Writing interesting Wikipedia articles

You will also have to do research into how Wikipedia and its community works. This community of Wikipedians consists of contributors to Wikipedia, almost all of whom are volunteers.

Understanding how the community works will help to ensure that your page is not deleted or challenged when you have it reviewed.

You might already know that you have to be a registered user to edit and change a page. Perhaps the best way to start is to make some edits to an existing page. When you open a Wikipedia account, all the changes you make, however small, are logged on your user page. Everyone can access this page. When you have sufficient editing and creative experience, it is possible for you to become an auto-confirmed user. You can then upload certain things to the site, such as images.

Before you start writing, you should gather information. If you use Wikipedia, you will know that there is a reference section after articles. You should gather your sources and list them in a file to save time after you have written and polished your article.

Whatever you write has to be checked and verified, whoever you are even if you are a respected academic. You can, of course refer to magazine and newspaper articles, as well as online materials. What you write should be neutral, in the sense of being unbiassed. You shouldn’t give your opinion about the topic.

Be careful when choosing appropriate images to use. They should be your own, ideally, or at least not subject to copyright.

You will need to list all the materials you used to write your article, so be methodical about doing this.

Because Wikipedia has so many contributors you can come across many interesting and strange Wikipedia articles. This list is not exhaustive by any means, but it could provide you with some ideas for writing your own interesting, if not strange Wikipedia article.

• There is an article about Xeer, the Somalia’s traditional legal system, for example. That’s certainly unusual.
• Another is about Rai Stones, which are large discs carved from crystals of calcite and aragonite. The article states that these stones, or crystals were quarried in a few of the islands in Micronesia and taken to the island of Yap where they were used as currency.
• There’s an interesting article about the Bielefeld Conspiracy. Bielefeld is a place in Germany but there was a conspiracy theory about the city claiming that it does not exist.
• Another interesting article is about the book, Gadsby, not to be confused with F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel, The Great Gatsby. It is unusual because it doesn’t contain the letter ‘e’.
• One unusual article is about dying because of laughter; what could be stranger? The first person to have died laughing was Chrysippus, one of the Stoic philosophers who lived in the 9th century BC. His laughter was caused because he gave his donkey wine and then watched as it attempted to eat figs. You have to have a vivid imagination to appreciate this. The article also cites other examples of people literally dying from laughter.
• There’s an interesting article about the Voynich manuscript, which is dated to the 15th century. The interesting thing about this manuscript is that it is written in a language that is unknown. It is an illustrated text which has defied the deciphering powers of modern cryptographers.
• If you have ever wondered why we change our clocks in spring and autumn, there’s an interesting article on Daylight Saving Time. The reasons for changing time are fairly obscure and a recent article, published on March 9th, 2018 has suggested that the idea is absurd.
• If you are fascinated by the supernatural, you may like the Wikipedia article about the ghost ship, The Flying Dutchman. This story probably has its origins in the 17th century although the first written document about its ghostly appearances is in a travel book published in 1790.
• The eruption of Mount Tambora in Indonesia in 1815 had far-reaching effects. In Europe the eruption and its was called the ‘summer-less year’. The year following the eruption was colder than usual in summer and winter. It was in the summer of 1816, the coldest on record for Europe, that Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin, who later married the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley, wrote her famous novel, Frankenstein.
• The Krakatoa eruption in Indonesia was far bigger than the one in 1815. Krakatoa was an island in the Sunda Strait, it is no more as the eruption obliterated it. Once again, an eruption caused the world’s climate to cool and triggered tsunamis.

If you want to capture your readers’ attention, you will need to study Wikipedia entries and find some very interesting articles. You will have to come up with your own ideas and make your article as interesting as you can.

You can write about anything that you feel passionate about in Wikipedia. Your passion and enthusiasm for your chosen subject should mean that your article is interesting. The reader has to be able to feel your excitement about the topic you write about. If you are a scientist, for example, write fascinating articles, not ones that bore the reader. Unfortunately, there are very good scientific articles which are very boring. You may not have the gift of writing interesting articles, but you can learn if you have creative writing classes, whether in a classroom or online.

Practice writing entertaining articles and ask friends and families for their honest opinions. Don’t be disheartened by constructive criticism. Polish your articles until they meet with approval. Remember that people have different areas of interest. You need to write an article with general appeal. That can only be achieved if it is written in an interesting, imaginative way.

• How?
• What?
• Where?
• When?
• Who?
• Why?

The answers to these questions should generate a few topics and then you can play around with them until you find the perfect topic for you to write about.