Misplaced Pages

:Too long; didn't read: Difference between revisions - Misplaced Pages

Article snapshot taken from Wikipedia with creative commons attribution-sharealike license. Give it a read and then ask your questions in the chat. We can research this topic together.
Browse history interactively← Previous editNext edit →Content deleted Content addedVisualWikitext
Revision as of 23:32, 12 April 2009 edit141.225.64.136 (talk) →See also← Previous edit Revision as of 05:49, 13 April 2009 edit undoMatthewedwards (talk | contribs)Extended confirmed users26,824 edits Undid revision 283452589 by 141.225.64.136 (talk)Next edit →
Line 13: Line 13:


Please try to write in as few words as you can, without using technical jargon. When you must write lengthy instructions, please include a summary of them at the beginning. Try to keep your vocabulary simple so that non-native English readers can understand. Please try to write in as few words as you can, without using technical jargon. When you must write lengthy instructions, please include a summary of them at the beginning. Try to keep your vocabulary simple so that non-native English readers can understand.

TL;DR.


== See also == == See also ==

Revision as of 05:49, 13 April 2009

Essay on editing Misplaced Pages
This is an essay.
It contains the advice or opinions of one or more Misplaced Pages contributors. This page is not an encyclopedia article, nor is it one of Misplaced Pages's policies or guidelines, as it has not been thoroughly vetted by the community. Some essays represent widespread norms; others only represent minority viewpoints.		Shortcut
This page in a nutshell: Write concisely.

"Too long; didn't read" (sometimes abbreviated to "tl;dr") is a snarky reply to someone who described something in an unnecessarily verbose way.

Misplaced Pages editors like to write, or they would not be here. Often, what they write is longer than it need be. Administrator candidates are often judged by how much they have written here. This may be why many of the instructions on Misplaced Pages, from policies and guidelines to MediaWiki messages, could be shorter and simpler, but convey the same message.

It is difficult to learn all these rules before beginning to contribute and new editors can become discouraged when this prevents them from contributing successfully. Some of our core policies, such as the GNU Free Documentation License, are very verbose, technical, hard to read, and hard to understand. Editors will often ignore instructions that will take them too much time to understand.

In the classic words of William Strunk,

Vigorous writing is concise. A sentence should contain no unnecessary words, a paragraph no unnecessary sentences, for the same reason that a drawing should have no unnecessary lines and a machine no unnecessary parts. This requires not that the writer make all his sentences short, or that he avoid all detail and treat his subjects only in outline, but that every word tell.

Please try to write in as few words as you can, without using technical jargon. When you must write lengthy instructions, please include a summary of them at the beginning. Try to keep your vocabulary simple so that non-native English readers can understand.

See also

Notes and references

  1. "Too long didn't read". Urban Dictionary. Retrieved 2008-05-13.
  2. Strunk, William (1918). "Elementary Principles of Composition". The Elements of Style. Bartleby.com. {{cite book}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help); External link in |chapterurl= (help); Unknown parameter |chapterurl= ignored (|chapter-url= suggested) (help)
Category: