Wikipedia Editing

Starting to edit an article is easy. Navigate to the Wikipedia article and click Edit - if you have the visual editor enabled, this will bring up a editing toolbar and make the text editable. It's good practice to check out the Talk page - to see what issues and discussions have happened around the article in the past - so you don't replicate these mistakes. Some ways to improve Wikipedia:

• The easiest way to start is to simply add a sentence or tow with information not already in the article. Then add a citation, this source will strengthen the notability of the article and provide further research to Wikipedia readers.
• You could build a paragraph or a new section, with citations, and create a section heading for your work.
• You could improve the flow and organization of an article by creating new section headings.
• You could add an info box, categories, or links to other Wikipedia articles (see info on the next tab in creating an article).

One great way to improve an article is to divide it into logical sections (you don’t even have to write anything new!). Articles should usually be divided up into sections, look at other good articles to get some ideas about typical section headings. To insert a section change your text from paragraph to heading as shown in the image on the right. Sections can also be subdivided using subheadings.

The following are typical/useful sections for entries on artists:

• Education - education and training the artist received.
• Early Life - early life/childhood
• Career - recounting the artist’s career
• Career 19XX-XXXX - division of career by time
• Style - explanation of the artist’s style
• Materials - important materials and their meaning
• Selected Works - explanations of key/major artworks, an especially important work might have it’s own section
• Exhibitions - lists of major exhibitions
• Collections - museum collections holding the artist's work
• Further Reading - Key/useful books
• External Links - useful website (usually including the artist’s website)

Adding citations is a great way to improve an article. Citations are key to demonstrating notability and verifying statements in Wikipedia. In the visual editor simply click the cite button along the top to insert a footnote where your cursor is. You can do an automatic citation or click manual to type in the citation information. You can use automatic citation when you have:

• An ISBN (all books will have one, usually on a front page)
• A link to a website
• An article DOI
• Don't use links to CU Boulder Library databases, these won't work for users not affiliated with the University.

If you continue to cite the same source you can reuse the citation multiple times. At the end of your article you can click Insert and add a Reference list if it doesn't already exist.