To write an effective encyclopedia entry, you have to be able to distinguish between the important and the merely interesting, and you always, always have to keep your audience in mind. More often than not, you’re audience is going to be someone who doesn’t know a whole lot about a given topic and is turning to you to tell them why the topic is important. Aim to give them the key facts they need to know to get a broad understanding of the topic, and if space allows, point them towards useful resources to learn more.
Review & Research
It may be helpful to begin the process with a short “freewriting” session. Open a blank document or grab a fresh sheet of paper and spend a few minutes jotting down what you already know about the topic. Once you’ve purged out all those thoughts, look at what you’ve got in front of you, and then spend a couple minutes noting down things you don’t know or need to check.
The nice thing about this process is that the first things that come to your mind are often exactly those big-picture issues you’ll need to tackle in your article.
Once you feel like you’ve got a good handle on what you know and don’t know, start your basic research. Focus on big-picture facts and figures first. You will inevitably need to look up more items throughout the process.
Define & Outline
Writers are often said to fall into two categories: plotters, and ‘pantsers.’ Plotters carefully outline their writing before they even start their first draft; pantsers just wing it.
When it comes to a short, structured piece of writing like an encyclopedia article, I strongly urge you to be a plotter.
I begin with the most basic of outlines: defining the 3-5 main sections of my topic. For example, a biographical entry may look like this:
- Overview/significance
- Early life
- Early career
- Mid-career / Challenges
- Later life
Alternatively, an encyclopedia entry on the Great Depression might look like this:
- Overview/significance
- Causes
- Social and Economic Impacts (Unemployment, poverty, hunger, etc.)
- Response (The New Deal)
- Recovery (World War II)
- Lasting Impacts
While it’s a good idea to look at encyclopedia entries on the same topic to get a get an idea of what they cover, you should plan on offering a more in-depth discussion than a typical entry in Encyclopedia Britannica.
Use whatever outlining method works best for you. Quite often, you will identify some area where you may need to do a bit more thinking or researching before moving on to the next step.
Research
There will likely be several journal articles and books on the topic you’re writing about. Find free and reputable sources that offer offer a broad overview of the topic and then synthesize these in different sections. For the origins of the Great Depression, for instance, read other encyclopedia entries on the topic and find journal articles, books, and book reviews that analyze this topic.
Make sure to keep track of all the articles you read by writing a citation in a Word document or a notepad and then writing a few notes about how it could fit into your outline. Don’t go overboard with notes, however. If there are several different interpretations about a topic –there usually will be — make sure you briefly note this and briefly discuss it in your encyclopedia entry.
One thing to avoid when writing an encyclopedia entry is going to far into your research in any topic or subtopic. There will inevitably be several areas that are contested or uncertain and it’s your job to give give a brief overview of these areas of uncertainty or contestation.
It’s important to remember that you’re primarily writing for someone just learning about this topic, not the seasoned scholar. There is always more you can write about some aspect of a topic, but your job is to paint a broad picture.
Draft & Revise
Once you’ve got your outline and research notes, it’s time to start writing your first draft. The nice thing with a good outline is that it allows you to jump in anywhere. If you find yourself with opening-line paralysis, try starting in the middle or at the end.
Resist, whenever possible, falling too far down the rabbit hole of research or going off into tangents.
Don’t worry too much about the word count or let yourself get too hung up on any one point. Resist, whenever possible, falling too far down the rabbit hole of research or going off into tangents. Your role is to provide a broad overview, not to win a “Most Obscure Fact” contest.
After you’ve completed (or mostly completed) this first draft, it’s time to review and revise. Keeping your imaginary reader in mind, ask yourself:
- Am I connecting the chronological dots in a clear and simple way?
- Is this fact or quote or idea relevant and necessary?
- What can I add or subtract to make the central topic more clear and concise?
Finally, if you’re over on your assigned word count, ask: if I cut this, will it still make sense to the reader?
Drafting is a dynamic process. Sometimes, you may only have to make a few tweaks here and there. Other times, you may have to make big, structural changes. You may even want to pass it on to someone who doesn’t know much about the topic and get their feedback.
Eventually, you should get to a point where you read what you’ve written and say, “Yes, this is it. This is good.”