Weezerpedia:Please clarify

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Nutshell.png This page in a nutshell: Sometimes Weezerpedia editors will flag certain aspects of articles when they require more context, explanation, or clarification.


The aim of this page, lifted directly from the analogous Wikipedia:Please clarify, is to describe ways to clarify text or request such clarification. There are inline cleanup tags to flag specific wording that is likely to be confusing to the average reader, missing needed specificity, incomplete, or otherwise in need of adjustment.

When you need to flag unclear text

It is always best to take care of something when you notice it, but that is not always possible. You can choose one of these in-line article boxes to request specific clarifications that you cannot provide yourself:

  • {{Clarify}} for any aspect of an article that requires more context
  • {{Date missing}} for any incomplete or missing dates.
  • {{Citation needed}} for a claim lacking proper sources.
  • {{Examples}} to mark individual phrases or sentences which require examples for clarification
  • {{Non sequitur}} to mark individual mentions of someone or something in an out-of-context way, the relevance of which is unclear
  • {{Who}} to mark mentions of a specific person or people that require additional clarification

When using these templates, be specific: mark individual phrases, sentences, and sections in preference to entire articles. Also be sure to leave specific suggestions for improvement on the article's talk-page.

How to mark a sentence for clarification

  • To ask for clarification for a particular phrase or sentence, simply type {{clarify}} (after the phrase or sentence) to display a superscripted tag (the tag will link here):
This is a confusing sentence, which needs readers to apply much energy and time in order to understand the implicit meanings behind it, and needs to be clarified/rewritten.[clarification needed]

How to improve articles that need clarification

  • Explain jargon: Define technical terms:
    • Add a brief definition when first using new terms, like: blog (a web log of journal entries)
    • Add a link to an unfamiliar topic
    • Define extra terms early (such as: Related terms include:)
    • Explain regional variations and the slang of certain professions
  • Could it be shorter?: Some guidelines which often help:
    • Delete extraneous rambling words (especially weasel words and/or peacock terms)
    • Replace clauses with adverbs (to limit prepositions to about four per sentence)
    • Replace longer words with shorter words
    • Split long sentences into shorter sentences (again, four prepositions per sentence)
    • Use idioms, or familiar phrases: rather than "electron flow field" use "electric current"; replace "computer program text" with "source code"; idioms seem simpler: as in "viewpoint" vs. "idiosyncratic approach to the perceived issue"
Compare two sentences: "Notwithstanding the controversy, she, with practiced skill, proceeded to navigate MegaX Corporation through difficult financial straits" versus "Despite the controversy, she navigated MegaX through difficult financial straits" (two prepositions, and note the removal of non-neutral assessment).
  • Add a diagram or photo: Complex text might be illustrated by a diagram. Wikimedia Commons also has over 12 million images, which can be searched (such as for "galaxy"). Even if the image or diagram is not exact, mention extra details in the caption-area.
  • Add a wikitable or list: Multi-column Help:Tables could clarify groups of data; however, simple lists (with colon-asterisk ":*" bullets) might be enough. See: spark plug, with a list of risks/benefits.
  • Make it clear what's happening and to what: A common example is a vague pronoun reference: "Emily was friends with Francine until she changed her job" (vague: Who changed jobs? Pronoun "she" equally applies to both). Also referring back to a list but not specifying the entry.
  • Use specific wording rather than vague whenever possible: For example, instead of saying, "in the old days", specify the time period you are referring to (say, the 19th century, or the 1960s).
    • Similarly, do not reference "now": the word "Recently" or "Soon" or their synonyms will become meaningless quickly. Use "As of" or a specific date.
  • Check your intent: Weezerpedia is a place to inform and to educate. It is not a technical journal. Information from technical journals might need to be reduced to short sentences (four prepositions), because some journals encourage writing multi-level sentences spanning fifteen lines, with sub-sub-clauses.
  • Check your spelling: Usually misspelled words are obvious in their intent (e.g., "Qualty" is obviously "Quality"), however "Tedting" could be "Testing" or "Texting" (or "editing").
  • Make use of headings: A huge block of text can be daunting, but dividing it into sections, and subsections, can organize a logical structure onto the text, separating statements into each grouped section.

Specific clarification

There are some common situations where use of a more specific clarification template might make the desired clarification clearer. A common case is an article citing a scientific measurement without indicating how the measurement was taken. For example, the following statement about solar intensity at the earth's surface without specifying the sun's elevation could be annotated with the following tag:

  • The following tag links to a Wikipedia project to clear bias based on the source of the information:
"The sun's intensity is 90 watts per square meter."[clarification needed]

See also