Proposal 4b — Joeyconnick (talk)
Plot section edit
Plot summaries provide context for the rest of an article, allowing a reader who has not seen the work to understand what is meant in further sections—such as "Production" or "Reception"—that comment on the plot. Therefore, this section should be the first in an article, or at least as close to the start of the article as possible. In addition to "Plot", other appropriate headings for this section may be "Premise", "Format", "Gameplay", or "Overview."
Per WP:PSTS, plot summaries may be sourced from the works themselves, as long as only basic descriptions are given: do not "analyze, evaluate, interpret, or synthesize material found in a primary source". Exceptions to this rule include upcoming or "lost" episodes which are not available to the public to verify, for which editors are required to use secondary sources. A plot summary may only be included if an article has further commentary on the work; it will otherwise violate U.S. copyright laws, and therefore will not meet Wikipedia's non-free content policy. For instance, just having a plot summary is not allowed, but using a plot summary to establish context for some production and reception information is allowed. Likewise, plot summaries that are accompanied by this commentary but are copied directly from official sources will also violate Wikipedia's copyright policies, unless these summaries can be verified to be public domain or licensed compatibly with Wikipedia. Essentially, all plot summaries must be written in original language, giving only a basic description of the work, and accompanied by further commentary and information throughout the rest of the article. To ensure the plot summary is just a "basic description", avoid minutiae like dialogue, scene-by-scene breakdowns, individual jokes, and technical detail.
Also note that per Wikipedia's content disclaimer and guideline on spoilers, all of an episode's important events should be outlined without censoring details considered spoilers, and without using disclaimers or warnings in the article: in short, Wikipedia contains spoilers; please respect this guideline.
[filler paragraph to better line up changes—will not actually appear in final text]
Regarding summary lengths, plot summaries for series articles should ideally use Template:Episode table and Template:Episode list to give the plot of each episode in 200 words or less. If appropriate for the specific series, the plot section could consist of a prose summary of 500 words or less per season instead. An article should not have both episode tables and prose summaries. If the plot summary is split off from the series page, to a separate list of episodes (such as The Blacklist) or individual season articles (such as Monk), then it should be replaced at the main article with a simple overview or premise section that allocates around 100 words per season (much like a logline for each season but written in original, non-copyrighted language). This may lead to articles about long-running series having quite long premise sections; it is highly recommended that these be shortened as much as possible, as these sections should be brief overviews that avoid redundancy with the more detailed plot summaries that have been split off. Again, plot summaries moved to individual season articles should consist of either an episode table with 200 words or less per episode, or a prose summary with 500 words or less for the season, not both. Separate episode articles should have a prose plot summary of 400 words or less. In the lead of all TV articles, a brief line or two on the plot should be added as well, usually a non-copyrighted logline or preview summary. See WP:TVLEAD above for more on this.
For non-fiction series, such as talk shows, game shows, news programming, or reality shows, a "plot summary" may be interpreted as an outline of the show's format, or gameplay rules. This will likely be enough for such shows as news programming or talk shows. However, some non-scripted reality series, for example, may require similar summaries as scripted series, in which case they should follow the guidelines in the paragraph above.