Content warning template in Markdown: topics before the text

A content warning is a short, neutral notice naming sensitive topics in a piece of writing. Put it before the opening text, where readers can see those topics before choosing whether to read on. This Markdown content warning template uses an ordinary heading and a sentence, with an optional paragraph locating the relevant passage.

The notice describes what the piece contains. It doesn't explain why the author wrote the piece or introduce its argument. Its job here is narrower: name the topics briefly and say how they appear.

Placement before the opening text

Keep the warning ahead of the essay or story's first paragraph. A title and a short line identifying the work may precede it, as they do in the example below. The opening text follows a separate heading, leaving a visible boundary between the notice and the piece itself.

Read about .md filenames if the extension is unfamiliar. The notice can stay in the same file as the writing it describes; a separate file would leave the warning apart from the opening text.

The content warning template

Jane Doe, Doe Press, and the essay The Empty Chair are fictional. The example shows Jane Doe placing a content warning before her invented essay for fictional Doe Press. The opening paragraph is only the beginning of that invented essay; the warning describes topics that appear later in it.

# The Empty Chair

A fictional essay by Jane Doe for fictional Doe Press.

## Content warning

This essay depicts grief and mentions death.

The topics appear in the closing passage.

## Essay

I set a chair beside the door and left the room quiet. A pale rectangle of light lay across the floor.

To reuse the example, replace the title, identifying sentence, topic sentence, and opening text with wording for your own piece. Keep the Content warning heading before the writing begins. The location paragraph is optional: omit it when you don't need to point to a particular passage.

Give the heading, topic sentence, optional pointer, and opening text their own paragraph gaps. See paragraphs and blank lines for how those gaps separate paragraphs in Markdown.

Topic names and how they appear

Use a brief name for each sensitive topic. In Jane Doe's example, the names are grief and death. The warning doesn't recount an event, describe a scene, or quote the essay's closing passage.

Distinguish a topic that is depicted from one that is mentioned. Depicted means the writing presents the topic within a scene or passage. Mentioned means the text refers to it without presenting that event or experience. Choose the wording that matches the piece: a passing reference to death differs from a passage depicting a death.

Jane Doe's sentence assigns each topic its own verb: the essay depicts grief and mentions death. If several topics appear in different ways, make those distinctions explicit rather than leaving readers to guess which description applies to which topic.

An optional location line

A location line can name a passage or section without describing what happens there. The pointer in Jane Doe's example names the closing passage. For a longer piece with named sections, a section name can serve the same purpose.

Keep the pointer brief and separate from the topic sentence. Omit it if the topic runs throughout the piece or if a location adds little. Avoid turning this paragraph into a retelling of the sensitive content.

Short, neutral wording

Write the notice as a description of the text. Name the topics directly, without dramatic phrasing, judgments about the reader, or guesses about anyone's response. A warning can remain a single sentence when that sentence names the topics and how they appear clearly.

Keep scene detail in the piece itself. The notice needs the topic names and, where relevant, the distinction between depiction and mention. Extra adjectives and plot detail can make that small task harder to follow.

Naming the essay file

For this invented essay, empty-chair-essay.md names the work rather than treating its warning as a separate piece. Keep the notice beside the essay's opening as you revise either passage. Read Markdown file naming for choices about word separators and descriptive names.

Where Sashmark fits

For Sashmark, now in development, plans call for a desktop app with both a Markdown reader and an editor. Its intended audience has Markdown written by agents.