 | This is an essay on the Verifiability policy and the Citing Sources guideline. It contains the advice or opinions of one or more Wikipedia contributors. This page is not an encyclopedia article, nor is it one of Wikipedia's policies or guidelines, as it has not been thoroughly vetted by the community. Some essays represent widespread norms; others only represent minority viewpoints. |
 | This page in a nutshell: Readable articles are more important than simple citation structures. Don't contort prose such that it's easier to cite, but harder to read. Put the complications into the citations, not the article text. |
Write readable, informative prose, then ruthlessly chop, splice, and hammer the citation structure to fit. If the link between the verifying citations and the article prose is complex, put the complex explanations in the citations, rather than contorting the article prose. Make it easy to read, even if that makes it more awkward to structure the citations.
Sometimes the citations and text correspond conveniently, with each citation naturally supporting one sentence. Here, we discuss the more awkward cases.