 | This is an essay. 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: When writing articles, begin paragraphs with the date sparingly. Instead, condense the text and focus on the main ideas. |
As an encyclopedia that can be edited at any moment by anyone anywhere, it is possible for a Wikipedia article to be written or produced on a particular current event mere hours, or even minutes, after the event occurs. Unfortunately, the inevitable scramble to add up-to-the-minute information to appropriate articles can often result in something we shall call proseline (/ˈproʊzlaɪn/ PROHZ-lyne)—segments of articles that attempt to be (and should be) prose, but end up looking like timelines. Being comprehensive and up-to-date is perfectly reasonable and okay to a point, but proseline tends to degrade the quality of the articles in which they reside by interrupting the natural flow with unnecessarily choppy sentences and paragraphs.