Specify the starting and ending point for a Wikipedia reference

mediawikiwikipedia

Is there anything the the "citation needed span" template for references on Wikipedia?

Here, the text being verified by the reference is ambiguous:

All trees are tall, and some are very tall.<ref>source1</ref>

It would be better if the text being verified could be placed inside a template, so that it is clear what the reference refers to:

All trees are tall, and {{reference span|some are very tall.|<ref>source1</ref>}}

Is there any existing template on Wikipedia that can do this (to clarify what a given reference specifically refers to?) The "clarify span" template works similarly, so it probably wouldn't be difficult to create a template that does what I want it to do.

Best Answer

No, this kind of template doesn't exist on Wikipedia, but you can be very precise with the <ref> tags. I give you an (extreme) example:

Let's say we have the sentence:

Bob is a black pelican, with red wings and yellow eyes, that travels during summer from California to St. Louis, Missouri.

And two references/sources:

  • a book from Bill Klinton, I Lost My Keys.
  • a article from George Buch, My Keys Were In My Left Pockets.

You can do something like that:

Bob is a black pelican,<ref name="klinton">Bill Klinton, ''I Lost My Keys''</ref> with red wings<ref name="buch">George Buch, My Keys Were In My Left pocket''.</ref> and yellow eyes,<ref name="klinton" /><ref name="buch" /> that travels during summer<ref name="buch" /> from California<ref name="klingon" /> to St. Louis<ref name="klinton" />, Missouri.

Understanding which part of the sentence is referenced by becomes obvious: "red wings" is referenced by Buch, "yellow eyes" by Klinton and Buch, "travels during summer" by Buch, etc, etc.

Just to illustrate by a real example, just take a look at the article about Wikipedia on the English Wikipedia. Take a look at the sentence starting with "Sanger coined its name", second sentence of the second paragraph.

Do you see how some parts of the sentence ("Sanger", "its name" and "from the Hawaiian word for "quick"") are referenced?

Hope it can help.

Related Topic