The Lede Improvement Team is a WikiProject dedicated to finding and improving the lede sections of articles across Wikipedia.
The Lead section (lede or lead) 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 lede. An example would be the meta description that displays under Google search results when a term is searched for.
It is vital that the lede be well presented. As it stands now though, many editors, especially new editors, are careless when it comes to the lede. If they have a bit of information to add, the lede seems to be an attractive place, though it is not the best. When substantial information is added or changed elsewhere in the article, the lede 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 ledes, perhaps giving advice to the people who wrote them along the way.
The members of the Lede Improvement Team will identify articles with ledes that are in need of improvement, and then edit those ledes so that they meet (nay, exceed!) the standard of quality expected of them.
Scope
Articles with ledes that need improving.
Articles with ledes that are missing.
Articles with ledes that have been fixed by the LIT in the past, but that now need a second look.
Guidelines
Identifying ledes in need of improvement
“
The lead should be able to stand alone as a concise overview. It should define the topic, establish context, explain why the topic is notable, and summarize the most important points, including any prominent controversies.
When analyzing a lede that may need improvement, ask:
Is it general? – Does the lede 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 lede is meant to be a summary; if it contains information not found elsewhere in the article, that information should be moved to appropriate headings. 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 lede? 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 lede. In general, lede length should follow these guidelines:
Article length
Lead length
Fewer than 15,000 characters
One or two paragraphs
15,000–30,000 characters
Two or three paragraphs
More than 30,000 characters
Three or four paragraphs
Is it easy to understand? – Ideally, the lede 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 lede should preferably at least be less confusing than the rest of the article.
Topic-specific lede guidelines
Articles on certain subjects may have specific guidelines on what should be included in the lede of the article, and in what order. When editing the lede 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 lede, though they may contain information that is useful when writing it, such as naming conventions and sections that should be included in the article.
^ abThere are no topic-specific guidelines for lede sections in this category. Use the sub-topic guidelines instead.
^ abcdefghijThere are no sub-topic-specific guidelines for lede sections in this category. Use the general parent topic guidelines instead.
^ abcdefghijklmnopThere are no guidelines for lede sections in this category. Use the general MOS:LEAD instead.
Open tasks
Articles specifically for the LIT's attention
Since rewriting a lede 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 ledes 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 will be looked at by someone soon. Ideally, it should never grow too long.
To-do list for Wikipedia:WikiProject Lede Improvement Team:
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 lede. 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.
Please add any articles for which you have improved the lede. This will allow members of this project to track our success. Articles listed here should need no further work to the lede, though the members of the list should be revisited periodically to ensure that they reflect any new content that may have been added to the article, and that they still conform to Wikipedia's style guide.
Articles in this list that are found to need further cleanup should be removed and added to the to-do list above.
To-do list for Wikipedia:WikiProject Lede Improvement Team:
John Carter (talk· contribs) (willing to help to the degree other activities will allow it)
BullRangifer (talk· contribs) (Brangifer). (I have some interest in the subject, enough to have written the WP:CREATELEAD essay long ago. I'll add a link to the Resources section below)
Learnerktm (talk· contribs) (just interested, hope to edit)
Wikimandia (talk· contribs) (Just found this!!! Thank you for starting this.) 04:00, 21 April 2015 (UTC)
This article is of interest to the Lede Improvement Team, a WikiProject dedicated to improving the lede sections of articles on Wikipedia. Wikipedia:WikiProject Lede Improvement Team has been added to our To-do list because its lede has been assessed as needing improvement. A member of our team is either currently working on remedying this, or will be shortly.
If you think you can improve the lede yourself, please do so and then let us know so we can strike it off our list. If you are interested in helping with this project, please visit our project page and add your name to the list of participants.