Template:Clarify

Template documentation

Use this template in the body of an article as a request for other editors to clarify text that is difficult to understand. When the problem is not with the wording, but the sourcing, one may use {{specify}} instead. For dealing with dubious information, please use one of the following: {{citation needed}}, {{verify source}}, {{dubious}} or {{disputed-inline}}. This template is a self-reference and so is part of the Wikipedia project rather than the encyclopedic content.

Usage

This is an in-line template, place the template immediately after the material in question, as one would do with a footnote. For example:

This sentence needs clarification.{{clarify}}

The above text will cause the tag to appear inline. This tag is linked to Wikipedia:Please clarify for further information.

Categorisation

Adding this template to an article will automatically place the article into Category:Wikipedia articles needing clarification.

Parameters

|date=

This template allows an optional date parameter that records when the tag was added.

One can specify the date manually. For example, to date the tag in the current month, enter {{clarify|date=February 2023}}. Even more simply, one can simply use {{clarify|{{subst:DATE}}}} to get the same result.

|reason=

Because it may not be immediately apparent to other editors what about the tagged passage is in need of clarification, it is generally helpful to add a brief reason for the tag: {{clarify|{{subst:DATE}}|reason=what the problem is}} (this is preferable to using an HTML <--comment--> after the tag, as it is more tidy to keep all of the {{clarify}}-related code inside the template). The reason parameter is not displayed or otherwise acted upon by the template; it is simply present in the source code for editors' benefit. If the explanation would be lengthy, use the article's talk page.

Other

One can specify additional text to appear before and or after the "clarify" tag. For example

{{clarify|pre-text=?}}

will cause a question mark to appear before "clarify" like this, and

{{clarify|post-text=(complicated jargon)}}

will cause text to appear after "clarify" like this. You can use this feature to link to a discussion on the article's talk page:

{{clarify|post-text=(see [[Talk:Example#Clarification needed|talk]])}}

Redirects

The alternative names {{huh}}, {{what}}, {{clarify me}} and {{clarifyme}} are all redirects to this template.

See also

• Template:Confusing
• Template:Definition
• Template:Elucidate
• Wikipedia:Citing sources
• Wikipedia:Explain jargon
• Wikipedia:Please clarify