:Help:Referencing for beginners with citation templates
{{bots|deny=Citation bot}}
{{Wikipedia how to}}
{{see also|Help:Introduction to referencing|Help:Referencing for beginners without using templates}}
The easiest way to start citing on Wikipedia is to see a basic example. The example here will show you how to cite a newspaper article using the {{tl|cite news}} template (see Citation quick reference for other types of citations). Copy and paste the following immediately after what you want to reference:
| last =
| first =
| date =
| title =
| newspaper =
| page =
| url =
| access-date =
| quote =
}}
and put as much information as you can to the right of the equal signs. For example, suppose you wish to cite the statement
{{pre|
in a Wikipedia article's source text by using an article from The New York Times newspaper. It could be done by editing the article's source text to
| last = Levine
| first = Robert
| date = August 7, 2006
| title = The Many Voices of Wikipedia, Heard in One Place
| newspaper = The New York Times
| page = C00004
| url = https://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/07/technology/07wiki.html
| access-date = January 29, 2020
| quote = ...Jimmy Wales, the site's founder, said that the emphasis going forward would be on quality, not quantity.
}}
The {{para|last}} and {{para|first}} parameters are for the author's name. {{para|date}} is when the article was published. {{para|url}} may be given if there is also an online version of the newspaper article and the {{para|access-date}} parameter is when you viewed the online version. {{para|page}} is for the page of the material needed to support the statement. (If multiple pages are needed, use {{para|pages}} instead.) Unused parameters are best deleted but leaving them blank is okay.
After your edit is published, the statement will have a reference footnote and the reference information will appear later in the page (usually in a References section), like so:
{{quotation|Going forward, Jimmy Wales emphasizes quality over quantity for Wikipedia articles.{{cite news
| last = Levine
| first = Robert
| date = August 7, 2006
| title = The Many Voices of Wikipedia, Heard in One Place
| newspaper = The New York Times
| page = C00004
| url = https://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/07/technology/07wiki.html
| access-date = January 29, 2020
| quote = ...Jimmy Wales, the site's founder, said that the emphasis going forward would be on quality, not quantity.
}}
[...]
{{fake heading|sub=3|References}}
{{Reflist}}
}}
That's it! You're done. Good luck!
{{Wikipedia referencing}}