Wikipedia-like Writing

Purpose

This skill teaches an AI assistant how to write and edit articles in the style of Wikipedia.

It is not a skill for writing actual Wikipedia articles — Wikipedia explicitly forbids LLMs from generating article content. It is for writing encyclopedia-style content elsewhere (a Miraheze wiki, a personal knowledge base, a project wiki, a fan wiki, internal docs) using the conventions Wikipedia has refined over two decades.

When this skill is active, the assistant must:

• Write in a formal, impersonal, neutral tone.
• Build articles around the lead → body → appendices structure.
• Treat every claim as if it needed an inline citation to a reliable source.
• Refuse purple prose, hype, hedging, and rhetorical questions.

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Core Rule

Before writing, ask in this order:

1. What is the topic? Is it a thing, a person, a concept, a fictional entity, an event?
2. Is it notable? Is there enough material from independent, reliable sources to justify a standalone article? If not, fold it into a parent topic.
3. Who is the reader? A non-specialist who arrived from a random link. The article must make sense to them.
4. What quality tier am I targeting? Stub, Start, C, B, Good, A, or Featured (see the quality ladder below).

If any of these is unclear, ask the user before writing.

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Article Structure

Every article (above stub size) follows this layout:

1. Lead section          (no heading — appears above the first ==Heading==)
2. Body                  (level-2 sections, level-3 subsections)
3. Standard appendices   (in this exact order):
   - Works               (for biographies/creators)
   - See also            (related internal links)
   - Notes / References  (citations, footnotes)
   - Further reading     (recommended sources NOT cited)
   - External links      (relevant websites NOT cited)

Lead section rules

• Stands alone as a complete summary of the topic.
• No more than ~400 words.
• First sentence: short, declarative. Answers "What is the subject?" and "Why is it notable?"
• The article title appears in bold the first time it appears (and only the first time).
• Italicise the title if it would normally be italicised (books, films, ships, paintings).
• Avoid links inside the bolded title. Link surrounding words instead.
• Cover every major section of the body in proportion to its importance.
• The lead summarises the body, never introduces new material. Body first, lead second.

First-sentence patterns

Good:

Amalie Emmy Noether (23 March 1882 – 14 April 1935) was a German mathematician known for her contributions to abstract algebra and theoretical physics.

An electron is a subatomic particle that carries a negative electric charge.

Bad:

• "Computer architecture refers to the theory behind…" — uses-vs-mentions error. The article is about the theory, not the words.
• "A nuchal cord is when the umbilical cord becomes wrapped around the fetus's neck." — is when is vague. Use is a condition in which….

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Tone

The tone is formal, impersonal, dispassionate. Always.

Forbidden

Category	Examples
First-person	I, me, we, us, our
Second-person	you, your
Peacock terms	one of the most important, prestigious, influential, significant
Weasel words	some say, many believe, it is widely regarded as, critics say
Persuasive style	appeals to emotion, calls to action, advocacy
News style	bombast, pull quotes, headlinese, recentism
Colloquial / poetic	hyperbole, jargon (without explanation), unnecessary acronyms, contractions
Punctuation	exclamation marks, rhetorical questions (both only inside direct quotations)

Style examples

News style	Persuasive style	Encyclopedic style
At a press conference on Monday evening, Sue Speaker announced that the investigation would officially be closed the next day.	The recently closed investigation demonstrates again why everyone should support restrictions on social media…	The investigation was closed.

Show, don't tell

Replace "The Yankees are one of the greatest baseball teams in history" with "The New York Yankees have won 27 World Series championships — almost three times as many as any other team."

The facts carry the weight. Adjectives don't.

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Two compatible style frames

Wikipedia articles tend to use one of two structures (often both):

1. Summary style — Broad topic with subsections that summarise sub-articles. Good for large, hierarchical subjects (Association football, World War II).
2. Inverted pyramid — Most important info first, decreasing in importance. Good for short biographies, single events, stub articles.

The lead is always inverted-pyramid. The body may follow either.

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Citations and verifiability

Every substantive statement needs a source.

• Inline citations required for: direct quotations, statistics, contentious claims about living people, and anything likely to be challenged.
• Reliable sources: books from reputable publishers, peer-reviewed journals, respected newspapers, sources with a fact-checking reputation.
• Not reliable: blogs, social media, user-generated content, personal websites, and Wikipedia/the wiki itself.
• Primary sources allowed sparingly, only for basic facts. They do not establish notability.
• Three independent reliable sources is the rough floor for notability.

When in doubt, cite. "Be careful about deleting material that may be factual."

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Provide context

Wikipedia readers come from anywhere and arrive via random links. Test every article with these questions:

• Does this make sense if the reader landed here from a random page?
• Could a layperson in another English-speaking country tell what this is about?
• If you printed page 1 only, would the reader know the topic?

State the obvious in the first one or two sentences. "The Ford Thunderbird was a car…" not "The Ford Thunderbird was conceived as a response to the Chevrolet Corvette…"

Avoid jargon. When jargon is needed, explain it inline or link to an article that does.

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The quality ladder

When asked to write an article or improve one, target a specific tier:

Tier	Bar	What it means
Stub	A few sentences. Has a stub template, a category, at least one wikilink.	Enough context for someone else to expand it.
Start	Sectioned. Some sources (even questionable ones). Meets core content policies.	Past speedy-deletion danger.
C	Average. Some content gaps, some irrelevant material.	Workable but uneven.
B	Suitably referenced with inline citations. Reasonable coverage. Defined structure. Reasonably well-written. Supporting media. Understandable to a broad audience.	Comprehensive to a casual reader.
Good (GA)	All B-class criteria, plus: clear and concise prose, no original research, no copyvio/plagiarism, neutral, stable, illustrated where possible with proper licensing and captions.	Reviewed by an impartial editor.
A	Between GA and FA.	Rarely used outside large WikiProjects.
Featured (FA)	Professional standards of writing, presentation, sourcing.	Wikipedia's best work.

When the user says "write a Wikipedia-style article", default to B-class unless they specify otherwise.

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Concrete writing checklist

Before finalising any article-style output, verify:

• First sentence defines the topic and answers what and why notable.
• Title appears in bold on first mention.
• Lead is ≤ 400 words and summarises every major section of the body.
• Body uses level-2 headings (==), no links in headings.
• Tone is formal, no first/second person, no peacock/weasel/persuasive language.
• No exclamation marks or rhetorical questions outside quotations.
• Inline citations for quotations, statistics, contentious claims, and BLP-sensitive content.
• Jargon is explained or linked.
• Major viewpoints represented fairly; fringe views not given undue weight.
• Standard appendices in the right order.
• Spelling and grammar are correct.
• Article is on topic — no irrelevant tangents.

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Common mistakes to refuse

When asked to do any of these, push back and offer the encyclopedic alternative instead:

• Promotional copy disguised as an article ("a leading provider of…", "trusted by thousands")
• Articles that exist only to define a single word (that's a dictionary, not an encyclopedia)
• Original research, personal essays, opinion pieces in article form
• Future speculation framed as fact
• Articles about non-notable subjects (your band, your project, your site) without independent coverage
• Copying source text verbatim — always paraphrase and cite

If the user asks for something Wikipedia-style for a real Wikipedia article, remind them that Wikipedia's policies forbid LLM-generated article content. Help them draft notes, find sources, or critique their own draft instead.

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Simple English mode

When the user asks for Simple English style (for the Simple English Wikipedia, ESL audiences, accessibility, or plain-language docs), apply these extra rules on top of everything above.

Audience

Readers may have English as a second language, be young, or have learning difficulties. The language is simple. The ideas do not have to be.

Vocabulary order

When picking a word, try in this order:

1. Basic English (BE) 850 — the simplest tier.
2. Basic English (BE) 1500 — slightly broader.
3. VOA Special English Word Book — broader still.
4. Anything else — only if the simpler word is unclear or wrong, and link or explain it inline.

Method

1. Write the sentence as you'd say it to an ordinary person.
2. Check your words against the lists above.
3. Convert passive → active voice: "The bird was eaten by the cat" → "The cat ate the bird."
4. Use past or present tense only. Avoid future, conditional, perfect.
5. Use subject-verb-object sentences. One idea per sentence.
6. Avoid compound and compound-complex sentences. Split them.
7. No idioms, no contractions, no slang.

Sentence-splitting recipes

• See and / or / but / for / so / yet? Split into two sentences.
• Missing subject in the second clause? Add the pronoun.
• Semicolon? Split.
• Multiple subordinate clauses? Reorder so the most important info comes first, start follow-up sentences with This is… / This was….
• Mid-sentence dependent clause? Move it to its own sentence with the right pronoun.

What not to do (Simple English)

• Don't use poor grammar — Simple English ≠ broken English.
• Don't use contractions (can't, I've, hasn't). Use the long form.
• Don't use the second person.
• Don't put links in headings.
• Don't copy the regular Wikipedia article verbatim and call it Simple. Rewrite it.

Length expectation

A Simple English article is often 25–50% longer than the equivalent regular article — short sentences need filler words to stay readable. Simple English is not shorter English.

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Sources

This skill is distilled from these Wikipedia guidance pages:

• Help:Your first article
• Wikipedia:Writing better articles
• Wikipedia:How to write a featured article
• Wikipedia:How to write Simple English pages (Simple Wiki)

Content was rephrased and condensed for compliance with licensing restrictions. Source pages are CC BY-SA 4.0.