I've noticed quite a variety of varying styles used in our tag wiki summaries. Here are an example of a few (English translation below):
La question fait référence à un mot, une expression ou un texte en anglais.
The question references a word, an expression, or a text in English.Pour les questions concernant l'équivalent d'un mot d'une autre langue en français (ou inversement).
For questions concerning the equivalent of another language's word in French (or vice versa).On appelle usages les règles informelles qui régissent le langage spontané, par opposition aux règles énoncées par des autorités normatives officielles ou de fait. Les usages sont sujet à des évolutions rapides et sont en général difficiles à formaliser.
We call 'usages' the informal rules that govern spontaneous language, as opposed to rules announced by the formal authorities or the de facto standards. The 'usages' are subject to rapid evolution and are generally difficult to formalize.Un groupe de mots qui constitue une unité syntaxique.
A group of words that constitutes a syntactic unity.La grammaire est l'étude systématique des éléments constitutifs d'une langue.
Grammar is the systematic study of the components of a language.L’orthographe désigne l'ensemble des normes qui règlent la façon d'écrire dans une langue. Cela comprend l'orthographe lexicale, qui concerne les mots indépendamment du contexte et l'orthographe grammaticale (ou morphologique) qui concerne les règles de flexion de ces mots dans un contexte de phrase.
Orthography designates the group of norms which regulate how to write in a language. This includes lexical orthography, which deals with words independent from context, and grammatical (or morphological) orthography, which deals with the rules of inflection of these words in the context of a sentence.La prononciation d'un mot est la façon de le dire oralement.
The pronunciation of a word is the way in which to say it orally.Questions sur des mots d’intérêt historique
Questions on words of historical interest
This summary will appear next to the tag in the popup when the user types in part of a tag, so they will be treated to a list of several tags with these summaries below them. I think it would be good if we decided upon a standard format for these things before they get out of hand. :-)
There are several different styles used above. Some start by saying something like "this tag is about...", or "use this tag when..."; some start by repeating the tag itself: "Grammar is ...". There are also a couple there which I would say are too long and are not really "summaries"; a 25 word limit should usually be appropriate.
On the English Language & Usage site, they usually just jump right in to the description of the tag, with no repeating of the tag name at the beginning. There's also no need to say stuff like "this tag is for...", because that's already known to people who know how to use tags. So, for example, the EL&U entry for pronunciation
:
The sounds, intonation, and stress of how words are uttered or produced.
Les sons, l'intonation, et le stress de comment des mots sont prononcées.
My proposal would be that we try to keep our tag wiki summaries to summaries; short snippets quickly giving a clue as to how to use the tag. So our policy should be the following:
A tag wiki summary should be a short description of what the tag specifically refers to. It should not begin by repeating the tag name, or phrases such as "this tag refers to...", but rather it should immediately begin describing the tag. One should also try, if possible, to avoid repeating the tag word being described; rather, try to describe it using other words. For example, the tag for
prononciation
should be much closer toLes sons, l'intonation, et l'accentuation avec lesquels les mots sont parlés.
thanLe tag pour prononciation est utilisé quand on veut dire les sons, l'intonation, et l'accentuation avec lesquels les mots sont prononcées.
The summary should also be relatively brief. It should be no longer than 25 words unless absolutely necessary (and in that case an entry should be posted on FL&U Meta explaining why this longer summary is needed), and it should end with a period/full stop.