[WikiEN-l] Re:Writing with our readers in mind

Sun Jul 10 23:19:09 UTC 2005

On 7/10/05, Jon <thagudearbh at yahoo.co.uk> wrote:
> 
> A good example of the difficulties is outlined in today's featured article 
> on the Island Fox. The bit on the main page includes the sentence "Its small 
> size is a result of [[island dwarfing]], a kind of [[allopatric 
> speciation]]". Come again! To find out what that means you have to wade 
> through the technical article [[island dwarfing]] and [[allopatric 
> speciation]] - and to begin to understand the latter, you also have to try 
> to understand [[speciation]]. I think it means - "It is small because it is 
> on a small island", but why not just say that?

On this example I disagree. When I read this article, yesterday, my 
impression was that it was the most perfect main page article I've ever 
read. Very well written, not too long or technical, and small number of 
links that sparked my interest.

A better example of what you're talking about is [[Basalt]]. It's unreadable 
for non-geologists.