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)