Wiki Life: How to write your first article

Welcome everybody to our Wednesday - Wiki Life post.

Are you currently writing your first TechNet Wiki article? Or do you want to start writing, but have no idea about what to write and how to write? If so I would like to give you a little help on your way to a good one.

For me the way to a good article contains three steps: Preparation, writing, and follow-up.

Step 1: Preparation

What is a good topic for your first article? Is it worth it to write an article for the TechNet Wiki?

Let us start with the last question. Ed has written a good article about the Top 6 Fears of TechNet Wiki. So the simple answer: Absolutely! So, what is a good topic? Normally you choose a topic which you are already familiar. If you don't have an idea yet or not enough content for a whole article, I would recommend that you start with adding valuable content to existing articles. With the time you will earn experience and with that increasing the value of your future articles.

Step 2: Writing

How do you start writing?

If you have a topic and good content start with structuring your content into subtopics/headings. With the headings you should add a table of content and return-to-top links. Do your articles contain tables? Ed and Rich have written blog posts how you can handle them. After finishing your article Tord has 5 Tips to make your Wiki article look better.

Step 3: Follow-up

Ok, your article is online, but what now?

A goal of writing an article should always be to improve it over time. So, look at your article and the revisions of others and improve your article everytime you think you have something to add. And if you have another idea: Write a new article!

Hope this will help you a little bit. So, go out and share your knowledge!

- German Ninja Jan (Twitter, Profile)

Comments

  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2003
    Horizon_Net - Thank you for such a helpful blog...

  • Anonymous
    May 26, 2012
    Wow I like the way you link to the other articles! That really tells the full story this way! Thanks!

  • Anonymous
    May 29, 2012
    Nice to be included in the thought process.

  • Anonymous
    August 08, 2012
    What do you think about creating a Wiki article from this? I would like to translate it to Hungarian.

  • Anonymous
    August 08, 2012
    @Zoltán Really good idea! If I find the time I will do it and come back with the link to the article.

  • Anonymous
    August 10, 2012
    This should be a Wiki article as well. Jan, do you want to create it? Thanks!

  • Anonymous
    August 11, 2012
    I will create one during the next week and share the link in the comments.

  • Anonymous
    August 15, 2012
    I started a "Getting Started with TN Wiki" series, where you will also find this post as a wiki article -social.technet.microsoft.com/.../default.aspx

  • Anonymous
    November 12, 2013
    Good work. Very useful for "novices" or who is a reader and want to start creating articles.

  • Anonymous
    November 05, 2014
    Hello most valuable Wiki family,
    I am calling Wiki family because we are really very big family. In

  • Anonymous
    December 27, 2017
    Good and very useful for starter.Thanks ! Horizon_Net

  • Anonymous
    November 20, 2018
    Nice to be included in the thought process.