User:MichaelMaggs/Draft SD guidance
Draft changes to Wikipedia:Short description
[edit](Only sections that have proposed changes are listed below)
Compare this page with the current guidance
"none" as a short description
[edit]All articles should have a short description (and therefore should belong to Category:Articles with short description), but some article titles are sufficiently self-explanatory to English language speakers worldwide that a descriptive annotation would not be helpful. Such articles can be give the short description "none".
A short description should never be the same as the article's title. If the primary purposes of a short description are entirely met by the title wording, that is a good indication that "none" would be appropriate.
The short description "none" should be used sparingly, and only where the entirety of the title will be reasonably clear to English speaking readers worldwide. Bear in mind that readers outside your own country or culture may never have come across terms that to you are extremely well-known. Rather than using "none", try where you can to construct a short description that imparts useful information.
A decision on whether to use "none" should always be based on the comprehensibility of the words used in the title, and not on the form of the title. Articles should be assessed on their own merits, and editors using semi-automated tools to write short descriptions must never assume that all titles of a particular form ("List of x", say) should be treated in the same way.
To use "none", add{{Short description|none}} to the top of the Wikitext; this ensures that the article appears in Category:Articles with short description. Occasionally, a default value of "none" may already be transcluded, for example in some Wikipedia list articles; that default should not normally need to be edited, but it can be overridden for a specific page by adding {{Short description|Overriding description}} at the top of the page.
"List of x", "History of x", "Flag of x" and similar titles
[edit]"List of x", "History of x", "Flag of x", and similar titles should never be given a short description of "none" purely because of the form of the title. Instead, consider each article individually and try to create a short description that provides the reader some useful information about x. Only if the meaning of x itself is reasonably clear to English speaking readers worldwide would "none" be appropriate.
Titles of these types will often benefit from a similar short description to the one used for the "x" article itself. For example, a good short description for List of Friends episodes would be "Episodes of American television sitcom". It should not be "none", since the term "Friends" – no matter how well known to readers familiar with American TV – will not necessarily be clear to other English speaking readers worldwide. The short description for the article Friends ("American television sitcom (1994–2004)") provides a useful guide to what is needed in the corresponding "List of" article.
If space is short, write a short description that covers x alone: it's not essential to repeat the words "List of" in the short description. You may not be able to gloss every term, but do the best you can while keeping the description short.
Examples
[edit]A good way to draft a short description is to consider the words that would naturally follow if you started a sentence like this:
- "[Article subject] is/was a/an/the ... ".
You can then use those additional words as the short description. So for example if you wanted to write a short description for Stève Nzigamasabo, your sentence would be "Stève Nzigamasabo is a Burundian footballer"; and Burundian footballer becomes your short description.
Here are some more examples, though they can all be varied if the context allows something better. Remember to ensure that your description is short (§ Formatting). See also § Inclusion of dates.
| Type | Notes | Example article title | Suggested SD |
|---|---|---|---|
| Titles that are globally self-explanatory | The entirety of the title is reasonably clear to English speaking readers worldwide | Alpine skiing at the 1960 Winter Olympics – Men's downhill | none |
| Locations | Most locations: "[type of location] in [town/area/region], [country]" | Yiwu | City in Zhejiang, China |
| Indicate the country in the short description, if not explicitly stated in the title. It is reasonable to expect that most country names are known worldwide, though the names of smaller countries may benefit from being explained. If space permits, it can be useful to include the local region, for example province, state or municipal area (those cannot be assumed to be known globally) | Geology of Dorset | Geology of English county | |
| Geology of Massachusetts | Geology of American state | ||
| Geology of India | none | ||
| Person | Most persons: "[country adjective] [what the person is known for]" | Tobi Amusan | Nigerian sprinter and hurdler |
| Explain what the person is best known for. Even very famous American stars may not be well known to all English speakers: a proper short description helps readers of different cultures as well as those who fall outside the person's usual fan demographic | Burt Reynolds filmography | Performances by American actor | |
| Publication | Most publications: "[year] [type of publication] by [author]" | The Color Purple | 1982 novel by Alice Walker |
| Media | Don't assume that popular media titles are known globally | List of Star Trek: Voyager episodes | Episodes of American TV show |
| History of ... | Use "none" only where the entire title would be understood worldwide. Explain words that may not be understood globally | History of Jiangxi | History of Chinese province |
| History of film | none | ||
| List of ... | Use "none" only where the entire title would be understood worldwide. Explain words that may not be understood globally. To keep it short, there is no need to repeat "List of" | List of catgirls and catboys | Human characters with feline traits |
| List of animal sounds | none | ||
| Flag of ... | If the country is stated in the title, and is well-known globally, "none" may be enough. Otherwise, the short description should, at the very least, specify the country | Flag of Norway | none |
| Flag of Mississippi | US state flag | ||
| Elections | "none" is all that's needed for a national/general election, as long as the country is clear. For local elections, indicate the country and, if space is available, the level | 2022 Brazilian general election | none |
| 2022 Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly election | State election in India | ||
| Sport | Make sure the sport is stated, as well as the country if appropriate. Abbreviations should not be assumed to be globally understood | 2022–23 NBA season | North American basketball league season |
| Organisms | Most organisms: "[type of organism] of [common name or description]"
Do not include family name or taxonomic terms other than species, genus or group |
Rose | Genus of flowering plants |
| Miscellaneous | Type of [noun] | Pennsylvania Railroad class H8 | Type of steam locomotive |
| General: "Concept in [academic field]"
Try to be more specific than "Concept" unless that's impossible due to the complexity of the subject. But "Concept" is better than an excessively long description that attempts to define the topic, contrary to SDNOTDEF |
Independent and identically distributed random variables | Concept in probability and statistics |
In all cases, provide what information you can, remembering that your short description is not supposed to be a definition and that it should be short.