Before starting this step make sure you are logged on and you have enabled Visual Editor.
Once you have created a user account you should create a user page on Wikipedia as this is a place where people can find out more information about you and it is also a useful place to signpost to other editors that you are a new user and still learning.
You should also add a disclaimer to your user page so that your edits and any conflicts of interests are transparent. For example, 'I am a lecturer at the University of Edinburgh'.