On 9/8/07, Marc Riddell michaeldavid86@comcast.net wrote:
'''John Smith''' was born on January 1, 1864, and died on January 1, 1899.
Awful. I don't even know why he's notable or what he did.
Born in London, he was a writer.
Sounds like a game of Guess Who. Our present convention ("John Smith (1864-1999) was one of Britain's most prominent 19th century novelists, best known for his Acanthus trilogy.") is much better. Important information first. I think the years-in-parentheses works because the information is important, but it's hard to fit into the flow of a normal sentence otherwise.
The last paragraph of the Article would read:
John Smith died in Tunbridge Wells, England from [cause of death].
No, the last paragraph would read: ==Trivia== Episode 148 of The Simpsons makes a reference to John Smith...
<grins, ducks, runs...>
The more common the name, the more important the full dates of birth and death become. It makes further research on the person much easier.
Sure, but I think it's ok leaving the actual date of birth until the first paragraph of "Early life" or whatever. Presuming it's a long enough article to have such a thing.
Steve