Wikipedia talk:Writing better articles/Balance parts of a page

Supporters of this rule include: tbc
 * StefanRybo, sjc,

Opponents include:
 * 24 (strongly--some topics are so controversial this is the best you can do.)
 * maveric149 (mildly; some people have lots to say about a single aspect of a topic -- should they not contribute all they can just because the other parts of a topic have not been filled in yet?)
 * 63.192.137.21 (agree with maveric149. Writers should not refrain from writing what they know best because other aspects on the same page are lacking. An encyclopedia is a compilation of information, i.e. the more the better. If someone writes a lot of details on one aspect, other writers should add to other aspects to achieve the balance.  Never balance an article by reducing one aspect.)

Other opinions:
 * Martin -- I think there's a middle ground to be struck here. We should strive for the ideal of a complete, balanced article, but in the process of getting there the article will often be unbalanced - and that's a good thing.

"in 1000 years"? Give me a break! The language of English Wikipedia will sound like Old English to them. Changed to fifty. --Damian Yerrick


 * Will it? The invention of the printing press and now mass means of communication has greatly standardized English. I don't forsee nearly as much change in the language in the next 1000 years as has occurred in the last 1000. It will probably become more technical and internationalized and sure certain words will fall into disuse and be replaced by others but unless there is another dark age in that time period or English becomes a marginalized language, then I don't forsee revolutionary changes - just evolutionary ones. That said I don't mind the text change. --mav 00:54 16 Jun 2003 (UTC)

Proposal to consolidate advice on writing better articles
At present there are many articles in the Wikipedia namespace that seek to give guidance on how to write better articles. I propose consolidating these into a much smaller number. On User:Jongarrettuk/Better writing guide I propose how these could be consolidated. The proposal is not to change advice, just to consolidate it. If I have inadvertently moved what you consider to be good advice that is currently in the Wikipedia namespace, please re-add it. I'm hope that the proposal to merge all these articles, in principle, will be welcomed. Of course, it may be preferred to have 2, 3 or 4 inter-connected articles than just one and would welcome advice on how this could be done. (In particular, perhaps all the guidance on layout should be spun off into one consolidated article on layout.) I'm also aware that putting lots of different bits of advice together may throw up anomalies or bits that people now disagree with (including bits that I myself disagree with:) ). I ask for support for the consolidation. Once the consolidation has happened, the advice can be changed in the normal way. Please feel free to improve on the current draft consolidation, but don't remove or add advice that is not currently on the Wikipedia namespace. If all goes well, I'll add a new Guide to writing better articles page on the 19th, though maybe some bits of the new article will need to be phased in over a longer period. I'll also take care to preserve all the archived discussion in one place.