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The lead, or introduction, is the most important text in any article.

To get the lead right, generally:

DO:
Be familiar with the style guidance for leads.
Identify the subject and reason for its notability early.
Put the subject's full and alternate names in bold on first use.
Provide context if necessary.
Summarize the most important points of the article.
Use discretion when putting citations in the lead.

DON'T:
Don't include information that is not covered later on.
Don't promote the subject or use peacock terms.
Don't overload the first sentence with parenthetical material.
Don't reiterate descriptive article titles if awkward in prose.
Don't put links in a bolded reiteration of the title.
Don't use teasers.

Wikipedia dos and don'ts
Encyclopedia content	Accessibility Biographies Biographies (living) Categorization Disambiguation Images Leads Links Lists References Tables Titles (of articles)
Collaboration	Consensus Talk
Simple rule set - Simple style manual - Style tips - Wikitext cheatsheet

See also