NSWiki:Style guide

This Manual of Style has the simple purpose of making things look alike — it is a style guide. The following rules don't claim to be the last word. One way is often as good as another, but if everyone does it the same way, NSwiki will be easier to read and use, not to mention easier to write and edit. In this regard the following quote from The Chicago Manual of Style deserves notice:

Rules and regulations such as these, in the nature of the case, cannot be endowed with the fixity of rock-ribbed law. They are meant for the average case, and must be applied with a certain degree of elasticity.

Clear, informative and unbiased writing is always more important than presentation and formatting. Writers are not required to follow all or any of these rules: the joy of wiki editing is that perfection is not required. Copy-editing wikipedians will refer to this manual when weeding, and pages will either gradually be made to conform with this guide or this guide will itself be changed to the same effect.

Please see NSwiki:Page editing for information on how to use all the different forms of markup — there is much more available than just bold or italic. This article concentrates on when to use them, although the examples usually also show the markup.

Article names

It is customary for the title to be the subject of the first sentence of the article. Make article titles bold in the first sentence using '''three apostrophes''' — do not self-link to embolden the title. Avoid putting links inside the emboldened title. Use '''''bold italics''''' in the first sentence only for terms that would be italicised even if they were not set in bold, for example, book titles.

Links

Free links

The use of so-called "free links" to other topics, for example, [[NationStates]], is encouraged. Use the links for all words and terms that are relevant to your article.

Don't make too many links. For each link that you add, ensure that there is a reasonable amount of unlinked text to make the article easy to read. It is difficult to know how many links are appropriate for any particular article. A suggestion is that if 10% of the words are already linked, then perhaps some less vital link can be removed when more important links are added. Do not link every occurrence of a word; simply linking the first time the word appears will usually be enough. For words that appear first in an article and then in a list farther down, it can be linked again in the list.

Don't link words in article titles; find alternative ways to include and then link those words.

It is possible to link words that are not exactly the same as the linked article title, [[English language|English]] for example. Make sure, however, that it is still clear what the link refers to without having to follow the link. When forming plurals, do so thus: [[language]]s. This is clearer to read in wiki form than [[language|languages]] — and easier to type. This syntax is also applicable to adjective constructs, e.g. [[Asia]]n, as well as hyphenated phrases and the like.

Try to link accurately. If an article you want to link doesn't yet exist, do a quick search to find out if that is really the case; the article may have a slightly different name than you expect.

Never use "click here" as the text for a link (since Wikipedia articles could be printed) — this conveys no information at all. The text of the link should be the subject to which the link leads.

External links

Wikipedia is not a link collection and an article with only links is actively discouraged, but it is appropriate to reference more detailed material from the World Wide Web. This is particularly the case when you have used a web site as an important source of information.

Syntax

The syntax for referencing a URL is simple. Just enclose it in single brackets:

[URL optional-text-after-space]

The URL must begin with http:// or another common protocol, such as ftp:// or news://.

In addition, putting URLs in plain text with no markup automatically produces a link, e.g. http://www.nationstates.net. However, this feature may disappear in a future release. Therefore, in cases where you wish to display the URL because it is intrinsically valuable information, it is better to use the short form of the URL (host name) as the optional text: [http://www.nationstates.net/ www.nationstates.net] produces www.nationstates.net.

Link titles

You can add a title to an external link by supplying descriptive text after the URL separated by a space and enclosing it all in square brackets. For example, to add a title to a bare URL such as http://www.nationstates.net (this is rendered as "http://www.nationstates.net"), use the following syntax: [http://www.nationstates.net a political simulation game] (this is rendered as "a political simulation game").

Some URLs are ugly and uninformative; in such cases, it is better for a meaningful title to be displayed rather than the URL itself. For example, "European Space Agency website" is much more reader-friendly than "http://www.esa.int/export/esaCP/index.html".

If the URL is displayed, make it as simple as possible whilst still leading to the desired page; for example, remove the superfluous index.html.

The "printable version" of a page displays all URLs in full, including those given a title, so no information is lost.

URLs as footnotes

Without the optional text, an external reference appears as a footnote: For example,

[http://www.nationstates.net/]

is displayed like this:

[1]

Position in article

In most cases, it is preferable to group external links together at the bottom of the article in bullet point format under the heading:

==External links==

*[http://

*[http://

As with other top-level headers, two equal signs should be used to markup the external links header (see Headings elsewhere in the article).

It is also possible to include an inline URL reference within the body of an article. For example:

One good example of a cooperative online community is [http://www.nationstates.net NationStates].

is displayed like this:

One good example of a cooperative online community is NationStates.

This is discouraged in most situations.

If an article has used information from an external webpage or it is to be indicated that more information regarding the article will be available, e.g., statistics, picture gallery, essays, etc., on a website, then such links should be part of the "External links" section at the bottom of the article. If the external reference to be cited pertains to only a paragraph or a line in the article for example, then the use of inline external links as footnotes serves as a proper citation. Footnotes can be used throughout the article, they get replaced by numbers in increasing order starting from 1.

File type

If the link is not to an HTML file, but to a file which must be opened in an external program, such as a PDF or Microsoft Word document, a remark about that is useful to help the user decide whether opening or first downloading is preferred.

File size

If the link is to a large file (in the case of html, including the images) a note about that is useful. Someone with a slow connection may decide not to use it.

Headings

Use the == style markup for headings, not ''' (bold). Example:

==This is a heading==

which produces

Note that when ==This is a heading== is used, no blank line under the headline is needed. Extra blank lines are optional, and their presence (or absence) will not affect the appearance of your article.

If you mark headings this way, then a table of contents is automatically generated from the headings in an article, sections can be automatically numbered for users with that preference set and words within properly marked headings are given greater weight in searches. Headings also help readers by breaking up the text and outlining the article.

• Capitalize the first word and any proper nouns in headings, but leave the rest (including ordinary nouns) lower case.
• Avoid links within headings. Depending on settings, some users may not see them clearly. It is much better to put the appropriate link in the first sentence under the header.
• Overuse of sub-headings should be avoided, as it can make the article look cluttered. Short paragraphs and single sentences generally do not warrant their own sub-heading.
• In circumstances where there is not enough text to justify a sub-heading, it may be preferable to use bolded text or bullet points within a section instead of using sub-headings.

For more information, see Wikipedia:Manual of Style (headings).

Capitalization

Headings

As discussed in the Headings section above, only the first word and proper nouns in headings should be capitalized; other words (including ordinary nouns) should be in lower case.

Job titles

Job titles such as president, king, or emperor are capitalized when used as a title (followed by a name), thus it is "President Bush", not "president Bush". When used generically, they should be in lower case: "Bush is the American president." However if one is using the correct formal name of an office, it is treated as a proper noun. Hence: "Bush was President of the United States", in contrast to "Bush was the U.S. president". Similarly "Louis XVI was the French king" but "Louis XVI was King of France", King of France being a title in that context. The same goes for historical offices: "Maximilian was Mexican emperor from X to Y". "Maximilian was Emperor of Mexico from X to Y". Exceptions may apply for specific offices; feel free to add them here.

Religions, deities, philosophies, doctrines and their adherents

Names of religions should be capitalised, thus Islam, Tibetan Buddhism, Judaism. Mormonism requires special care — see Mormonism. Followers of a religious faith should also be capitalised thus Christian, Muslim, Jew. Whenever a faith is used as an adjective it should also be capitalised: Jewish calendar, Islamic architecture, etc.

As per The Chicago Manual of Style, deities in both monotheistic and polytheistic religions should be capitalized — such as, God, Allah, Freya. This also applies to transcendent ideas in the Platonic sense — Good and Truth. Similarly, alternative and descriptive names for deities should be capitalized — the Lord, the Supreme Being, the Messiah. Pronouns referring to deities, or in the extreme case "who" or "whom", or nouns (other than names) referring to any material or abstract representation of any deity, human or otherwise, should not be capitalized, however.

However, philosophies, doctrines, and systems of economic thought should not be capitalised, unless the name is derived from a proper noun. Adherents of such systems, and any derived adjectives also follow this rule. Thus we have existentialism, communism, and modernist, but Luddite, Marxism, and Jeffersonian. Lowercase republican refers to a system of political thought, uppercase Republican refers to a specific Republican Party (each party name being a proper noun); similarly, lowercase fascist refers generically to the ideology, whereas uppercase Fascist refers specifically to the Mussolini's Italian Fascist Party. Capitalisation of Nazi and Nazism is preferred (reflecting the etymology), but the trend is perhaps towards lower-casing.

Celestial bodies

Names of other planets and stars are proper nouns, and should be capitalized. For example, "The planet Mars can be seen tonight in the constellation Gemini, near the star Pollux".

The words sun, earth, and moon are to be capitalized when being used in an astronomical context as proper nouns. Hence: "The Sun is a main sequence star, with a spectral class of G2." However, in a non-scientific context, do not capitalize: "It was a lovely day and the sun was warm." Also, take care that these words are only capitalized when refering to the name of a specific body. "The Moon orbits the Earth" refers to the names of two bodies. However, "Pluto's moon Charon" uses moon as a conventional noun.

Contractions

In general, we prefer formal writing. Therefore, contractions — such as don't, can't, won't, and so on — are discouraged, except when you are quoting directly.

Punctuation

In most cases, simply follow the usual rules of English punctuation. A few points where the Wikipedia may differ from usual usage follow.

Quotation marks

With quotation marks, we suggest splitting the difference between American and British usage.

Although it is not a rigid rule, it is probably best to use the "double quotes" for most quotations, as they are easier to read on the screen, and use 'single quotes' for "quotations 'within' quotations". This is the American style.

Note however the following problem with single quotes: if a word appears in an article with single quotes, such as 'abcd', the Wikipedia:Searching facility will find it only if you search for the word with quotes.

Another example:

Arthur said the situation was "deplorable". (we're quoting only part of a sentence)

Arthur said, "The situation is deplorable." (full sentence is quoted)

Keep in mind that if you're quoting several paragraphs, there should be quotes at the beginning of each paragraph, but only at the end of the last paragraph. For longer quotations, an indented style may be better, as

Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears; I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him. The evil that men do lives after them; The good is oft interred with their bones; So let it be with Caesar.

This is done by prepending a colon to the first line.

Since quotations are already marked by quotation marks or indentations, they need not be italicized.

Use straight quotation marks and apostrophes

For uniformity and to avoid complications use straight quotation marks and apostrophes:

' "

not curved (smart) ones or grave accents:

‘ ’ “ ” `

If you are pasting text from Microsoft Word, remember to turn off the smart quotes feature by unmarking this feature in AutoEdit and "AutoEdit during typing"! [2]. Many other modern word processors have a smart quotes setting – please read the appropriate documentation for your editor.

The grave accent (`) is also used as a diacritical mark to indicate a glottal stop; however, the straight quote should be used for this purpose instead (e.g., Hawai'i, not Hawai`i).

Spaces after periods

There are no current guidelines on whether to use one or two spaces after a period but it is not important as the difference only shows up in the edit box. The page itself will only display one space (unless you use   to force it otherwise). See Manual of Style for a discussion on this.

Commas

As stated by Kate Turabian's A Manual for Writers of Term Papers, Theses, and Dissertations , the Chicago Manual of Style, Strunk and White, and other authoritative sources, when a conjunction joins the last two elements in a series of three or more elements, a comma is used before the conjunction: "The wires were brown, blue, and green." The reason for the final serial comma is to prevent the last two elements from being confused as a unit. Consider its utility in this sentence: "The author would like to thank her parents, Sinead O'Connor and Pope John-Paul II."

Dashes

The use of dashes on Wikipedia is often under dispute. Please read Wikipedia:Manual of Style (dashes) and its talk page for details.