Wikipedia:WikiProject Lead Improvement Team

This WikiProject, an open group of Wikipedia editors, is believed to be semi-active. Although there may be fewer editors here than in the past, anyone is welcome to participate in the group or to leave a message for us. Remove the |Semi-active parameter from this template if activity resumes or if this tag was changed in error. If almost no activity occurs in this WikiProject, consider replacing this tag with }. Guide to WikiProjects Directory of WikiProjects

The Lead Improvement Team is a WikiProject dedicated to finding and improving poor lead sections of articles across Wikipedia.

The introduction or Lead section is arguably the most important part of the article; it should accurately summarize the article without being too technical or introducing facts that are not discussed later, and it should be well written and easy to understand. It is often the first, and sometimes the only thing that a reader will look at on the page. Many websites use Wikipedia as a source of information, and often the only information they will display comes from the lead. An example would be the meta description that displays under Google search results when a term is searched for.

It is vital that the lead be well presented. As it stands now though, many editors, especially new editors, are careless when it comes to the lead. If they have a bit of information to add, the lead seems to be an attractive place to add it, though it is not the best place to do so. When substantial information is added or changed elsewhere in the article, the lead is often not revisited to reflect that change. Expecting editors to adhere to the style guide is not enough to stop this. What we need is a team of editors willing to visit articles and improve their leads, perhaps giving advice to the people who wrote them along the way.

The members of the Lead Improvement Team will identify articles with leads that are in need of improvement, and then edit those leads so that they meet (nay, exceed!) the standard of quality expected of them.

• Articles with leads that need improving.
• Articles with leads that are missing.
• Articles with leads that have been fixed by the LIT in the past, but that now need a second look.

This section contains a WikiProject advice page on style, consisting of the advice or opinions of one or more WikiProjects on how to format and present article content within their area of interest. This page is not an encyclopedia article or a Wikipedia policy, as it has not been reviewed by the community.

When analyzing a lead that may need improvement, ask:

• Is it general? – Does the lead contain information that is too specific or technical? If so, this should be rephrased so the reader has a general idea of what is going to be discussed, without going into details that are discussed later.
• Does it contain information that is not mentioned elsewhere? – The lead is meant to be a summary; if it contains information not found elsewhere in the article, that information should be moved to an appropriate heading. If there is no appropriate heading, a new one may need to be created and expansion on the point should be considered.
• Does it summarize all key points? – Are there important facts discussed in the article that are not represented in the lead? In most cases, one or two sentences representing each section is ideal.
• Is its length the correct ratio to the length of the rest of the article? – The length of the article should dictate the length of the lead. In general, lead length should follow these guidelines:

• Is it easy to understand? – Ideally, the lead should be able to be understood by someone with no experience in the field. Although some technical articles in areas such as math or physics will inherently be difficult to understand for some, the lead should preferably at least be less confusing than the rest of the article.

Articles on certain subjects may have specific guidelines on what should be included in the lead of the article, and in what order. When editing the lead in a certain subject area, consult to see if there are any guidelines in the Manual of Style that should be taken into consideration. Some topics do not have specific guidelines on the lead, though they may contain information that is useful when writing it, such as naming conventions and sections that should be included in the article.

Since rewriting a lead may require some dedication of time, there may be occasions when you notice one that needs improving, but are busy with some other task such as gnoming. Project contributors are encouraged to add the article to this list, so that someone here can get to it. Even if you are not a listed member of this project, you are encouraged to bring articles with leads that need improving to our attention by adding them here.

This list is intended for articles that need the attention of the members of this team and that should be looked at by an editor. Ideally, it should never grow too long.

Wikipedia already has a category for introduction cleanup. It contains thousands of articles that have been tagged with one of Wikipedia's introduction cleanup templates. Contributors are encouraged to visit the list and improve the lead. When you do, be sure to remove the appropriate tags so that it is removed from this category. We ask too that you report back here that you have made an improvement, so that we can track this project's success.