Wikipedia:Make technical articles understandable: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 06:58, 7 August 2025

Revision as of 07:08, 9 August 2025

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Making articles more understandable does not necessarily mean that detailed technical content should be removed. For instance, an encyclopedia article about a chemical compound is expected to include properties of the compound, even if some of those properties are obscure to a general reader. Often, summarizing highly technical details can improve the readability of the text for general readers and experts alike. For example, a long-winded mathematical proof is unlikely to be read by either a general reader or an expert, but a short summary of the proof can inform a general reader without reducing the usefulness to an expert reader. When trying to decide how much technical detail to include, it may be helpful to compare with a standard reference work in the particular technical field.

==<span id="The lead section">Lead sectionStructure</span>==

=== Lead section ===

{{see|Wikipedia:Manual of Style (lead section)#Provide an accessible overview}}

{{shortcut|WP:EXPLAINLEAD}}

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In general, the lead should not assume that the reader is well acquainted with the subject of the article. Terminology in the lead section should be [[WP:JARGON|understandable on sight]] to general readers whenever this can be done in a way that still adequately summarizes the article, and should not depend on a [[WP:wikilink|link]] to another article. Any link to another article should be a supplement to provide more information, and preferably should not be required for understanding text in the lead. For highly specialized topics where it is difficult to give an overview in terms with which a general audience will be familiar, it may be reasonable to assume some background knowledge in the lead while linking to the prerequisites required to understand it. For reference, the lead for a typical [[Wikipedia:Featured articles|Featured Article]] includes about 20 links to other articles (with a mean lead length around 300 words).

==Rules of thumb==

Here are some more ideas for dealing with moderately or highly technical subjects:

===Put the easier parts of the article up front===

{{shortcut|WP:UPFRONT}}

It's perfectly fine for later sections to be more technical, if necessary. Those who are not interested in details will simply stop reading at some point, which is why the material ''they'' are interested in needs to come first. Linked sections of the article should ideally start out at a similar technical level so that if the first, easier paragraph of an article links to a section in the middle of the article, the first part of the section linked to it should also be understandable. Further, even more-technical sections can often be improved upon by summarizing the main ideas in the first paragraph before going into details.

Avoid circular explanations: don't define A in terms of B, and B in terms of A. Check to make sure that technical terms are not used ''before'' they are defined.

==Rules of thumb==

Here are some more ideas for dealing with moderately or highly technical subjects:

=== Add a concrete example===