Writing an article
From NCAA College Football Information & Resource
WikiCollegeFootball News welcomes all College football fans to submit their contributions. Writing an article for WCF News is easy; all you need is an internet connection, time, and effort. However, to keep this section clean and organized, we request all contrbutors to follow a few simple steps.
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Where to Begin?
With so much happening in the NCAA Football, its highly unlikely that we fans will run out of things to write. However, in order to avoid duplication or writing on a topic that has already been covered, we suggest all contributors to see the WikiCollegeFootball News Main Page if the story you plan to write about already exists in a published article. Otherwise, you're clear for the first stage and ready to take the next step.
How to start writing?
If you have cleared the first step, then you can now start a new article. Carefully think of a headline or title for your article. Remember, these headlines will be permanent and may not be replaced. Here are some guidelines in choosing a title:
- Make them unique and specific — Due to the way the software of Wikinews works, each headline must be unique; choose specific details which describe this unique news event.
- Make them short — Headlines are as short as possible.
Use verbs — A headline is at its essence a sentence without ending punctuation, and sentences have verbs.
- Use downstyle capitalisation — Downstyle capitalisation is the preferred style. Only the initial word and proper nouns are capitalized. In upstyle headlines, all nouns and most other words with more than four letters are capitalized.
- * Downstyle: "Powell to lead U.S. delegation to Asian tsunami region"
- * Upstyle: "Powell to Lead U.S. Delegation to Asian Tsunami Region".
- Write in a neutral point of view — headlines should not be biased in tone or word choice
- Tell the most important and unique thing — Article titles should consist of a descriptive and enduring headline. As a series of stories on a topic develop, each headline should convey the most important and unique thing about the story at that time.
- Use present tense
- Use active voice
- Try to attribute any action to someone — "Insurgents shoot U.S. troops in North Baghdad" is better than "U.S. troops shot in North Baghdad".
- Avoid jargon and meaningless acronyms — Avoid uncommon technical terms, and when referring to a country or organization, use its full name rather than acronym, unless the acronym is more common than the full name (ex: NASA, CIA, AIDS) or length is prohibitive.
- Use comma, not 'and' or '&'
After you have written your headline and have pressed the "Create Article" button, you will be redirected to an empty space. This is where you will start building up your news item.
What's next?
After you have input your article, you're ready to publish it. But before pressing the save page button, make sure to add these important parts to your article.
- The Date - The date is a must in every article. Place the date in the top-most part of your contribution. The format is month (written, ex. September), day (numerical, ex. 8), and year (four digit, ex. 2007).
- The Image - Adding pictures to your articles is not necessary, but it will help describe what you're writing about. To add an image, place this tag below the date:
[[image:(ou_meets_um.jpg))|right|thumb|(200)px|[[Media:(ou_meets_um.jpg)|(Oregon takes on Michigan, Saturday.)]]]]
items written in parentheses are to be changed
- Sources - Placing the sources of your articles is an imperative! You can make a section for it at the bottom by adding this line:
==Sources==
The cited sources will apear like this:
- Jack Carey "Oregon prepares to meet 'embattled' Michigan". USA Today, September 6, 2007
To insert your source, you need to place the ((souce template)) and fill in the fields:
*{{source|url=
| title=
| author=
| pub=[]
| date=
}}
Where to put your article?
Once you have submitted your article, it will be saved in the WCF's wiki. However, for readers to easily access it, you must place it in its proper category. To make it easier for us all to categorize all articles, we have subdivided news items into portals:
- Game Previews - This portal is for articles/stories discussing upcoming games and match-ups.
ex. Bowden Bowl opens season for Clemson and Florida State
- Game Recaps - This portal is for articles/stories discussing results to previous games. You need not go through the comprehensive details of the game, such as the game stats, but if it will help you describe the game more effectively, it would be better.
ex. App State edges Michigan in a thrilling upset win
- Team News - This portal is for articles/stories involving the teams, including its players and coaches, participating in the current NCAA Collegiate Football tournament.
ex. Weis will unveil ND's starting QB at the opener
- Injury Updates - This portal is for articles/stories about players currently injured or are recoving from injuries.
ex. Four Utes injured in Utah's opening game loss
- Around the NCAA - This portal is for articles/stories discussing news items about the league in general.
ex. Big 12 Hires Dan Beebe as Full Time Commish
In some instances, an article written may be classified in two or more portals. In this case, you may place that news item under those portals.
Categorizing
In order for your article to be easily found, it is highly recommended to place them in categories. For instance, you are writing about a certain player from a certain school, you can write:
[[Category: School]] [[Category: Player Position]] [[Category: Team Conference]]
