On 9/7/07, Steve Bennett stevagewp@gmail.com wrote:
On 9/8/07, Charlotte Webb charlottethewebb@gmail.com wrote:
Except, most biographical articles will have something like "... (born August 16, 1958 in Bay City, Michigan)..." in the very first sentence.
Those are ok.
(I have decreed it thus.)
Steve
I decree them not okay. I loathe paranthetical remarks (of any nature) in the opening paragraph, much less the opening sentence--even birth dates and places (as these will utlimately expand to include what the country was called when he/she was born there).
Why not "Steve Bennet is a Wikipedian well known for his dislike of turgid prose (and, please let me know you got that, I'd hate to waste a good one--this parenthetical remark would not, of course, be contained in the aritlce)." He was born on May 15th, 1559 in Bay City Michigan, to a lost, nomadic Norweigan family.
"Steve Bennet is a Wikipedian well known for his dislike of turgid prose. He was born on May 15th, 1559 in Bay City Michigan, to a lost, nomadic Norweigan family."
Use of parenthetical remarks in the intro paragraph is leading to these streams of other language words so long you can't find the introductory sentence--although they look less paranthetical when they're 27 words longer than the containing sentence.
KP