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Sample article layout (click on image for larger view) This guide presents the typical layout of Wikipedia articles, including the sections an article usually has, ordering of sections, and formatting styles for various elements of an article. For advice on the use of wiki markup, see Help:Editing; for guidance on writing style, see Manual of ...
Use of italics should conform to Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Text formatting § Italic type. Do not use articles (a, an, or the) as the first word (Economy of the Second Empire, not The economy of the Second Empire), unless it is an inseparable part of a name (The Hague) or of the title of a work (A Clockwork Orange, The Simpsons).
Text formatting in citations should follow, consistently within an article, an established citation style or system. Options include either of Wikipedia's own template-based Citation Style 1 and Citation Style 2, and any other well-recognized citation system. Parameters in the citation templates should be accurate.
For a citation to appear in a footnote, it needs to be enclosed in "ref" tags. You can add these by typing <ref> at the front of the citation and </ref> at the end. . Alternatively you may notice above the edit box there is a row of "markup" formatting buttons which include a <ref></ref> button to the right—if you highlight your whole citation and then click this markup button, it will ...
Note that the current default size depends on context and enclosing formatting: For example, footnotes and references default to displayed in a slightly smaller-than-usual font, and headings (of various levels) default to displaying in a slightly larger font.
Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Self-references to avoid (MOS:SELF) How to avoid mentioning Wikipedia itself, or the fact the article is a webpage. Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Spelling (MOS:SPELLING) Not a guideline per se, but a handy guide to national varieties of English. Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Stand-alone lists (WP:STANDALONE)
Our "Cheatsheet" is a good starting point for learning basic Wikipedia formatting. A more complete guide is here. You can take some formatting tips from the standard way Wikipedia articles are laid out. Articles use headings, paragraphs, bulleted lists, etc.
The Manual of Style (MoS or MOS) is an in-depth guide that provides standards on how to format Wikipedia articles. Following these guidelines helps keep the encyclopedia clear, consistent, and stable. The simplest way to do this is to find a well-written article and copy its formatting.