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Wikipedia:Article content

Essay on editing Wikipedia

This is an essay. It contains the advice or opinions of one or more Wikipedia contributors. This page is not an encyclopedia article, nor is it one of Wikipedia's policies or guidelines, as it has not been thoroughly vetted by the community. Some essays represent widespread norms; others only represent minority viewpoints.

Shortcuts WP:Identity wp:RULEOFIDENTITY

This page in a nutshell: An article on Wikipedia should contain content that causes the article to cover the topic of said article. An article's title is one indicator of that article's topic.

An article on Wikipedia should contain content which causes that article to actually cover the stated topic of that article. The title of an article is an important ingredient, albeit an obvious one, in accurately delineating the topic, scope, and focus of that article.

Perhaps it is germane to note that in logic, the law of identity states that each thing is identical with itself. (It is the first of the historical three laws of thought, along with the law of noncontradiction, and the law of excluded middle.)

An article's topical focus and scope can be deduced from the title of the article. The content of the article can be greatly broadened, revised or altered, as long as it is germane and beneficial to maintaining the scope and content of the article, so that the article actually covers the stated topic of that article.

Examples[edit]

• History of United States government. A topic that is self-evident in its notability; however, someone had to make a decision about the best way to actually approach this topic, and then someone had to actually write it. so this is one good example of the importance of the seemingly obvious fact that articles need to have content.

• Wikipedia:Five pillars