody is perfect at this. That's why this page is here.
Step One: Find a mess. edit
Find an article to cleanup. Go to Cleanup for recent additions or Category:Cleanup by month for those with longer standing problems. Of course, any article with one of the problems listed above is an article that needs cleanup.
Step Two: How big is the mess? edit
- You can figure out the nature of the mess in several ways.
- See about the cleanup tags at the top of the page.
- Skim the talk page for an explanation.
- Use the edit history.
Sometimes people cleanup articles sufficiently and leave the cleanup tag on the article. See if sufficent progress has been made on the article since that time. If so, feel free to remove the tag. If not, clean away. - When all else fails, read the article. This should be first on the list, really. Make sure you have enough of an understanding of the topic to make the kind of cleanup edits you are about to make.
Step Three: Saving yourself time. edit
Cleanup is a dirty job. Sometimes truly bad articles just need to go away instead of being cleaned up. Here are some ways you can save yourself the trouble of cleanup.
| Problem | Solution |
|---|---|
| See if it is a copyright infringement. As most of these would be text dumps from a website, use Google. |
If so, add the tag {{db-copyvio|url=url of source}} |
| Read the article for context. It might have a lot of content, but if it has so little in the way of context that you cannot find any extra information on the subject, it doesn't have enough context. | Use {{db-empty}} or {{nocontext}}. Be sure before you use these. |
| Determine if the subject is wholly non-notable. If the article does not assert its subjects notablity and you cannot determine its notablity. | use {{db-bio}} for a person, {{db-band}} for a band, {{db-club}} for a group of people. Be sure before you use these. |
Search Wikipedia for an identical article. A badly written article at "rollin stone" might instead just need a redirect to Rolling Stone
Step Four: Using the tags edit
You have determined the problems with the article. If you can clear up these problems do it. If you cannot clear up the problems, help us out marking the article with the templates listed below. If a specific section of the article has a specific problem use the tag directly above the part of the article with the problem. Don't use too many.
| Problem | Solution |
|---|---|
| The article needs copyediting. | {{copyedit}} |
| The article doesn't conform to Wikipedia style. | {{copyedit}} |
| The article doesn't provide enough context for clear understanding. | {{context}} |
| The article's tone is not appropriate for an encyclopedia. | {{tone}} |
| The article needs wiki-formatting. | {{wikify}} |
| The article needs to be categorized. | {{uncategorized}} |
| The article does not explain importance or notablity. | {{importance}} |
| The article does not cite its sources. | {{verify}} |
| The article needs an expert on the subject to look at it. | {{Expert}} |
| The article uses an non-standard citation style. | {{citation style}} |
| The article's facts contradict each other. | {{contradict}} |
| The article's facts contradict another article. | {{contradict-other}} |
| The article violates NPOV and sounds like an advertisement. | {{advert}} |
| An article about a fictional universe blurs fact and fiction. | {{fiction}} |
| The article needs clearer explanation of technical details. | {{technical}} |
| The article is out of date. | {{update}} |
| The article was badly translated. | {{cleanup-english}} |
| The article is not written in english. | {{notenglish}} |
If the article for some reason needs a complete rewrite from the beginning, use {{cleanup-rewrite}} and explain your reasoning on the talk page.
You can also help by marking individual unverified facts by using {{fact}}. You don't need this after each and every last statement of fact, such as "was a book written by Stephen King." However, facts that can be disputed such as "on the New York Times bestseller list for 24 weeks" should have some kind of source. Also, unverifiable information ("he loved his wife") and statments of opinion ("the greatest rock and roll band in the world") should be deleted on sight.
Cleanup: Copyediting and Style edit
Copyediting is an umbrella term that covers a number of problems in Wikipedia. Copy-editing deals with correcting spelling, grammar, punctuation, and extends to rephrasing for improvements in tone, style and voice. We will not be covering spelling, grammar or punctuation except to say that in punctuation, you remove the serial comma. The serial comma is the comma that comes before the word "and" in a list of items. You might have learned otherwise in school.
Style is different from grammar. Style guides set forth rules for how words are to be used, how they are to be written, how they are to be placed on a page and other things related to words. Copy editors enforce style rules in order to ensure easy readimg by following a consistent format throughout a large work (such as, let's say, an encyclopedia.)
The Lead section of the article should begin with a definition or clear description of the subject at hand.
Named after Max Planck, in physics '''Planck time''' is the natural unit of time, denoted by tP.- It includes necessary context (Max Planck, physics), includes the title (Plank time) and has a clear description of the subject.
The lead paragraph should briefly summarize the most important points covered in an article in such a way that it could stand on its own as a concise version of the article.
Headings break up a the text of an article into sections and subsections. Use nouns for headings. apitalize only the first word of a heading. Follow similar articles for suggestions on how to structure the headings.
Capitalization is simple.
| Do Capitalize | Don't Capitalize |
|---|---|
| Titles given before the name. Senator Byrd (D-WV) | Titles given after the name. Byrd, the senator from West Virginia. |
Wikipedia Style uses Italics for the following:
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- When italics to denote words mentioned instead of used.
- The word antidisestablishmentarianism' is often referred to as the longest word in the English language.
Cleanup: Tone edit
Encyclopedia writing is not a skill meany people have. As such Wikipedia gets many:
- Essays
- Resumes
- POV Skreeds
- Memorials
- and Advertisements.
None of these are encyclopedia articles because they do not have an encyclopedic tone.
An encyclopedia article is a well-organized grouping of facts written in prose. It has an opening sentence that gives context (if necessary) and defines the subject at hand. It has a lead paragraph (or section) which briefly sums up the entire article.
How does one correct for this?
- When cleaning up essays, seperate fact from opinion and delete nearly everything that is not a "fact". ("The recording process for "Tumbling Dice" was difficult" is not by itself a fact but introduces the paragraph where facts verifing that statement are noted.)
"The Rolling Stones performed a horrible show at the Altamont Speedway in 1968 where many people were injured and one man was killed." -- A statement like this needs to be not only cited but expanded with clearer information. If during cleanup you see such a fact:
- You can search Google and try to find a site or a book that has such information
- Mark it with {{fact}} which will append this [citation needed] to the statement.
- Remove it and put the text in talk.
(By the way, The Stones played Altamont in December of 1969. A quick search for "Altamont + Stones" would give you that information. Not all information is that easy to find on the internet. WP:V says that you should mostly remove any unsourced statements, however if you know that you know that you know a statement is true but cannot find a good cite for it mark the statment with {{fact}}.)