Wikipedia:Source your plot summaries: Difference between revisions

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{{essay}}

Wikipedia articles concerning fiction, frequently feature overly long or excessively detailed plot summaries. While any plot section can be trimmed, it can be hard to know what to cut if one hasn't consumed the relevant media, while those who ''have'' might be tempted to explain any intricacy that arises to give the reader the full experience of the show. This essay offers a solution: '''sourced plot summaries'''.

==Reasons to source plot summaries==

On Wikipedia, editors are not required to sourceuse secondary sources for plot summaries per [[MOS:PLOTSOURCE]]; the reasoning goes that {{tq|it is generally assumed that the work itself is the primary source for the plot summary.}} However, relying on this can lead to [[WP:No original research|original research]] and [[MOS:TVPLOT|overly long summaries]]. Sourcing plot summaries provides clear benefits in terms of overall encyclopedic value to the reader.

===Verifiability===

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===Minimalism===

It seems not unreasonable to speculate that articles about fictional works have a tendency to be written by fans of the work, and that the in-depth knowledge of a work's plot possessed by a fan [[:Category:Wikipedia articles with plot summary needing attention|tends to lead to plot summaries stretching for too long]], giving too much detail. Pieces of trivia and other [[cruft]] can frequently work their way in, and without having read or watched the original, it can be difficult to know whether the relevant piece of cruft is actually important. By referencing sources for a plot summary, editors can check whether a given fact discussed in enough detail to be relevant, or if it's even mentioned at all. Relying on organizations that have more rigorous editorial processes helps keep the information presented by Wikipedia minimal, relevant, and encyclopedic.

==Other media==