The following pages will give you guidance about the style and content of Wikipedia articles, and tell you about the Wikipedia community and important Wikipedia policies and conventions. This is a basic tutorial, not an extensive manual or interactive learning environment. If you want more details about any information in the tutorial, there are links to other resource pages throughout the tutorial. To read them as you go along, you can open them in a separate browser window or tab.
The goal of a Wikipedia article is to create a comprehensive and neutrally written summary of existing mainstream knowledge about a topic. Accordingly, Wikipedia does not publish original research. An encyclopedia is, by its nature, a tertiary source that provides a survey of information already the subject of publication in the wider world. Accordingly, and because Wikipedia is open to editing by anyone, we require that information be verifiable in reliable sources. Ideally all information should be actually cited to reliable sources to evidence it is verifiable. When adding content and creating new articles an encyclopedic style with a formal tone is important. Instead of essay-like, argumentative, or opinionated writing, Wikipedia articles should have a straightforward, just-the-facts style.