Editing "How to Fact Check a wikiHow Article"

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# Determine the article's accuracy rating. Click on the "Edit" drop down menu, and then click on "Article Stats". [[Image:Fact Check a wikiHow Article Step 1.jpg|center|550px]]
# Understand that an article’s accuracy rating is the current, cumulative result of the unscientific survey at the bottom of each page asking readers whether the article is accurate. This score is meant to serve as an indicator only, and may not reflect the latest updates to this article. Some accurate articles may have low accuracy scores. ''Do not just automatically assume all articles with bad scores are inaccurate.'' You are an [[Contribute to wikiHow|editor]] and will need to use your [[Be Bold on wikiHow|best editorial judgment]]! Some reasons accurate articles frequently get low scores include: [[Image:Fact Check a wikiHow Article Step 2.jpg|center|550px]]
#*Old versions of the article were inaccurate, and the article was later improved, but the old [[Clear Accuracy Ratings on wikiHow|accuracy scores were not cleared.]]
#*Controversial topics, social or political issues (e.g., [[Decide Whether or Not to Get an Abortion|abortion]], [[Take Action to Reduce Global Warming|global warming]], prayer in schools)
#*Highly subjective topics (e.g., [[Be Popular|How to Be Popular]] or how to be like a character in a book or movie)?
#*Difficult skill/difficult actions - "[[Spin a Pencil Around Your Thumb|How to Spin a Pencil Around Your Thumb]]" and other difficult topics are given low scores by readers who fail to master the skill
#*Past [[:Category:Featured Articles|featured articles]]. Oddly when an article becomes featured, grievers who read wikiHow like to come in and vote low accuracy. Odd. Take those with a grain of salt unless the [[Use Discussion Pages on wikiHow|discussion]] demonstrates real evidence of inaccuracy.
#*The title of the article uses words such as "[[Feel Good About Yourself|Best]]," "[[Be More Than Perfect|Perfect]]," "[[Give Ideal Age Related Gifts|Ideal]]" or other absolute terms that no article can possibly live up to.
#[[Absorb What You Read| Read the article]] and the discussion pages carefully. [[Image:Fact Check a wikiHow Article Step 3.jpg|center|550px]]
#*Pay attention to all of the important information in the article. Problems with steps, tips, things you'll need or warnings can all make the article inaccurate.
#Read the discussion pages. Discussion pages very often will contain useful information about potential problems with an article. Some visitors to wikiHow may not be comfortable editing articles themselves and will instead leave notes on the discussion pages about inaccuracies. These comments can be very helpful leads when improving articles. [[Image:Fact Check a wikiHow Article Step 4.jpg|center|550px]]
# [[Use Research Sources on wikiHow|Research the article's topic]]. What you are trying to do with this step is to find the most authoritative sources you can on the contents of the article to determine how effective the article is. [[Image:Fact Check a wikiHow Article Step 5.jpg|center|550px]]
#*Start by entering the title of the article in a web search engine and choose the most trusted results. [http://www.wikipedia.org/ Wikipedia] may be a good place to start first, but you must not end your search there. Look at the references in Wikipedia for original source materials. Find and use these references rather than Wikipedia itself when accuracy is in question.
#*Good sources are people and publications who are authorities in a given field. For example, if you were researching whether you should use a cotton swab to [http://www.wikihow.com/index.php?title=Clean-Your-Ears&oldid=873896|Clean-Your-Ears&oldid=873896 clean your ears], a good [http://www.webmd.com/content/article/42/1685_50320 reference] might be found [http://www.webmd.com/ here] and be written by a physician who specializes in caring for ears. This is a good source for two reasons:
#**The information comes from an expert source,
#**The expert wrote the article himself/herself. As much as possible, avoid using [[Write a Summary|summaries]] of articles; the best references are as close to the original source as possible.
# Compare the content of the wikiHow article with several of the best sources you can find. Hopefully, there are no real inaccuracies in the wikiHow article. If there are problems, you need to correct them. [[Image:Fact Check a wikiHow Article Step 6.jpg|center|550px]]
#* For many wikiHows, there may be one way of doing them that is clearly the correct one. In this case, you should find many articles stating the same thing. Pick the best one and use this as a reference.
#* For others, there may be no clearly established correct way of doing it. In this case, it may not be possible to provide good references for every step; you should still seek as much verifiable information as possible.
#* For articles where there is no clear ''best'' or ''right'' way to accomplish the goal, a good practice is to break the article up to show the various methods. You can accomplish this by using subheadings like "<nowiki>===Method 1===...===Method 2===</nowiki>" or other more descriptive terms. Provide citations for each method.
# Edit the article, remove inaccurate information, add verifiable facts and [[Do References on wikiHow|reference]] as much information as possible. [[Image:Fact Check a wikiHow Article Step 7.jpg|center|550px]]
#* If the article is correct but does not have good sources for its instructions, add the appropriate references.
#* If the article has a problematic title (e.g., How to do a Perfect Backflip Every Time), search for a simpler version (e.g., [[Do a Backflip|How to Do a Backflip]]). Apply the {{temp|title}} or {{temp|merge}}tags as needed.
# After completing the above steps do one of the following steps: [[Image:Fact Check a wikiHow Article Step 8.jpg|center|550px]]
#* [[Clear Accuracy Ratings on wikiHow|Clear the accuracy ratings]] after improving the page.
#* Write {{temp|accuracy}} on the page if you aren't able to make the corrections, but think another editor could. Describe on the discussion page exactly what you believe the problem is.
#* If, after extensive review, you feel there is no way this page could be improved; nominate the page for deletion by writing {{temp|nfd|acc}} on the article and then leaving a note on the discussion page explaining your reasoning and the fact that other options to keep the article have been [[Save an Article from NFD|explored and exhausted]].

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*Don't worry about not being able to find a single reference that provides good information on every step in an article. By using the [[Do References on wikiHow|reference format]] it is easy to show the correct reference for a given step.
*Finding good sources is especially important for controversial articles. By finding a good source for potentially controversial information, you may be able to help [[Avoid an Edit War on a Wiki|avoid edit wars]].
*Especially for controversial articles, try to avoid using references from sources that are clearly biased about the issue. If you are writing an article about how to convince people that global warming isn't real, your best source might not be from a website dedicated to showing global warming is a fraud. Instead, find original materials from other sources that don't have such a strong opinion on the issue.
*The feature to add accuracy ratings was added to the bottom of wikiHow articles on November 14, 2006. Poor and uncleared accuracy ratings may date from that time.

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Introduction
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Ingredients
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Steps
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Video
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Tips
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Things You'll Need
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Editing "How to Fact Check a wikiHow Article"

Introduction A 2-4 sentence overview that pulls the reader into your article. More Info.

Ingredients Food ingredients to add to the recipe. More Info.

Steps Step-by-step instructions that clearly explain how to do the task. More Info.

Video A video that offers complementing information to the article. More Info.

Tips List of complementary hints, tips, and tricks. Leave blank if none. More Info.

Warnings List of cautions and possible dangers. Leave blank if none. More Info.

Things You'll Need Physical, non-food objects needed to complete the task. More Info.

Related wikiHows Other, related wikiHow articles. More Info.

Sources and Citations Attributions or citation(s) to applicable reference(s). More Info.

Options

Add Optional Sections

Edit summary A brief summary of this edit, such as "categorization", or "more tips". More Info.

Meet a Community Member

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Introduction
A 2-4 sentence overview that pulls the reader into your article.
More Info.

Ingredients
Food ingredients to add to the recipe.
More Info.

Steps
Step-by-step instructions that clearly explain how to do the task.
More Info.

Video
A video that offers complementing information to the article.
More Info.

Tips
List of complementary hints, tips, and tricks. Leave blank if none.
More Info.

Warnings
List of cautions and possible dangers. Leave blank if none.
More Info.

Things You'll Need
Physical, non-food objects needed to complete the task.
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Related wikiHows
Other, related wikiHow articles.
More Info.

Sources and Citations
Attributions or citation(s) to applicable reference(s).
More Info.

Edit summary
A brief summary of this edit, such as "categorization", or "more tips".
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