Wikipedia:WikiProject Lead Improvement Team

The acronym LIT, which stands for Lead Improvement Team

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.

Mission

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.

Scope

  • 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.

Guidelines