Template:Non sequitur/doc

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 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 ), 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:

gives:

A reference to someone or something that needs explanation.

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

Parameters

 * Abbreviated parameter sets:


 * Full parameter set:

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: is equivalent to . This technique also works if other parameters – reason pre-text post-text – are given.


 * reason:  (this is preferable to using a HTML   after the tag, as it is tidier to keep all of the -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  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 preceding the template, text following the template.
 * text a.k.a. 1 or first, unnumbered parameter
 * The particular text needing clarification may be highlighted by wrapping this template around it:
 * As with any template, if the material to be wrapped contains an equals character ( }, the parameter must be explicitly named or numbered.

will cause the words "irrelevant" to appear before "non sequitur" like this: will cause "(complicated jargon)" to appear after "non sequitur" like this:. can be used to link to a discussion on the article's talk page; this example produces:
 * pre-text
 * post-text
 * One can specify additional text to appear before and/or after the displayed "non sequitur" tag using the two parameters listed above:


 * show
 * Change the displayed main wording of the template from non sequitur to something else, e.g. who? (the template Who2 is a shortcut wrapper for that particular case).

Style
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
{	"params": { "reason": { "label": "reason", "type": "string", "description": "A brief reason for the tag; do not include any double quotes." },		"text": { "label": "text", "type": "string", "description": "Text fragment containing concerns the tag is supposed to address.", "autovalue": "" },		"date": { "label": "Month and year", "type": "string", "description": "The date the tag was added (this will be added automatically soon by a bot if not added manually).", "example": "January 2019", "autovalue": " ", "suggested": true },		"pre-text": { "label": "pre-text", "type": "string", "description": "Any string to be added before the \"Clarify\" tag, such as \"?\"" },		"post-text": { "label": "post-text", "type": "string", "description": "Any string to be added after the \"Clarify\" tag, such as \"complicated jargon\"." }	} }

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