The featured article star is used for articles that have obtained featured article status. Featured articles are required to meet demanding criteria and undergo comprehensive reviews to achieve that status.

This page contains suggestions for peer review, featured article candidates, featured article removal candidates, and other related pages. The following is a list of the common suggestions on WP:PR and objections on WP:FAC, in accordance with What is a featured article? and other guidelines, including WP:MOS and WP:GTL. Press [Show] to find a more detailed explanation for each suggestion listed below (click [Hide] to hide it again). While this advice was written generally for articles aiming at featured status, it can also serve as a helpful page to improve any article. In green is the specific text located at WP:WIAFA, reproduced so that you do not need to shift between this page and WIAFA.

(Please note that this article is still under development. If you have any comments/questions/suggestions/requests, please post a message on my user talk page. In template form, these can be found at User:AndyZ/PR.)

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Best work

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It exemplifies our very best work.

A featured article should represent some of Wikipedia's best work. (If it meets all of the criteria below, it will probably meet Criterion 1 as well.)

The following is the process for taking an article to featured status; if you are familiar with this process, you may wish to skip the rest of this section.

  A request has been made for this article to be peer reviewed to receive a broader perspective on how it may be improved. Please make any edits you see fit to improve the quality of this article. Note that this template should go on the talk page of an article by adding {{peerreview}}.

To get your article to featured status, it is helpful to first put it on peer review, where experienced editors will help to improve your article with suggestions such as those that follow. You may also want to submit the article for peer review by relevant WikiProjects. Currently, the only WikiProjects with active peer reviews are computer and video game peer review, biography peer review‎, and military history peer review.

From there, if you believe that your article meets WP:WIAFA (and the suggestions listed below), put the article on WP:FAC, where more editors will vote on whether or not the article deserves featured status. Be prepared to work on your article during the FAC process in response to reviewers' comments.

General

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It is well-written, comprehensive, factually accurate, neutral, and stable. Read Great writing and The perfect article to see how high the standards are set.

(a) Well-written

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"Well-written" means that the prose is compelling, even brilliant.

(b) Comprehensiveness

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"Comprehensive" means that an article covers the topic in its entirety, and does not neglect major facts or details.

(c) Referencing

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"Factually accurate" includes the supporting of facts with specific evidence and external citations (see Wikipedia:Verifiability); these include a "References" section in which the references are set out, complemented, where appropriate, by inline citations (see Wikipedia:Citing sources). For articles with footnotes or endnotes, we strongly recommend the mw:Extension:Cite .

All articles should contain references, cited per WP:CITE, to keep articles verifiable and not original research.

(d) Neutrality

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"Neutral" means that an article is uncontroversial in its neutrality and factual accuracy (see Wikipedia:Neutral point of view).

(e) Stability

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"Stable" means that an article does not change significantly from day to day and is not the subject of ongoing edit wars.

Style

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It complies with the standards set out in the style manual and relevant WikiProjects. Criteria 3 of WP:WIAFA states that an article should follow style guidelines – WP:MOS, WP:GTL, and others – and should also follow relevant WikiProject guidelines.

Formatting

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Dates and numbers

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Per WP:MOSNUM/WP:MOSDATE:

Other

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Note that these are may/ may not be included in WP:MOS.

(a) Lead

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An article should have a concise lead section that summarizes the entire topic and prepares the reader for the higher level of detail in the subsequent sections.

The lead of an article is what appears above the Table of Contents (ToC), and should "lead" the reader into the article. The lead should briefly summarize the content of the article , including the important aspects of the topic. Depending upon the size of the article, the lead of the article should generally be of two to three paragraphs.

(b) Headings

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An article should have a proper system of hierarchical headings.

Per WP:MOS, headings should:

(c) Table of contents

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It should have a substantial but not overwhelming table of contents (see Wikipedia:Section). The ToC stands for the Table of Contents.

Images

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It has images where appropriate, with succinct captions and acceptable copyright status; however, including images is not a prerequisite for a featured article.

See also WP:IMAGE, WP:FUC, WP:IT, and WP:CAPTION.

Length

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It is of appropriate length, staying tightly focused on the main topic without going into unnecessary detail; it uses summary style to cover sub-topics that are treated in greater detail in any 'daughter' articles.

See also

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Notes

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  1. ^ This is an example of a footnote. To make two footnotes refer to the same source, use the <ref name=THENAME/> tag.
  2. ^ a b Bjarmason, Ævar Arnfjörð (2005-12-05). "Cite.php". Wikimedia. Retrieved 2006-06-02. Cite error: The named reference "Cite" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).