Template:Non sequitur

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Basic purpose

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 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. (However, the excessively news-style "headline-ese" form, 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.)

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.

Usage

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=June 2016}} → A reference to someone or something that needs explanation.

The wikilink on "non sequitur" is set to Wikipedia:Please clarify.

Parameters

Abbreviated parameter sets

{{non sequitur |date=June 2016 |reason= }}

{{non sequitur |date=June 2016 |reason= |text= }}

Full parameter set

{{non sequitur |date=June 2016 |reason= |text= |pre-text= |post-text= }}

Parameter descriptions

|date= 

This template allows an optional date parameter that records when the tag was added. If this template is added without the date parameter, the date parameter will be added soon after by a bot. Alternatively, you may add the date automatically (without requiring bot intervention) by substituting the template. That is: {{subst:non sequitur}} is equivalent to {{non sequitur|date=June 2016}}. This technique also works if other parameters – |reason= |pre-text= |post-text= – are given.

|reason= 

Because it may not be immediately apparent to other editors what about the tagged passage is in need of clarification, it is generally helpful to add a brief reason for the tag: {{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.

As well as being visible in the source code for editors' benefit, the reason parameter is, if provided, displayed when the mouse is hovered over the "clarification needed" 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= 

The particular text needing clarification may be highlighted by wrapping this template around it:

As an example:

Text preceding the template, {{non sequitur|text=unclear namedropping,|date=June 2016}}, text following the template.

produces:

Text preceding the template, unclear namedropping,, text following the template.

|pre-text=

|post-text= 

One can specify additional text to appear before and/or after the "clarify" tag using the two parameters listed above.

Examples follow:

1. {{clarify|pre-text=irrelevant}}

   will cause the words "irrelevant or" to appear before "clarify" like this:

2. {{clarify|post-text=(complicated jargon)}}

   will cause "(mentioned below not above)" to appear after "non sequitur" like this:.

3. {{clarify|post-text=(see [[Talk:Example#Clarification needed|talk]])}}

   can be used to link to a discussion on the article's talk page; this example produces:

Template data

Template parameters

Parameter		Description	Type	Status
reason	reason	A brief reason for the tag; do not include any double quotes. Default empty Example empty Auto value empty	String	optional
text	text	Text fragment containing concerns the tag is supposed to address. Default empty Example empty Auto value empty	String	optional
date	date	The date the tag was added (this will be added automatically soon by a bot if not added manually). Default empty Example empty Auto value empty	String	optional
pre-text	pre-text	Any string to be added before the "Clarify" tag, such as "?" Default empty Example empty Auto value empty	String	optional
post-text	post-text	Any string to be added after the "Clarify" tag, such as "complicated jargon". Default empty Example empty Auto value empty	String	optional

Categorization

Adding this template to an article will automatically place the article into Category:Wikipedia articles needing clarification, or a dated subcategory thereof.

Redirects

• {{nonsequitur}}
• {{non-sequitur}}
• {{namedropping}}
• {{name dropping}}
• {{name-dropping}}

See also

Related inline templates

• {{Context inline}}
• {{Clarify}}
• {{Clarify span}}
• {{Ambiguous}}
• {{Definition}}
• {{Elucidate}}
• {{Vague}}

Message-box templates

• {{Context}}
• {{Confusing}}
• {{Confusing section}}

Related pages

• Wikipedia:Citing sources
• Wikipedia:Explain jargon
• Wikipedia:Please clarify