![]() | Avoid using markup inside the |reason= parameter, which can corrupt the template's output. |
Use this template in the body of an article as a request for other editors to clarify text that is likely to be confusing to readers because it is a non sequitur, especially the introduction of a name, term, or other reference that was not previously mentioned, and the relevance of which is unclear. This most often happens when material is moved from its original context, in which it made sense, and pasted into an earlier section or into a different page. It also often happens when a source is quoted as mentioning someone by name, and this name is not linked or explained in the context of the Wikipedia article.
It also frequently happens when new editors used to an academic style use it in Wikipedia, e.g. writing "According to Johnson and Xiang...," without the article ever mentioning these people otherwise. It is not Wikipedia-normal to "namedrop" in mid-prose in this manner, even if it's a common form of attribution in journals in some fields. In this respect, encyclopedic writing is closer to news style than academic style: The reader needs to know why a particular person (or company, or whatever) is relevant before they'll understand why it's being mentioned; by contrast, academics in a field probably already know which other researchers are being referred to, and at least understand that the references to them are a short-hand form of citation to things given in detail in the footnotes. Most of our readers do not care about the footnotes, and Wikipedia content is often reused without them, so our article prose has to stand on its own.
This template is not for material that is probably irrelevant (use {{relevance inline}}
), but for material that probably is relevant, but the relevance of which is confused or confusing.
This is an inline template which should be placed immediately after the material in question, as with a footnote. For example:
A reference to someone or something that needs explanation.{{non sequitur|date=August 2024}}
gives:
A reference to someone or something that needs explanation.[non sequitur]
The wikilink on "non sequitur" is set to Wikipedia:Please clarify.
{{non sequitur|date=August 2024 |reason= }}
{{non sequitur|date=August 2024 |reason= |text= }}
{{non sequitur|date=August 2024 |reason= |text= |pre-text= |post-text= |show= }}
Parameter descriptions:
|date=
{{subst:non sequitur}}
is equivalent to {{non sequitur|date=August 2024}}
. This technique also works if other parameters – |reason=
|pre-text=
|post-text=
– are given.|reason=
{{Clarify|reason=What the problem is}}
(this is preferable to using a HTML <!-- comment -->
after the tag, as it is tidier to keep all of the {{non sequitur}}
-related code inside the template). If the explanation would be lengthy, use the article's talk page.reason
parameter is, if provided, displayed when the mouse is hovered over the "non sequitur" link in the article. For technical reasons, this mouse-over feature does not work if the reason text contains double quotes. Use single quotes instead, or use the code "
if it is essential to include a double quote.|text=
a.k.a. |1=
or first, unnumbered parameterText preceding the template, {{non sequitur|text=unclear namedropping,|date=August 2024}} text following the template.
=
}, the parameter must be explicitly named or numbered.|pre-text=
|post-text=
{{non-sequitur|pre-text=irrelevant}}
{{non-sequitur|post-text=(complicated jargon)}}
{{non-sequitur|post-text=(see [[Talk:Example#Unexplained namedropping|talk]])}}
|show=
|show=who?
(the template {{Who2}} is a shortcut wrapper for that particular case).When resolving this template, please note that the excessively news-style or "headline-ese" form of explaining a reference, as in "according to historian Jane Doe", is considered substandard by many readers and editors, especially non-North Americans. The more complete form, "according to the historian Jane Doe", is preferred and is acceptable in all dialects of English. Note also the difference between a clipped reference like "Said Oxford historian Doe, ..." versus the more informative and easier to parse version "According to the historian Jane Doe of Oxford University, ...". Shortening might be appropriate if Doe and Oxford have previously been mentioned in the article.
TemplateData documentation used by VisualEditor and other tools
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See a monthly parameter usage report for Template:Non sequitur in articles based on its TemplateData.
TemplateData for Non sequitur No description.
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Adding this template to an article will automatically place the article into Category:Wikipedia articles needing clarification, or a dated subcategory thereof.
{{nonsequitur}}
{{non-sequitur}}
{{namedropping}}
{{name dropping}}
{{name-dropping}}
Related inline templates
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Message-box templates
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Related pages |