Wikinews:Article wizard/Sources

1. News event

2. Sources

3. Headline

4. Lede

5. Inverted pyramid

Everything in a Wikinews article must be verified by cited sources,
except really obvious things, like Paris is in France.

For a synthesis article, our most common and basic type of article,
find and read at least two independent sources before you write anything at all.

Sources must be

Free and trust-worthy — Readily available, not behind a paywall. Blogs and social networking sites generally aren't trust-worthy. Wikipedia is never trust-worthy, though it may cite trust-worthy sources.

Independent of each other — for neutrality, copyright, verification, and even newsworthiness.
Syndicated articles from a few wire news agencies, like Associated Press and Reuters, are purchased by news publishers all over the web, so a lot of articles out there are really copies of each other.

Read them before you write. Not only must everything be verified, but it must also be

written your own way, not plagiarizing the wording or structure of any source, and
written neutrally, for which you need to have seen more than one perspective.

Don't include any source you don't use. The sources are a record of where our article's information came from, not a link farm. The (volunteer!) reviewer will have to read all the sources, so spurious sources make review take longer for no good reason.

You may wish to read about advanced techniques for sourcing articles.

Go to the next step: Headline.