Metaweb:Manual of Style

From the Quicksilver Metaweb.

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, the Metaweb will be easier to read and easier to use, not to mention easier to write and easier to edit.

New contributors are reminded that clear, informative writing is always more important than presentation and formatting. Writers are NOT expected or required to follow all or any of these rules: one of the guidelines is that perfection is not required. Copy-editing users will refer to these pages when reviewing entries, and pages will be gradually made to conform with this guide. Please see Metaweb:How does one edit a page for information on how to use all the different forms of markup, much more than just bold or italic. This article concentrates on when to use them, although the examples usually also show the markup.

Please see metaweb:Guide to Layout for some simple suggestions on laying out an article. For event articles, it may be a good idea to understand News Style as a convention for organising materials in a straightforward way; basically, from top to bottom in order of relevance.

Note to contributors to this article: We should keep this "manual" simple and straightforward, with anything TOO hairy (table styles, for instance) relegated to a linked page.

Article introduction

See Metaweb:Naming conventions for choosing a name for your article.

All Metaweb:intermediate pages should have the title or subject in bold in the first line.

It is preferable to make the context clear in the first few words. For example, * In quantum physics, the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle + In [[quantum physics]], the '''Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle'''

Headline style

Use the == style markup for headlines, not ''' (bold). Start with "==" (that's two equal signs). If the resulting font looks too big (as many people feel), that's an issue for the Metaweb-wide stylesheet, not individual articles. Note that when ==This is the header==is used, no space under the headline is needed. Major benefits of marking headers this way are that a table of contents is automatically generated from the headers in an article, sections can be automatically numbered for users with that preference set, and words within properly marked headers are given greater weight in searches. Headlines also help readers by breaking up the text and outlining the article.

Capitalize the first word and any proper nouns in headlines, but leave the rest lower case.

Avoid links within headers. 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.

Caption style

Photos and other graphics should have captions unless they are "self-captioning" as in reproductions of album or book covers.

Captions should be in italics, using conventional text wherever italics would normally appear. * Many elderly Russians are nostalgic for the Stalin era. + ''Many elderly Russians are nostalgic for the'' Stalin ''era.'' * Al Jolson in The Jazz Singer + ''Al Jolson in'' The Jazz Singer

Style for words as words

Italicize words when they are being referenced in a sentence, rather than used normally. Similarly for letters. * The term panning is derived from panorama, a word originally coined in 1787 + The term ''panning'' is derived from ''panorama'', a word originally coined in [[1787]] * The letter E is the most common letter in English.

Spelling style

Either American or English spelling is acceptable. However, proper names should retain their original spellings. For example US Department of Defense and Australian Defence Force.

It is in no way a requirement, but it probably reads better to use American spellings in articles on American subjects and English spelling in articles on English subjects. A reference to "the American labour movement" (with a U) or to "Anglicization" (with a Z) may be jarring. It also may be jarring to find both forms in a single article. If the spelling appears in an article name, you should make a redirect page to accommodate "the other language", as with Aeroplane and Airplane.

Punctuation style

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

With quotation marks, we suggest splitting the difference between American and English 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 searching facility will find it only if you search for the word with quotes (when trying this out with the example mentioned, remember that this article is in the Metaweb namespace). Since this is rarely desirable, this problem is an additional reason to use double quotes, for which this problem does not arise. It may even be a reason to use double quotes for quotations within quotations as well.

When punctuating quoted passages, put punctuation where it belongs, inside or outside the quotation marks, depending on the meaning, not rigidly within the quotation marks. This is the British style (Fowler has good guidelines for this). For example, "Stop!" has the punctuation inside the quotation marks. However, when using "scare quotes", the comma goes outside.

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 uniformity and to avoid complications use straight quotation marks and apostrophes: ' " not curved (smart) ones or the "backtick": ‘ ’ “ ” ` If you are pasting text from Microsoft Word, remember to turn off the smart quotes feature, unmark this feature in AutoEdit and "AutoEdit during typing"! [1]

Capitalization of job titles

Job titles such as "president", "king", or "emperor" are capitalized when used as a title, but in lower case when used generically. Thus, it is "President Bush" not "president Bush". 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" but "Bush was U.S. president". Similarly "Louis XVI was 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". (Reference: Chicago Manual of Style 14th ed., par. 7.16; The Guardian Manual of Style, "Titles" keyword.) Exceptions may apply for specific offices; feel free to add them here.

Remember in the case of prime minister, both letters are capitalised or lower-cased. Except when 'prime' starts a sentence, both are capitalised or lower-cased together. Again, when being used generically (ie, when talking generally about prime ministers) the office is lower-cased. When reference is made to a specific office, upper case is generally used. So "there are many prime ministers around the world." but "The British Prime Minister, Tony Blair, said today . . . " (However to complicate matters, some Manuals of Style, while saying "The British Prime Minister", recommend "British prime minister". A good rule of thumb is whether a definite article (The) or an indefinite article (A) is used. If the is used, capitalisation often follows. If a is used, the lowercase is preferred.)

Remember also, American English tends to lowercase most titles except in the most formal settings.

Free link style

The use of so-called "free links" to other topics, for example, [[George W. Bush]], is encouraged. Use the links for all words and terms that appear in your article for which it could be worthwhile to read the linked article. However, don't overdo it. Do not link every occurrence of a word; simply linking the first time the word appears will usually be enough.

Links that follow the Metaweb naming conventions are much more likely to lead to existing articles, and, if there is not yet an article about that subject, will make the creation of a correctly-named article much easier for later writers.

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 making plurals, do [[language]]s. This is clearer to read in wiki form than [[language|languages]] -- and easier to type.

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 - it conveys no information at all. The text of the link should be the subject to which the link leads.

Informal references to related articles that have not been linked from free links in the text are best handled by "See also:", e.g.

URL and World Wide Web style

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.

The syntax of referencing a URL is simple, just enclose it in single brackets, [full URL optional text after space]. The URL must begin with http:// or other form, such as ftp://. Most URLs are ugly and uninformative, so it is better to hide them. The "printable version" of a page displays all URLs in full, even if concealed, so no information is lost.

Without the optional text, such an external reference takes the form of a footnote: * [2] + [http://www.metaweb.com]

If followed by a space and text, the text replaces the URL: * the Metaweb + [http://www.metaweb.com the Metaweb]

In most cases, however, it is clearer to keep the URL separate at the bottom of the article under a heading like this: * ==External links==

As with other headers, two equals signs should be used to markup the external links header (see Headline style above).

Note: At present, without brackets, URLs are presented as is: * http://www.metaweb.com + http://www.metaweb.com

But this feature may disappear in a future release and 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 as the optional text: * www.metaweb.com + [http://www.metaweb.com www.metaweb.com]

Simple tabulation

Any line that starts with a blank space becomes a fixed font width and can be used for simple tabulation.

 foo     bar     baz
 alpha   beta    gamma

A line that starts with a blank space with nothing else on it forms a blank line, which can be a confusing error, or may be just what you want.

Or maybe not.

(If you are one of those typists who puts two spaces after a period, you can cause a blank line unknowingly if those blanks are "wrapped" to the beginning of the next line.)

Miscellaneous

In a non-scientific context, and with the exception of displaying tabulated data, the words per cent (or percent if you're using American English) should be written out in full, rather than using the % symbol.
Whole numbers between zero and ten should be spelt out in full. Numbers higher than ten can be represented numerically, except where they appear as the first word in a sentence, in which case they should be written out in full.

When all else fails

If you are faced with a fine point, please use other resources, such as The Chicago Manual of Style (from the University of Chicago Press) or Fowler's Modern English Usage (from the Oxford University Press). Where this page differs from the other sources, the usage on this page should be preferred, but please feel free to add to this page or to carry on a discussion on Metaweb_talk:Manual of Style.

Even simpler is simply to look at an article that you like and open it for editing to see how the writers and editors have put it together. You can then close the window without saving changes if you like, but look around while you're there. Almost every article can be improved. Maybe you could add some markup to make it fit this style better.

Don't get fancy

It's easier for you and whoever follows you if you don't try to get too fancy with your markup. Even with markup as suggested here, you shouldn't assume that any markup you put in is guaranteed to have a certain appearance when it is displayed.

It is easier to display the Metaweb, easier to edit or add to its articles, if we don't make the markup any more complex than is necessary to display the information in a useful and comprehensible way.

Among other things, this means use HTML markup sparingly and only with good reason.

For further information

Before you start writing or editing, it is a good idea to read through and understand these documents:

Note to contributors to this page: We need to go over all these and make sure they're up to date too.

Welcome, newcomers is a gentle introduction to the world of the Metaweb.
Be bold in updating pages should define your attitude toward page updates.
Policies and guidelines is the main stop for policies and, well, guidelines.
Metaweb:How does one edit a page will explain the mechanics of what codes are available to you when editing a page, to do things like titles, links, external links, and so on.

This article is based on Wikipedia: Wikipedia:Manual of Style, released under the Metaweb:GNU FDL.