Wikipedia:Make technical articles understandable: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 19:04, 20 March 2025

Revision as of 20:35, 4 April 2025

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* By motivation to learn about the topic.

A highly educated, knowledgeable, motivated reader may comfortably read a 58,000-word featured article to the end. Another reader may struggle through the lead and look at the pictures. A good article will grab the interest of all readers and allow them to learn as much about the subject as they are able and motivated to do. An article may disappoint because it is written well above the reading ability of the reader, because it wrongly assumes the reader is familiar with the subject or field, or because it covers the topic at too basic a level or is not comprehensive.

While a member of any of the audience groups may stumble upon an article and decide to read it (for example, by clicking on [[Special:Random]]), some subjects naturally attract a more limited audience. A topic that requires many years of specialist education or training prior to being studied or discussed is in general likely to have a more limited audience. For example, a topic in advanced mathematics, specialist law, or industrial engineering may contain material that only knowledgeable readers can appreciate or even understand. On the other hand, many subjects studied at an academically advanced level remain of interest to a wider audience. For example, the [[Sun]] is of interest to more than just astronomers, and [[Alzheimer's disease]] will interest more than just physicians.