A featured article exemplifies our very best work and is distinguished by professional standards of writing, presentation and sourcing. In addition to meeting the requirements for all Wikipedia articles, it has the following attributes.

1. It is—
• (a) well-written: its prose is engaging, even brilliant, and of a professional standard;
• (b) comprehensive: it neglects no major facts or details and places the subject in context;
• (c) well-researched: it is a thorough and representative survey of the relevant literature on the topic. Claims are verifiable against high-quality reliable sources and are supported with citations; this requires a "References" section that lists these sources, complemented by inline citations where appropriate;
• (d) neutral: it presents views fairly and without bias; and
• (e) stable: it is not subject to ongoing edit wars and its content does not change significantly from day to day, except in response to the featured article process.
2. It follows the style guidelines, including the provision of—
• (a) a lead: a concise lead section that summarizes the topic and prepares the reader for the detail in the subsequent sections;
• (b) appropriate structure: a system of hierarchical section headings and a substantial but not overwhelming table of contents; and
• (c) consistent citations: where required by criterion 1c, consistently formatted inline citations using either footnotes (<ref>Smith 2007, p. 1.</ref>) or Harvard referencing (Smith 2007, p. 1)—see citing sources for suggestions on formatting references; for articles with footnotes, the meta:cite format is recommended.
3. Images. It has images that follow the image use policy and other media where appropriate, with succinct captions, brief and useful alt text when feasible, and acceptable copyright status. Non-free images or media must satisfy the criteria for inclusion of non-free content and be labeled accordingly.
4. Length. It stays focused on the main topic without going into unnecessary detail (see summary style).

Bysen:FAPath

• Wikipedia:Featured list criteria
• Wikipedia:Featured picture criteria
• Wikipedia:Featured portal criteria
• Wikipedia:Featured sound criteria
• Wikipedia:Featured topic criteria
• Wikipedia:Article development
• Wikipedia:The perfect article
• Wikipedia:Featured article advice

• User:Tony1/How to satisfy Criterion 1a
• User:Jengod/Some common objections to featured status and how to avoid them
• User:AndyZ/Suggestions
• User:Yannismarou/Ten rules to make an article FA
• User:Giano/A fool's guide to writing a featured article
• User:Dweller/Dweller, on Featured Article Candidates

• Smith, Jane (2007). The Book of Examples. New York: Best Publishers, Inc.