Help:Article Reviewing Guide

Hello, reader.

You have arrved at the Article Reviewing Guide (ARG), a guide to help you rate articles. There are five classes of article:, a stub, a low quality article (LQA), an average quality article (AQA), an high quality article (HQA) and an ultra-quality article (UQA). In this guide you will learn what makes a good article, how to rate an article and qualities you need to know about each certification.

Courtesy of Ninjinian, Explorer, Agent Johnson et al.

What makes a good article
There are three major areas that are important in writing a good article: Content, Mechanics, and Creativity. Each of these areas can be divided further.

Content
Content is mostly about how much information the article has, how useful it is, and the way it's organized. These correspond to length, relevancy, and order respectively.

The length of an article or the length of its sections is often a good way to gauge the amount of detail in the article. (This is length.) However, if an article is filled with useless trivia, it's no good. Information in articles is supposed to be relevant, important, and useful. Article should describe the important aspects of their subject, not just random trivia that gives the readers no idea of what the subject is really like. (This is relevancy.) The information in the article should also be organized well. Everything should flow in a logical order and be easy to read through. (This is order.)

Sections in an article
A standard article can usually be divided into about five parts, described below.


 * Introduction - A short paragraph (often only a few sentences in length) at the beginning of the article, and before the background section. Its purpose is to sum up the subject of the article, and to give viewers a general idea of what the subject is, and what it is like. Introductions should have no header, and their first sentence often starts with the name of the article in bold. It can sometimes be expanded; usually an ultra article could have two to three somewhat long paragraphs.
 * Background - This section, also called the "History" and sometimes, if it's a character, "Biography" or "Autobiography" (first person) section, describes the history of the article's subject: how it came to be, and notable events in its past. If this section is long enough, it may be divided into subsections under smaller headings.
 * Involvement - This section describes the article's subject as it interacts and exists in the present: what it does, what it's like now, and further elaborations. The Involvement section can also be replaced or accompanied by an Appearance section and/or a Description section. In particularly detailed and large articles such as the Bureau of Fiction and UnitedTerra, the Involvement section can be absent altogether. In its stead are smaller, more numerous sections each describing more specific details about the subject (e.g. in the BoF, sections list all the Departments and their functions and a gallery of ID cards used by employees, and in the UTR, sections talk about the education and transportation in the country).
 * Trivia - This section is a repository for trivial facts about the subject, facts that might not fit in any other section. Relevancy still applies to Trivia - usually the facts in here are notable quirks or running gags used in stories.
 * See also - This section will link to other pages in the wiki. They should be related to the article. In some articles, this may be replaced with 'internal links' and 'external links'.

Note that in LQAs, some of these sections may be missing, and in HQAs, additional sections may be present.

Mechanics
Mechanics is about the punctuation, spelling, and grammar of the article. These are important in making an article look professional, as well as making it easier to read.

Punctuation is how punctuation marks (such as the period, comma, semicolon, parentheses, and quotation marks) are used to structure sentences correctly. This also includes correct capitalization: only the first words of sentences and proper nouns are capitalized. In article titles, the first word and all other words besides prepositions, conjunctions, and articles are capitalized.

Spelling is the correct arrangement of letters to form words. We'll also include word choice in spelling for the sake of being comprehensive. Any spelling choice accepted in the dictionary is okay (e.g. "spelt" is okay, despite being slightly archaic). Remember that American and British spelling is different, and that we have a rule concerning this: first come, first serve. If someone has written an article using American spelling, don't change it to British spelling. If someone has written an article using British spelling, don't change it to American spelling. Also note that American and British vocabulary is different (e.g. American "truck" vs. British "lorry"). First come, first serve applies to vocabulary, as well.

Grammar is divided into morphology and syntax. Morphology is the correct changing of the form of a word to give it additional meaning (e.g. "run" in the past tense is "ran", and in the present perfect is "have run"). Syntax is the correct ordering of words to give them meaning as sentences (e.g. "run" is not a sentence as it has no subject, but "I run" is). Remember that all sentences have subjects and verbs (in imperative sentences, the subject is "you" and implied); otherwise they're fragments (e.g. "Good cookie!").

Grammatical person
There are three types of grammatical person: 1st, 2nd, and 3rd.


 * 1st person - An article written in 1st person will appear as if the subject of the article has written it himself/herself. 1st person pronouns are I, me, my, we, us, and our. This is suggested only for autobiographies or stories where the subject is the narrator.
 * 2nd person - An article written in 2nd person will constantly refer back to the reader(s). 2nd person pronouns are you and your. This is suggested only for missions or stories where the reader is one of the characters (e.g. The Bureau Experience).
 * 3rd person - An article written in 3rd person will have a narrator separate from the reader or the characters in the story. Most articles are written in this format, which is multi-purpose and very versatile. 3rd person pronouns include he, she, him, her, his, they, them, their, it, and its.

Creativity
Creativity is often gauged as how original or fresh the idea of the article is. However, originality usually applies more to original articles, and the articles on this wiki that are parodies must be judged slightly differently. Parodies gain their merit by putting a new, fresh spin on another work, and are often humorous, as well.

More coming soon!

Miscellaneous
There are some other things that can boost the quality of an article. We will list them here, as they are worth mentioning.


 * Infoboxes - An Infobox is a large template that hangs to the right of an article, giving some basic information about it. Each type of Infobox corresponds to the type of article it's transcluded on: character, item, event, location, etc. A filled-in infobox is often necessary for an Average Quality Article, though there are exceptions.
 * Media - Media includes images, music, videos, and other kinds of files. These often enrich the article by helping the reader see the subject through visuals, audio, or both.
 * Formal, informative language - Articles are articles, and are not intended to be written too casually. Sentences that address the reader and overexcited exclamations, among other things, can detract from the professional quality of the article. Of course, these devices can be executed correctly to engage the reader, as long as they are not used in excess.
 * Quotes - If your article is a character, then adding quotes are a good idea. After all, all characters have at least spoken 3 sentences, and all characters have got something that they say more often than something else. Adding a sub-section with frequently spoken dialogue is also a good idea.
 * Add more!

= Article Classes =

Content
Very short length, sentences and bad organization.

Mechanics
Grammar (sometimes bad), punctuation, and spelling (sometimes bad)

Creativity

 * For normal articles; originality
 * For parodies; a parody

Content
Short length, few sentences, and slightly bad organization.

Mechanics
Grammar (sometimes bad), punctuation (sometimes bad), and spelling (sometimes bad).

Creativity

 * For normal articles; originality
 * For parodies; a parody

Content
Bigger length, good relevancy to other articles, and has organization

Mechanics
Good grammar, better punctuation, and good spelling.

Creativity

 * For normal articles; originality.
 * For parodies; a creative parody.

Content
Large length, very relevant to other articles, and has better organization

Mechanics
Fine grammar, great punctuation, and spelling.

Creativity

 * For normal articles; originality
 * For parodies; imaginative parody

Content
Long length, detailed, relevant to many other articles, and has a lot of organization

Mechanics
Fantastic grammar, punctuation, and spelling.

Creativity

 * For normal articles; originality
 * For parodies; a very imaginative and creative parody