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Biography

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Headers[edit]

Should biographies, to be consistent, have a header called "Biography" that separates the lede section from the body of the biography? I prefer them, they lead the eye to where the chronology restarts with the person's birth. Some biographies have multi-paragraph ledes and there is not a visual reference to tell the eye where to start, if the reader is skipping the lede and wants to move right into the biography, starting with the person's birth. --Richard Arthur Norton (1958- ) (talk) 15:06, 31 March 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, all articles should be structured, including bios. This is a stub that obviously requires expansion, but that doesn't mean appropriate sections can't be put in now and filled out over time. The lede should most definitely be expanded beyond the single sentence it effectively is right now. TechnoSymbiosis (talk) 01:10, 1 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

There is no earthly point in including a single section - the point of sections is to allow effective navigation, which is not necessary in a short article. In any case, the point is that "Biography" is a pointless section in a biography! It contains nothing else but biography. This is a perfect example of introducing sections for the sake of it. Where else, other than some articles on Wikipedia, would you see headers introduced in a four-paragraph article? You wouldn't. They're unnecessary. -- Necrothesp (talk) 09:53, 1 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

There are already two named sections in the article, Footnotes and References. I would propose that the current first sentence be left as the lede, and the remainder of the biography content be put in a section named Life. The table of contents would then include Life, Footnotes and References and would clearly delineate the lede from the main content. I would then suggest that the lede section be expanded at least by one more sentence if possible. TechnoSymbiosis (talk) 01:21, 4 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Further to that, it might also be worth considering adding an infobox on the right hand side, in line with other biographies. TechnoSymbiosis (talk) 01:24, 4 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

I concur with Technosymbiosis. Furthermore, once more sources/information become available, you'll probably have a "Early life" and/or "Personal life" section, separate from other information ("Career?" "Awards"? It depends on what info is available). Qwyrxian (talk) 06:10, 4 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

"Life" is as pointless as "Biography"! It's all about his life! There's nothing in the article that doesn't cover his life! -- Necrothesp (talk) 10:53, 4 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

But it's not 'all about his life'. It's also about the footnotes used in the article, and the references used in the article. Like it or not, there are multiple sections in the article already and proper delineation would bring it in line with other biographies. 'Life' (or variations) is a fairly commonly used section in short- and mid-length biographies. TechnoSymbiosis (talk) 00:20, 5 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Fairly common, but by no means universal and certainly not universally supported or mandated in guidelines (or in common sense). Of course it's all about his life - the refs are just supporting that. Non-argument, I'm afraid. -- Necrothesp (talk) 08:32, 5 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

I don't consider it a non-argument at all, but you're welcome to personally disagree, of course. TechnoSymbiosis (talk) 01:25, 7 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

There is no reason at all to include a 'biography' header in a biography article. Headers I've seen that make sense are 'Early life', 'Early career', and then delineations based on themes over sections of time (like tied to different teams, albums, books, etc.) with the text supporting each as roughly a newer phase. Jnast1 (talk) 19:15, 15 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

"There is no reason at all to include a 'biography' header in a biography article. " This discussion has popped up regularly, with the same arguments and counterargulents all the time. Contrary to what you claim, there may be very good reasons, e.g. the distinction for an artist between his "biography", "bibliography", "influence", etcetera. Fram (talk) 12:51, 22 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Those are reasons to include "bibliography", "influence", etcetera. but not biography. On a list article do we use section header "list"? I'm sure there are other examples. A biography article means the entire page is a part of the biography, including the sources. Jnast1 (talk) 00:07, 24 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

This[edit]

Sir Malcolm Stevenson KCMG (15 March 1878–27 November 1927) was a British colonial administrator. ...

Biography[edit]

Stevenson was born in Lisburn, Ireland, and educated at Trinity College, Dublin,

==================[edit]

Or this[edit]

Sir Malcolm Stevenson KCMG (15 March 1878–27 November 1927) was a British colonial administrator.

Stevenson was born in Lisburn, Ireland, and educated at Trinity College, Dublin,