A featured article exemplifies our very best work and features professional standards of writing and presentation. 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) factually accurate: claims are verifiable against reliable sources, accurately represent the relevant body of published knowledge, and are supported with specific evidence and external citations; this requires a "References" section in which sources are listed, 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 policies and other media where appropriate, with succinct captions 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).

1. Prose. It features professional standards of writing.
2. Lead. It has an engaging lead section that introduces the subject, and defines the scope and inclusion criteria of the list.
3. Comprehensiveness. It comprehensively covers the defined scope, providing a complete set of items where practical, or otherwise at least all of the major items; where appropriate, it has annotations that provide useful and appropriate information about entries.
4. Structure. It is easy to navigate, and includes—where helpful—section headings and table sort facilities.
5. Style. It complies with the Manual of Style and its supplementary pages.
6. Visual appeal. It makes suitable use of text layout, formatting, tables, and colour; it has images if they are appropriate to the subject, with succinct captions or "alt" text.
7. Stability. It is not the subject of ongoing edit wars and its content does not change significantly from day to day, except in response to the featured list process.

An A-Class article should approach the standards for a Featured article (FA), but will typically fall short because of minor style issues. The article may need minor copyedits, but it should be comprehensive, accurate, well-sourced, and reasonably well-written. A peer review should make the article a viable candidate for FA. Assessing an article as A-Class requires a formal written review by more than one impartial reviewer.

A good article is an article that has passed through the Good article nomination process and been granted GA status, meeting the good article standards. This should be used for articles that still need some work to meet the criteria for featured articles. The good article criteria measure decent articles; they are not as demanding as the featured article criteria, which determine our best articles. Good articles that may succeed in FAC should be considered A-Class articles, but being a Good article is not a requirement for A-Class.

What is a good article? A good article is—

1. Well-written:

   (a) the prose is clear, concise, and understandable to an appropriately broad audience; spelling and grammar are correct; and

   (b) it complies with the Manual of Style guidelines for lead sections, layout, words to watch, fiction, and list incorporation.

2. Verifiable with no original research:

   (a) it contains a list of all references (sources of information), presented in accordance with the layout style guideline;

   (b) reliable sources are cited inline. All content that could reasonably be challenged, except for plot summaries and that which summarizes cited content elsewhere in the article, must be cited no later than the end of the paragraph (or line if the content is not in prose); and

   (c) it contains no original research.

3. Broad in its coverage:

   (a) it addresses the main aspects of the topic; and

   (b) it stays focused on the topic without going into unnecessary detail (see summary style).

4. Neutral: it represents viewpoints fairly and without editorial bias, giving due weight to each.
5. Stable: it does not change significantly from day to day because of an ongoing edit war or content dispute.
6. Illustrated, if possible, by media such as images, video, or audio:

   (a) media are tagged with their copyright statuses, and valid non-free use rationales are provided for non-free content; and

   (b) media are relevant to the topic, and have suitable captions.

1. The article is suitably referenced, with inline citations where necessary. It has reliable sources, and any important or controversial material which is likely to be challenged is cited. The use of citation templates such as {{cite web}} is not required, but the use of <ref></ref> tags is encouraged.
2. The article reasonably covers the topic, and does not contain obvious omissions or inaccuracies. It contains a large proportion of the material necessary for an A-Class article, although some sections may need expansion, and some less important topics may be missing. The article should be neutral and devoid of original research. The article should include illustrations if possible, preferably free images.
3. The article has a defined structure. Content should be organized into groups of related material, including a lead section and all the sections that can reasonably be included in an article of its kind.
4. The article is reasonably well-written. The prose contains no major grammatical errors and flows sensibly, but it certainly need not be "brilliant". The Manual of Style need not be followed rigorously.
5. The article contains supporting materials where appropriate. Illustrations are encouraged, though not required. Diagrams and an infobox etc. should be included where they are relevant and useful to the content.
6. The article presents its content in an appropriately accessible way. It is written with as broad an audience in mind as possible. Although Wikipedia is more than just a general encyclopedia, the article should not assume unnecessary technical background and technical terms should be explained or avoided where possible.
7. B-class opera articles

   B-class opera articles should contain a full plot synopsis (with embedded notable arias/musical numbers) that is organized within appropriate divisions. The article should thoroughly cover the Background/history of composition, performance history, musical/textual analysis, critical appreciation, and recordings with no obvious gaps, although some aspects of content and style may still need to be addressed. The opera should be placed into context with other works of the same period, and should include an online libretto if at all possible. Preferably, the article should have illustrations, encompassing musical excerpts and audio in addition to relevant images.

C-class opera articles must include a moderately detailed plot synopsis that has sections which reflect the opera's structure and a roles table with the names of original performers. The article should cover the Background/history of composition, performance history, musical/textual analysis, critical appreciation, and recordings; topics which should be informative but not necessarily complete. The article should be referenced to multiple reliable sources but may lack in-line citations or appropriate notes. The article should include relevant external links, particularly to an online libretto. The article may lack illustrations and notable arias.

Start-Class articles on operas must contain a table of roles with associated voice types (though not necessarily with names of original performers) and a basic plot synopsis that is a minimum of a paragraph in length. The article must provide the date and place of the opera's composition/premiere, the name of the composer/librettist, the opera's genre, and a basic discussion of the opera's structure. The article should provide some contextual information in the following areas (although certain sections may be missing entirely and other sections bairly touched on): Background/history of composition, performance history after the premiere, musical/textual analysis, critical appreciation, and recordings. The article should be referenced to at least one reliable source but may lack in-line citations or appropriate notes. The article should be placed in appropriate categories and may lack illustrations, notable arias, and external links.

Stub-class articles on operas will probably contain minimal contextual information, such as date and place of first performance, and may either give a brief plot summary or a list of roles.