Wikipedia:Make technical articles understandable: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 20:35, 4 April 2025

Revision as of 03:30, 21 May 2025

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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.

Most Wikipedia articles can be written to be fully understandable by the general reader with average reading ability and motivation. Some articles are themselves technical in nature and some articles have technical sections or aspects. Many of these can still be written to be understandable to a wide audience. Some topics are intrinsically complex or require much prior knowledge gained through specialized education or training. It is unreasonable to expect a comprehensive article on such subjects to be understandable to all readers. The effort should still be made to make the article as understandable to as many as possible, with particular emphasis on the lead section.

==Technical content==

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===Write one level down===

{{shortcut|WP:ONEDOWNONE DOWN}}

A general technique for increasing accessibility is to consider the typical level where the topic is studied (for example, [[secondary education|secondary]], [[undergraduate education|undergraduate]], or [[postgraduate education|postgraduate]]) and write the article for readers who are at the previous level. Thus articles on undergraduate topics can be aimed at a reader with a secondary school background, and articles on postgraduate topics can be aimed at readers with some undergraduate background. The lead section should be particularly understandable, but the advice to write one level down can be applied to the entire article, increasing the overall accessibility. Writing one level down also supports our goal to provide a tertiary source on the topic, which readers can use before they begin to read other sources about it.