User:Brian McNeil/Definitive article template

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Introduction[edit]

Whenever you start or work on a story for wikinews, the final resting place of articles that survive the editorial process is in the archive. Having racked up in excess of 3000 pages protected, I now offer my attempt to define the template that all articles should largely hold to.

The lead in[edit]

The first thing for every article is the date or dateline template, {{date|Month day, year}} is preferred unless onsite Original reporting, it is assumed you've been around a bit and know what you're doing with {{dateline}}.

Next bit is optional, and that's use of one of our many infoboxes. If you're using one it goes on a line of its own after the {{date}} template and before any pictures, article text, or things like the {{breaking}} template. No blank lines between it and the date template, and the article text starts immediately after with no blank lines either.

The body[edit]

How you arrange the body of the article is pretty open, but when using pictures and templates such as {{QuoteLeft}} put these in instead of blank lines between paragraphs.

If you do a short 2-3 paragraph article, remember the {{expand}} template to invite other users to contribute, that should be placed immediately before the sources or related news section.

Closing[edit]

There are three possible 2nd level heading sections that can be added at the end of an article. First, == Related news ==. If there are any other wikinews stories on the event this is the section they go in using the {{wikinews}} template.

Next up is == Sources ==. Always plural, with {{Original}} instead of a blank line between the heading and the start of the listed sources where appropriate. Sources must be listed with the *{{source}} template, please format with each parameter on a single line to make the wikicode easier to read. No blank lines between sources, this keeps it as a single list of sources in the HTML as opposed to a set of single item lists.

Lastly, == External links ==. Again, always plural. Use *[link Description], no blanks between items, for the same reason as with == Sources ==. Try to avoid volatile links.

And, at the very end, comes the {{publish}} tag, categories and interwiki. The tag should have a blank line between it and the last item in any preceding section all appropriate categories listed on their own lines immediately following it, a blank line, then all interwiki links on lines of their own. If you're really new or English isn't your first language, use the {{ready}} template, but ask for copyedit help on the collaboration (i.e. talk) page.

Example[edit]

 {{date|January 1, 2007}}

 First paragraph of article....

 Second paragraph of article

 Etc.

 == Related news ==

 *{{wikinews|title=Blah|date=x}}

 == Sources ==

 *{{source|url=xxx
 |title=xxx
 |author=
 |pub=xxx
 |date=xxx}}

 == External links ==

 *[url description]

 {{publish}}
 [[Category:xxxx]]
 [[Category:yyyy]]

 [[fr:Interwiki to French version of story]]