Template:Essay
 | This is an essay. It contains the advice or opinions of one or more Wikipedia contributors. This page is not an encyclopedia article, nor is it one of Wikipedia's policies or guidelines, as it has not been thoroughly vetted by the community. Some essays represent widespread norms; others only represent minority viewpoints. |
 | This template is used on approximately 5,200 pages and changes may be widely noticed. Test changes in the template's /sandbox or /testcases subpages, or in your own user subpage. Consider discussing changes on the talk page before implementing them. |
 | This template should not be substituted. |
Usage
This template adds the page to Category:Wikipedia essays or to Category:User essays, depending on namespace.
Please do not subst this template.
If you place this template on a mainspace article, it will redirect to Template:Essay-like anyway.
{{essay|WP:SHORTCUT1}}becomes:
| This is an essay. It contains the advice or opinions of one or more Wikipedia contributors. This page is not an encyclopedia article, nor is it one of Wikipedia's policies or guidelines, as it has not been thoroughly vetted by the community. Some essays represent widespread norms; others only represent minority viewpoints. |
Parameters
This template has an |interprets= parameter. Replaces "This page is an essay" with "This page is an essay on [whatever you put in the parameter]":
|interprets=the [[Wikipedia:No original research]] policy|interprets=the [[Wikipedia:Manual of Style]] guideline|interprets=the [[Wikipedia:No original research]] and [[Wikipedia:Neutral point of view]] policies|interprets=the [[Wikipedia:Verifiability]] policy and [[Wikipedia:Reliable sources]] guideline|interprets=Wikipedia:Reliable sources– this simpler syntax will automatically link to the page if it exists.
You can also use {{section link}} to produce better-looking links to page sections, e.g.: |interprets=the {{section link|Wikipedia:Article titles#Deciding on an article title}} policy, which renders as "the Wikipedia:Article titles § Deciding on an article title policy".
You can have up to 5 shortcuts displayed. The shortcut parameters can also be named as |shortcut= or |shortcut1=, |shortcut2= ... |shortcut5=.
You can also use |cat= or |category= to specify a more specific category than the default Category:Wikipedia essays or (in userspace) Category:User essays. It can be done with or without "Category:"
|cat=Wikipedia essays on consensus|category=Category:Wikipedia essays on consensus|category=User essays on style|cat=Category:User essays on style
Userspace essays should remain categorized in Category:User essays or one of its subcategories with this template.
Essays are sorted by their page name, or in userspace by subpage name.
If you want to use a different category sort, you can specify an entire category link with a sort key:
|cat=[[Category:User essays on style|Comprise, Use of]]
Additional categories (and sort keys) are added at the bottom of the essay page, as at any other page. User essays can be additionally categorized in topical subcategories of Category:Wikipedia essays in this way.
Display
{{essay|WP:SHORTCUT1|WP:SHORTCUT2|interprets=the [[Wikipedia:Consensus|Consensus]] and [[Wikipedia:Ignore all rules|Ignore all rules]] policies}}becomes:
| This is an essay on the Consensus and Ignore all rules policies. It contains the advice or opinions of one or more Wikipedia contributors. This page is not an encyclopedia article, nor is it one of Wikipedia's policies or guidelines, as it has not been thoroughly vetted by the community. Some essays represent widespread norms; others only represent minority viewpoints. |
Variant templates
To place essays in appropriate sub-categories by subject, you can use:
{{Behavioral essay}}
| This is an essay on the conduct policy. It contains the advice or opinions of one or more Wikipedia contributors. This page is not an encyclopedia article, nor is it one of Wikipedia's policies or guidelines, as it has not been thoroughly vetted by the community. Some essays represent widespread norms; others only represent minority viewpoints. |
{{Civility essay}}
| This is an essay on civility. It contains the advice or opinions of one or more Wikipedia contributors. This page is not an encyclopedia article, nor is it one of Wikipedia's policies or guidelines, as it has not been thoroughly vetted by the community. Some essays represent widespread norms; others only represent minority viewpoints. |
{{Deletion essay}}
| This is an essay on the deletion policy. It contains the advice or opinions of one or more Wikipedia contributors. This page is not an encyclopedia article, nor is it one of Wikipedia's policies or guidelines, as it has not been thoroughly vetted by the community. Some essays represent widespread norms; others only represent minority viewpoints. |
{{Notability essay}}
| This is an essay on notability. It contains the advice or opinions of one or more Wikipedia contributors. This page is not an encyclopedia article, nor is it one of Wikipedia's policies or guidelines, as it has not been thoroughly vetted by the community. Some essays represent widespread norms; others only represent minority viewpoints. |
{{Template essay}}
| This is an essay on the template namespace. It contains the advice or opinions of one or more Wikipedia contributors. This page is not an encyclopedia article, nor is it one of Wikipedia's policies or guidelines, as it has not been thoroughly vetted by the community. Some essays represent widespread norms; others only represent minority viewpoints. |
{{Orphaned essay}}
 | This essay is currently orphaned. Few or no project pages link to this page. This may result in the page having low readership and little or no improvement. Please help by introducing links to this page from other related project pages. |
| This essay is in development. It contains the advice or opinions of one or more Wikipedia contributors. Essays may represent widespread norms or minority viewpoints. Consider these views with discretion, especially since this page is still under construction. |
The following templates are available to WikiProjects for clarifying the distinction between WikiProject guidance and other essays and information pages:
 | This is an essay on article content. It contains the advice and/or opinions of one or more WikiProjects on how the content policies may be interpreted within their area of interest. This information is not a formal Wikipedia policy or guideline, as it has not been thoroughly vetted by the community. |
| This is an essay on notability. It contains the advice and/or opinions of one or more WikiProjects on how notability may be interpreted within their area of interest. This information is not a formal Wikipedia policy or guideline, as it has not been thoroughly vetted by the community. |
| This is an essay on style. It contains the advice and/or opinions of one or more WikiProjects on how to format and present article content within their area of interest. This information is not a formal Wikipedia policy or guideline, as it has not been thoroughly vetted by the community. |
See also
Alternatives
{{Information page}}– the banner template for pages that are more just informational and non-opinionated like WP:GOV.{{Wikipedia how-to}}– the banner template for pages that are more directly instructional and non-opinionated like H:EDIT.{{Supplement|interprets=}}– to tag a well-established page that adds something to a policy or guideline, to make up for a deficiency, and when it is referenced in the guideline or policy; e.g.: WP:BRD.- Wikipedia:Template index/Wikipedia namespace – for more examples of related templates.
Article notice
{{Essay-like}}– designed for the main namespace, not "Wikipedia:" namespace; use if an article reads like an essay.
Talk pages
{{WikiProject Essays}}– for talk pages of essays.
Data
- Wikipedia:WikiProject Wikipedia essays/Assessment/Links – list of essays sorted by impact score]]