Editing Help:Edit summary (section)

==How to write an edit summary==
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* ''Summarize''. Summarize the change, even if only briefly; even a short summary is better than no summary. 
* ''Explain''. Give reasons for the change, if you think other editors may be unclear as to why you made it. If you believe a Wikipedia policy or guideline justifies the change then you may include a link to it in your explanation. 
* ''Abbreviations''. Abbreviations should be used with care. They can be confusing for new contributors. For an explanation of some commonly used abbreviations, see this [[WP:ESL|edit summary legend]].
* ''Expand on important information''. Readers who see only the summary might not get the entire picture. Prevent misunderstanding: If an edit requires more explanation than will fit in the summary box, post a comment to the article's [[WP:TALK|talk page]] to give more information, and include "see talk" or "see discussion page" in the edit summary.
** If you are [[Wikipedia:Copying within Wikipedia|copying text within Wikipedia]], you must at least put a link to the source page in the edit summary at the destination page.
* ''Talk pages''. When editing [[WP:TALKPAGE|talk pages]], consider reflecting the gist of your comment in the edit summary; this allows users to check Recent changes, Page history and User contributions (see below) very efficiently. 

=== What to avoid in edit summaries ===
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* ''Avoid misleading summaries''. Mentioning one change but not another one can be misleading to someone who finds the other one more important. You could add something like "and misc." to cover the other changes.
* ''Avoid vagueness''. While edit summaries can be terse, they should still be specific. Providing an edit summary similar to "I made some changes" is functionally equivalent to not providing a summary at all.
* ''Avoid long summaries''. Edit summaries are not for explaining every detail, writing essays about "the truth", or long-winded arguments with fellow editors. For discussions, you should use the talk page.
* ''Avoid inappropriate summaries''. You should explain your edits, but without being overly critical or harsh when editing or reverting others' work. This may be perceived as [[WP:INCIVILITY|uncivil]], and cause resentment or conflict. Explain what you changed, citing the relevant policies, guidelines, or principles of good writing, but do not target others in a way that may come across as a [[WP:No personal attacks|personal attack]].
* ''Avoid incivility. ''Snide comments, personal remarks about editors, and other aggressive edit summaries are explicit [[WP:Civility#Edit summary dos and don'ts|edit-summary "don'ts"]] of the Wikipedia [[WP:CIVIL|Civility policy]].
'''Warning''': be careful of what you write in edit summaries. Inappropriate edit summaries may be used as evidence against you in behavioral complaints. This applies particularly to uncivil and deliberately misleading edit summaries.

===Use of edit summaries in disputes===
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Proper use of edit summaries is critical to resolving [[Wikipedia:Dispute resolution|content disputes]]. Edit summaries should accurately and succinctly summarize the nature of the edit, especially if it could be controversial. If the edit involves [[Help:Reverting|reverting previous changes]], it should be marked as a revert ("rv") in the edit summary.

Avoid using edit summaries to carry on debates or negotiation over the content. This creates an atmosphere where the only way to carry on discussion is to revert other editors! If you notice this happening, start a section on the talk page and place your comments there. This keeps discussions and debates away from the article page itself. For example:

:''reverted edits by [[User:Example]], see talk for rationale''

As with any other Wikipedia space, [[WP:NPA|do not express opinions of other users]] in edit summaries.

===Fixing===
After you publish the page, ''you cannot change the edit summary'', so be careful with it, particularly if you are in a heated content dispute&nbsp;– do not write things you will regret.

If you make an important omission or error in an edit summary, you can correct this by making a [[Help:Dummy edit|dummy edit]] (a change in the page with no visible effects), and adding further information in the dummy edit's summary.

In the extreme case of an edit summary containing certain kinds of harmful content, the summary can be deleted on request. They may be removed from public view by [[WP:ADMIN|administrators]] using [[WP:REVDEL|revision deletion]]; such edit summaries remain visible to administrators. In even more limited circumstances, the entire edit may be [[WP:OVERSIGHT|oversighted]], leaving it and its edit summary visible only to the handful of users with the Oversight permission.