UniWiki:Manual of Style/Lead section
The lead section (also known as the lead or introduction of a Wikipedia article is the section before the table of contents and the first heading. The lead serves as an introduction to the article and a summary of its most important contents. It is not a news-style lead or lede paragraph.
The lead is the first part of the article that most people will read. For many, it may be the only section that they read. A good lead section cultivates the reader's interest in reading more of the article, but not by teasing the reader or hinting at content that follows. The lead should be written in a clear, accessible style with a neutral point of view.
The lead should stand on its own as a concise overview of the article's topic. It should identify the topic, establish context, explain why the topic is notable, and summarize the most important points, including any prominent controversies. Like in the body of the article itself, the emphasis given to material in the lead should roughly reflect its importance to the topic. Apart from basic facts, significant information should not appear in the lead if it is not covered in the remainder of the article.
As a general rule of thumb, a lead section should contain no more than four well-composed paragraphs and be carefully sourced as appropriate.
Elements of the lead
As explained in more detail below, the lead section may contain optional elements presented in the following order: disambiguation links (dablinks/hatnotes), maintenance tags, infoboxes, images, navigational boxes (navigational templates), introductory text, and table of contents, moving to the heading of the first section.
First section
- Disambiguation links should be the first elements of the page, before any maintenance tags, infobox, or image; if a reader has reached the wrong page, they will want to know that first. Text-only browsers and [[Wikipedia:Screen reader}screen readers]] present the page sequentially. Do not make this initial link a section. See also Wikipedia:Hatnote.
- Deletion tags
- Maintenance tags should be below the disambiguation links. These tags inform the reader about the general quality of the article and should be presented to the user before the article itself.
- Infoboxes contain summary information or an overview relating to the subject of the article, and therefore should be put before any text (though in actuality they will generally appear to the side of the text of the lead). The primary difference between an infobox and a navigational box is the presence of parameters: a navigational box is exactly the same in all articles of the same topic, while an infobox has different contents in each article.
- Images. As with all images, but particularly the lead, the image used should be relevant and technically well-produced. It is also common for the lead image to be representative because it provides a visual association for the topic, and allow readers to quickly assess if they have arrived at the right page. Image captions are part of the article text. If the article has disambiguation links (dablinks), then the introductory image should appear just before the introductory text. Otherwise a screen reader would first read the image's caption, which is part of the article's contents, then "jump" outside the article to read the dablink, and then return to the lead section, which is an illogical sequence.
- Sidebars are a collection of links used in multiple related articles to facilitate navigation between those articles. Sidebars are sometimes placed in the lead, especially when no infobox is present. If an infobox is present, the navigation sidebar may be moved to either the top or bottom of any other section in the article.
- All but the shortest articles should start with Introductory text (the "lead"), which establishes significance, includes mention of significant criticism or controversies, and make readers want to learn more. The lead has no heading; its length should be commensurate with that of the article, but is normally no more than four paragraphs. See also Wikipedia:Writing better articles#Lead section.
- The table of contents (TOC) automatically appears on pages with at least four headings. Avoid floating the table of contents if possible, as it breaks the standard look of pages. If you must use a floated TOC, put it below the lead section in the wiki markup for consistency. Users of screen readers expect the table of contents to follow the introductory text; they will also miss any text placed between the TOC and the first heading.
Introductory text
Provide an accessible overview
- See also: Wikipedia:Summary style
The lead section should briefly summarize the most important points covered in an article in such a way that it can stand on its own as a concise version of the article. It is even more important here than in the rest of the article that the text be accessible. Editors should avoid lengthy paragraphs and over-specific descriptions – greater detail is saved for the body of the article. Consideration should be given to creating interest in the article. However, do not hint at startling facts without describing them.
In general, introduce useful abbreviations, but avoid difficult-to-understand terminology and symbols. Mathematical equations and formulas should be avoided when they conflict with the goal of making the lead section accessible to as broad an audience as possible. Where uncommon terms are essential, they should be placed in context, linked and briefly defined. The subject should be placed in a context familiar to a normal reader. For example, it is better to describe the location of a town with reference to an area or larger place than with coordinates. Readers should not be dropped into the middle of the subject from the first word; they should be eased into it.
Relative emphasis
Emphasis given to material should reflect its relative importance to the subject.. This is true for both the lead and the body of the article. If there is a difference in emphasis between the two, editors should seek to resolve the discrepancy. Significant information should not appear in the lead if it is not covered in the remainder of the article, although not everything in the lead must be repeated in the body of the text. Exceptions include specific facts such as quotations, examples, and titles. This admonition should not be taken as a reason to exclude information from the lead, but rather to harmonize coverage in the lead with material in the body of the article.
Opening paragraph
The first paragraph should define or identify the topic with a neutral point of view, but without being too specific. It should establish the context in which the topic is being considered by supplying the set of circumstances or facts that surround it. If appropriate, it should give the location and time. It should also establish the boundaries of the topic.
First sentence
The first sentence should tell the nonspecialist reader what, or who, the subject is.
- If possible, the page title should be the subject of the first sentence.[1] However, if the article title is merely descriptive—such as Electrical characteristics of dynamic loudspeakers—the title does not need to appear verbatim in the main text.
- Similarly, if the page is a list, do not introduce the list as "This is a list of X" or "This list of Xs...". A clearer and more informative introduction to the list is better than verbatim repetition of the title. A good example of this is the List of Benet Academy alumni. (See also Format of the first sentence below).
- When the page title is used as the subject of the first sentence, it may appear in a slightly different form, and it may include variations, including synonyms.[2] Similarly, if the title has a parenthetical disambiguator, the disambiguator should be omitted in the text.[3]
- If its subject is definable, then the first sentence should give a concise definition: where possible, one that puts the article in context for the nonspecialist. Similarly, if the title is a specialised term, provide the context as early as possible.[4]
- Keep redundancy to a minimum in the first sentence. Use the first sentence of the article to provide relevant information that is not already given by the title of the article. The title of the article need not appear verbatim in the lead.[5]
- Try to not overload the first sentence by describing everything notable about the subject. Instead use the first sentence to introduce the topic, and then spread the relevant information out over the entire lead.
- While a commonly recognizable form of name will be used as the title of biographical articles, fuller forms of name may be used in the introduction to the lead. For instance, in the article Paul McCartney, the text of the lead begins: "Sir James Paul McCartney ...".
Format of the first sentence
If an article's title is a formal or widely accepted name for the subject, display it in bold as early as possible in the first sentence:
The electron is a subatomic particle with a negative elementary electric charge. (Electron)
Otherwise, include the title if it can be accommodated in normal English:
The inaugural games of the Flavian Amphitheatre were held in AD 80. (Inaugural games of the Flavian Amphitheatre)
Only the first occurrence of the title and significant alternative titles (which should usually also redirect to the article) are placed in bold:
Mumbai, also known as Bombay, is the capital of the Indian state of Maharashtra. (Mumbai)
Common abbreviations (in parentheses) are considered significant alternative names in this sense:
The International Music Score Library Project (IMSLP), also known as the Petrucci Music Library after publisher Ottaviano Petrucci, is a ... (International Music Score Library Project)
If an article is about an event involving a subject about which there is no main article, especially if the article is the target of a redirect, the subject should be in bold:
Azaria Chantel Loren Chamberlain (11 June 1980 – 17 August 1980) was an Australian baby girl who was killed by a dingo on the night of 17 August 1980 on a family camping trip to Uluru (at that date known as Ayers Rock) in the Northern Territory. (Death of Azaria Chamberlain, redirected from Azaria Chamberlain)
Avoid these common mistakes
Links should not be placed in the boldface reiteration of the title in the opening sentence of a lead:[6][7]
The Babe Ruth Award is given annually to the Major League Baseball (MLB) player with the best performance in the postseason.
The Babe Ruth Award is given annually to the Major League Baseball (MLB) player with the best performance in the postseason. The award, created in honor of Babe Ruth, was first awarded in 1949 to the MVP of the World Series, one year after Ruth's death.
If the article's title does not lend itself to being used easily and naturally in the opening sentence, the wording should not be distorted in an effort to include it. Instead, simply describe the subject in normal English, avoiding redundancy.
The 2011 Mississippi River floods were a series of floods affecting the Mississippi River in April and May 2011, which were among the largest and most damaging recorded along the U.S. waterway in the past century. (2011 Mississippi River floods)
The Mississippi River floods in April and May 2011 were among the largest and most damaging recorded along the U.S. waterway in the past century. (2011 Mississippi River floods)
In general, if the article's title is absent from the first sentence, do not apply the bold style to related text that does appear:
The Beatles rise to prominence in the United States on February 7, 1964, was a significant development in the history of the band's commercial success. (The Beatles in the United States)
The Beatles' rise to prominence in the United States in February 1964 was a significant development in the history of the band's commercial success. (The Beatles in the United States)
(Disambiguation pages, however, use bolding for the link to the primary topic, if there is one.)
Pronunciation
- For more details on the formatting of pronunciation in the first sentence, see UniWiki:Manual of Style/Pronunciation.
If the name of the article has a pronunciation that's not apparent from its spelling, include its pronunciation in parentheses after the first occurrence of the name. Do not include them for common English words with pronunciations that might be counterintuitive for learners (laughter, sword). If the name of the article is more than one word, include pronunciation only for the words that need it.
Contextual links
The opening sentence should provide links to the broader or more elementary topics that are important to the article's topic or place it into context.
For example, an article about a building or location should include a link to the broader geographical area of which it is a part.
Arugam Bay is a bay on the Indian Ocean in the dry zone of Sri Lanka's southeast coast.
In an article about a technical or jargon term, the opening sentence or paragraph should normally contain a link to the field of study that the term comes from.
In heraldry, tinctures are the colours used to emblazon a coat of arms.
The first sentence of an article about a person should link to the page or pages about the topic where the person achieved prominence.
Harvey Lavan "Van" Cliburn Jr. (July 12, 1934 – February 27, 2013) was an American pianist who achieved worldwide recognition in 1958 at age 23, when he won the first quadrennial International Tchaikovsky Piano Competition in Moscow, at the height of the Cold War.
Exactly what provides the context needed to understand a given topic varies greatly from topic to topic.
The Gemara is the component of the Talmud comprising rabbinical analysis of and commentary on the Mishnah.
Do not, however, add contextual links that don't relate directly to the topic's definition or reason for notability. For example, Van Cliburn's opening sentence links to Cold War because his fame came partly from his Tchaikovsky Competition victory being used as a Cold War symbol. The first sentence of a page about someone who rose to fame in the 1950s for reasons unrelated to the Cold War should not mention the Cold War at all, even though the Cold War is part of the broader historical context of that person's life. By the same token, do not link to years unless the year has some special salience to the topic.
Links appearing ahead of the bolded term distract from the topic if not necessary to establish context, and should be omitted even if they might be appropriate elsewhere in the text. For example, a person's title or office, such as colonel, naturally appears ahead of their name, but the word "Colonel" should not have a link, since it doesn't establish context. Do not, however, reword a sentence awkwardly just to keep a needed contextual link from getting ahead of the bolded term.
Colonel Charles Hotham (died 1738) was a special British envoy entrusted by George II with the task of negotiating a double marriage between the Hanover and Hohenzollern dynasties.
Biographies
- For more details on the formatting of the first sentence of biographical articles, see UniWiki:Manual of Style/Biographies#Opening paragraph
Scope of article
In some cases the definition of the article topic in the opening paragraph may be insufficient to fully constrain the scope of the article. In particular, it may be necessary to identify material that is not within scope. For instance, the Fever article notes that elevated temperature due to hyperthermia is not within scope. These explanations may best be done at the end of the lead to avoid cluttering and confusing the first paragraph. This information and other meta material in the lead is not expected to appear in the body of the article.
Biographies of living persons
- Main article: Wikipedia:Biographies of living persons
When writing about controversies in the lead of the biography of a living person, notable material should neither be suppressed nor allowed to overwhelm: always pay scrupulous attention to reliable sources, and make sure the lead correctly reflects the entirety of the article. Write clinically, and let the facts speak for themselves.
Well-publicized recent events affecting a subject, whether controversial or not, should be kept in historical perspective. What is most recent is not necessarily what is most notable: new information should be carefully balanced against old, with due weight accorded to each. When a subject dies, the lead need not be radically reworked. Unless the cause of death is itself a reason for notability, a single sentence describing the death is usually sufficient.
Alternative names
By the design of the UniWiki's software, an article can have only one title. When this title is a name, significant alternative names for the topic should be mentioned in the article, usually in the first sentence or paragraph. These may include alternative spellings, longer or shorter forms, historical names, and significant names in other languages. Indeed, alternative names can be used in article text in contexts where they are more appropriate than the name used as the title of the article. For example, the city now called "Gdańsk" can be referred to as "Danzig" in suited historical contexts. The editor needs to balance the desire to maximize the information available to the reader with the need to maintain readability.
Usage in first sentence
In articles about people, scientific principles and concepts, and other subjects, the title can be followed in the first line by one or two alternative names in parentheses. The following are examples of names that may be included parenthetically.
Stubs
Where the article is a stub and has no section headings, a lead may not be necessary. Although the UniWiki encourages expanding stubs, this may be impossible if reliably sourced information is not available. Once an article has been sufficiently expanded, generally to around 400 or 500 words, editors should consider introducing section headings and removing the stub classification.
Length
The appropriate length of the lead section depends on the total length of the article. As a general guideline—but not absolute rule—the lead should usually be no longer than four paragraphs. The length of the lead should conform to readers' expectations of a short, but useful and complete, summary of the topic. A lead that is too short leaves the reader unsatisfied; a lead that is too long is intimidating, difficult to read, and may cause the reader to lose interest halfway. The following suggestions about lead length may be useful ("article length" refers to readable prose size):
| Article length | Lead length |
|---|---|
| Fewer than 15,000 characters | One or two paragraphs |
| 15,000–30,000 characters | Two or three paragraphs |
| More than 30,000 characters | Three or four paragraphs |
Lead sections that reflect or expand on sections in other articles are discussed at Wikipedia:Summary style. Journalistic conventions for lead sections are discussed at Wikipedia:News style.
Clutter
Template:Shortcut Because the lead is the first section a visitor reads, it is also the one most frequently edited and may become cluttered with parenthetical details (sometimes to the point of absurdity). If this happens, the lead may need to be reduced. For example, the lead from Genghis Khan at one time read:
| “ |
Genghis Khan (English pronunciation:Template:IPAc-en or Template:IPAc-en;[1][2]; Cyrillic: Чингис Хаан, Chingis Khaan, Template:IPA-mn; Mongol script: |
” |
This was later reduced to the following:
| “ |
Genghis Khan (Template:IPAc-en or Template:IPAc-en,[1][2] Template:IPA-mn; Chingis/Chinghis Khan; 1162?Template:Spaced ndashAugust 1227), born Temujin, was the founder and Great Khan (emperor) of the Mongol Empire, which became the largest contiguous empire in history after his demise. |
” |
Some parenthetical material may be notable enough to be among the first information presented, but much of it can be moved to footnotes, to infoboxes, or into the body of the article. If this results in extensive footnotes which themselves contain references, then notes and references can be split, as explained at WP:REFNOTE.
Editing the lead section
Editing the lead section can be cumbersome in long articles, because by default there is no edit link. The primary option is to open the entire article in the editing window by clicking on the "Edit" or "edit this page" tab at the top. However, this method increases the risk of edit conflicts in popular articles, and may cause problems if the page being edited is too large.
Registered users can override this default via:
- a checkbox on Special:Preferences → Gadgets → Appearance called "Add an [edit] link for the lead section of a page" (requires JavaScript)
- a checkbox on Special:Preferences → Editing called "Enable section editing by right clicking on section titles" (requires JavaScript)
- some user-written scripts that enable you to edit section 0.
All users can use the following:
- Click "edit" for any section and, in the resulting URL, replace the trailing §ion=n with §ion=0 before re-loading the page.
Comparison to the news-style lead
Wikipedia leads are not written in news style. Although there are some similarities, such as putting the most important information first and making it possible for any reader to understand the subject even if they only read the lead, there are some important differences. The lead paragraph (sometimes spelled "lede") of newspaper journalism is a very compressed summary of only the most important facts about a story. These basic facts are sometimes referred to as "the five Ws": who, what, when, where, and why. Journalistic leads normally are only one or two sentences long. By contrast, in Wikipedia articles, the first sentence is usually more similar to a definition, the lead is longer, and it ultimately provides far more information, as its purpose is to summarize the article, not just introduce it.
| Journalistic lead | Encyclopedic lead |
|---|---|
| "Toxic gas leaking from an American-owned insecticide plant in central India killed at least 410 people overnight, many as they slept, officials said today. At least 12,000 were reported injured in the disaster in the city of Bhopal, 2,000 of whom were hospitalized." Hazarika, Sanjoy (3 December 1984) "Gas leak in city kills at least 410 in city of Bhopal" The New York Times |
The Bhopal disaster, also referred to as the Bhopal gas tragedy, was a gas leak incident in India, considered the world's worst industrial disaster. It occurred on the night of 2–3 December 1984 at the Union Carbide India Limited (UCIL) pesticide plant in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh. Over 500,000 people were exposed to methyl isocyanate (MIC) gas and other chemicals. The toxic substance made its way in and around the shanty towns located near the plant. Estimates vary on the death toll. The official immediate death toll was 2,259. The government of Madhya Pradesh confirmed a total of 3,787 deaths related to the gas release. Others estimate 8,000 died within two weeks and another 8,000 or more have since died from gas-related diseases. A government affidavit in 2006 stated the leak caused 558,125 injuries including 38,478 temporary partial injuries and approximately 3,900 severely and permanently disabling injuries. |
Tabloid, magazine and broadcast news leads may be "teasers" that intentionally omit some crucial details to entice readers to read or watch the full story, and may even "bury the lead" by hiding the most important fact. This style should never be used on Wikipedia.
Cleanup
For a list of template messages related to the clean-up of lead sections, see Wikipedia:Template messages/Cleanup#Introduction. Editors are encouraged to improve leads rather than simply tag them.
See also
- Help:Section
- Wikipedia:How to create and manage a good lead section
- Wikipedia:Lead section TT first sentence content
- Wikipedia:Lead section TT first sentence format
- Wikipedia:Lead section TT text
- Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Accessibility
- Wikipedia's Good definition policy
- Wikipedia:WikiProject Lead Improvement Team
- Wikipedia:Writing better articles § Lead section
Notes
- ^ For example:
This Manual of Style is a style guide containing ...
not
This style guide, known as the Manual of Style, contains ...
- ^ For example, in the article "United Kingdom":
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom, the UK, or Britain, is a sovereign island country located off the north-western coast of continental Europe.
- ^ Thus, the article Egg (food) should start like this:
An egg is an ovum produced by ...
Not like this:
An egg (food) is an ovum produced by ...
- ^ For example, instead of:
A trusted third party is an entity that facilitates interactions between two parties who both trust the third party.
write:
In cryptography, a trusted third party is an entity that facilitates interactions between two parties who both trust the third party.
- ^ For example, instead of
Pakistani-Iraqi relations are the relations between Pakistan and Iraq.
consider:
Iraq and Pakistan established diplomatic relations in 1947.
Remember that the title need not always appear in the lead if the article title is descriptive, and in any case the statement relations are relations does not help a reader who does not know the meaning of diplomatic relations. In this case, the editor of the second version sensibly opted to include new information (that relations were established in 1947) in the first sentence, rather than repeating the title.
Sometimes a little redundancy is unavoidable. The Oxford English Dictionary has to be called by its proper name in its article, and cannot be called anything other than a dictionary in the first sentence. Even in these cases, the first sentence must provide information not given in the title. But try to rephrase whenever possible. Instead of:
The Oxford English Dictionary [...] is a comprehensive dictionary of the English language.
consider:
The Oxford English Dictionary [...] is the premier dictionary of the English language.
Both contain some redundancy, but the second is better because it tells us that the OED is the world's most respected dictionary of English. Again, someone who knows what the word dictionary means will probably assume that any dictionary is comprehensive, so they do not need to be told that.
- ^ Many, but not all, articles repeat the article title in bold face in the first line of the article. Linking the article to itself produces boldface text; this practice is discouraged as page moves will result in a useless circular link through a redirect. Linking part of the bolded text is also discouraged because it changes the visual effect of bolding; some readers will miss the visual cue which is the purpose of using bold face in the first place.
- ^ Disambiguation pages are navigational aides rather than articles and where there is a primary topic for a term, the introductory line for that term's disambiguation page does typically have that term both linked and bolded; see UMoS:Linking to a primary topic
