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Part of the Style and How-to Series

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 Wikipedia will be easier to read and easier to use, not to mention easier to write and easier to edit. In this regard the following quote from the authoritative 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 be gradually made to conform with this guide.

Please see Wikipedia:How to edit a page 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.

Please see Wikipedia: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.

Article names

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

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. For dates like 25 March, wikify every time so that the date preference of the reader will be used.

See also Wikipedia:Make only links relevant to the context

Links that follow the Wikipedia naming conventions are much more likely to lead to existing articles, and, if there is not yet an article about that subject, good links 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.

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.

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://.

See also Wikipedia:External links.

You can add a title to an external link by supplying a text after the URL separated by a space. For example, this is a bare URL:

[http://en.wikipedia.org an open-source encyclopedia]

Now a title has been added:

an open-source encyclopedia

Some URLs are ugly and uninformative; then it is better if not the URL but a meaningful title is displayed. For example:

European Space Agency website

is much more reader-friendly than

http://www.esa.int/export/esaCP/index.html

and if the URL is displayed, make it as simple as gives the desired page, e.g. remove 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://en.wikipedia.org]

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 under the heading:

==External links==

As with other top-level headers, two equal signs should be used to markup the external links header (see Headlines 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 the [http://en.wikipedia.org Wikipedia, an open-source encyclopedia].

is displayed like this:

One good example of a cooperative online community is the Wikipedia, an open-source encyclopedia.

Foreign-language sites

Under most circumstances, it is not particularly useful to list URLs to webpages in languages other than English under External links. However, if you feel it is necessary, include the URL but indicate what language the site is in parentheses after the listing. For example:

  • El País, newspaper from Madrid (in Spanish)

Note: At present, without brackets, URLs are presented as is:

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:

File type

If the link is not to a html file, but to a file of e.g. type PDF or jpg, 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

This is a heading

Note that when ==This is a heading== is used, no blank line under the headline is needed. Extra blank lines should be removed, since formatting is an issue for the Wikipedia style sheet, not the way you write 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 these 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

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" 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 together, except, obviously, when it starts a sentence. Again, when being used generically (i.e., 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.)

British versus American casing

Remember also, American English tends to lowercase most titles except in the most formal settings, while British English uses capitals far more widely. Most American Manuals of Style follow American English, or what is sometimes called American International English usage (the form used in the print media, which combines US capitalisation with British English spelling). Many manuals endorse forms of English frowned upon by teachers of British English, who criticise what is sometimes called the 'Americanisation of English'. Cultural clashes over grammar, spelling and capitalisation/capitalization are a common experience on Wikipedia. Remember that millions of people may have been taught to use a different form of English than yours, including different spellings, grammatical constructions or capitalisation. If possible, as with spelling, use capitalization rules appropriate to the cultural and linguistic context. In other words, do not enforce American capitalization rules on pages to do with non-American topics. Neither should one rigidly enforce British capitalisation rules on pages that are concerned with American topics. In addition, one should remember that sub-categories of English also exist; for example, within British English, one finds Hiberno-English and Indian-English, etc.

Religions, philosophies, doctrines and their adherents

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

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.

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 (when trying this out with the example mentioned, remember that this article is in the Wikipedia 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":

‘ ’ “ ” `

The "backtick" (`) is also used as a diacritical mark to indicate a glottal stop; however the straight quote should be used for this purpose as well (e.g., Hawai'i, not Hawai`i). 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"! [2]

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 Wikipedia talk:Manual of Style (spaces after a period) for a discussion on this.

Commas

As stated by Turabian, 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

Wikipedia should use standard rules of English punctuation for dashes. However, some current or future automated Wiki tools make it important to understand how to represent these dashes.

The use of dashes is currently disputed. True dashes convey semantic meaning the hyphen lacks, and some feel it makes the rendered text easier to read. However, the necessity of using HTML entities makes the wiki markup more difficult to read, and these do not display consistently in all browsers. (Please see the talk page.)

  • The Hyphen or more accurately hyphen-minus (-) is the shortest dash-like character visually. Traditionally, this was used only for hyphenating words, creating line breaks, or to function as the minus sign. For historic reasons it is the only dash-like character on the keyboard. Dashes have been implemented in various ways, that do not display consistently in all software, leading the hyphen to be used in place of dashes.
  • The Minus Sign (−, −) is designed to be the same width and height as a plus or equals sign, and should be used in non-TeX equations or to designate negative numbers. It is supported in almost all browsers, and can be used in Wikipedia. It can't be typed directly into Wikipedia as it is not present on the keyboard. It is possible to use the HTML entity − or the numeric form −.
  • The En Dash (–, –): This is slightly longer than the hyphen and figure dash, and about half the width of an em dash. It indicates duration, such as when you could substitute the word "to" (as in a range of dates). An en dash placed between numbers or in compounds does not have spaces around it: for example pre–World War II period, Ages 7–77. Some writers, however, prefer to place a space on either side in complex ranges: for example, 1 January 2003 – 31 December 2004. It is supported in almost all browsers, and can be used in Wikipedia. It can be typed with the HTML entity – or the numeric forms, – or –.
  • The Em Dash (—, —): As a rule, the em dash is twice as long as the en dash, and about the length of the capital M in any particular font. The em dash is used in much the way a colon or set of parentheses is used: it can show an abrupt change in thought or be used where a period is too strong and a comma too weak. An em dash can have spaces on either side or not, depending on the writer's preference or in-house style rules; and some writers prefer to use the en dash (spaced) for this parenthetical use. It is supported in almost all browsers, and can be used in Wikipedia. It can be typed with the HTML entity — or the numeric form, — or —. Historically a double hyphen (--) was used to represent an em dash because on a typewriter the hyphens tend to connect, creating a dash in appearance, but since this is almost never the case in ASCII do not use this.
  • The Figure Dash (‒) should not be used on Wikipedia. It is slightly longer than the hyphen, usually the same length as the en dash. It is the same width as a number, and is used in telephone numbers, to indicate a missing value in numeric data, etc. It can be typed with the numeric form ‒. Since browser support for it is lacking, use a hyphen in the Wikipedia instead.
  • The quotation dash (―) should not be used on Wikipedia. This dash is used to introduce quoted text. If rendered at all, in most fonts it is rendered identically to the em dash. Since browser support for it is nearly nonexistent, in Wikipedia use the em dash instead. It can be typed only with the numeric form, &#x2015.

The following are not dashes:

See also Dash (punctuation) for detailed discussion of use and more dashes.

Scientific style

Sections

Introduction

All articles should have the title or subject in bold in the first line and sometimes also in italic if that word of phrase is normally in italic too; see Wikipedia:Manual of Style (titles). The title or subject can almost always be made part of the first sentence, but some articles simply have names.

  • The Pythagorean theorem is named for and attributed to the 6th century BC Greek philosopher and mathematician Pythagoras
    • The '''Pythagorean theorem''' is named for and attributed to the [[6th century BC]] Greek philosopher and mathematician [[Pythagoras]]
  • Tom and Jerry -- Pairing of names from Pierce Egan's Life in London
    • '''Tom and Jerry''' -- Pairing of names from [[Pierce Egan]]'s ''Life in London''

If the subject of the article has more than one name, each new form of the name should be in bold on its first appearance.

  • Sodium hydroxide (NaOH), also known as caustic soda or lye
    • '''Sodium hydroxide''' ([[sodium|Na]][[oxygen|O]][[hydrogen|H]]), also known as '''caustic soda''' or '''lye'''

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'''

Lead section

The lead section is the section before the first headline. It is shown above the table of contents (for pages with more than three headlines). The appropriate lead length depends on the length of the article, but should be no longer than three paragraphs in any case. See Wikipedia:Lead section for more details.

"See also" and "Related topics" sections

When articles are short and don't have headers, informal references to related articles that have not been linked from free links in the text are best handled by ''See also'':, with two sets of two single quotation marks, e.g.

:''See also'': [[Internet troll]], [[flaming]]

which produces

See also: Internet troll, flaming

When articles are long and do have headers, if the See also refers to the entire article, and not just a section, it should be a header of level 2 so that it properly appears in the table of contents. The "See also" section should always appear before the "External links" section. Do not add any links to the "See also" section that are already present in the text of the article.

==See also==
*[[Internet troll]]
*[[flaming]]

Which will appear like:

Sometimes, references may also be more formally called out:

Related topics

Sometimes it may be useful to have an explicit cross-reference in the text, for example, when a long section of text has been moved somewhere else, or there is a major article on a subtopic. In these cases, please make the link bold so that its significance is easier to recognize. Example:

The legal situation with regard to circumcision varies from country to country (see Legal status of circumcision).

(See Wikipedia:Section).

Simple tabulation

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

foo     bar     baz
alpha   beta    gamma

A line that starts with a blank space with nothing else on it forms a blank line which may be just what you want or not if you are one of those typists who put two spaces after a period. You can cause a blank line unknowingly if those blanks are "wrapped" to the beginning of the next line.

Usage and spelling

For the English Wikipedia, there is no preference among the major national varieties of English (American, English, Canadian, and others). However, there is a certain etiquette generally accepted on Wikipedia:

  • Each article should have uniform spelling and not a haphazard mix of different spellings (it can be jarring to the reader). In particular, for individual words and word-endings. For example, don't use center (American) in one place and fibre (British) in another.
  • Proper names should retain their original spellings. For example, U.S. Department of Defense and Australian Defence Force.
  • Articles which focus on a topic specific to a particular English-speaking country should generally aim to conform to the spelling of that country. A reference to "the American labour movement" (with a U) or to "Anglicization" (with a Z) may be jarring. However, a reference to "the American labour movement" would be okay on New Labour.
  • If the spelling appears in an article name, you should make a redirect page to accommodate the other variant, as with Aeroplane and Airplane, or if possible and reasonable, a neutral word might be chosen as with Glasses.
  • If an article is predominantly written in one type of English, aim to conform to that type rather than provoking conflict by changing to another. (Sometimes, this can happen quite innocently, so please don't be too quick to make accusations!)
  • Consult Wikipedia articles such as English plural.
  • If all else fails, consider following the spelling style preferred by the first major contributor (i.e., not a stub) to the article who used a word with variant spellings in the article or the title.
  • If a word or phrase is generally regarded as correct, then prefer it to an alternative that is often regarded as incorrect. Thus "alternative meaning" should be used rather than "alternate meaning" since dictionaries often discourage or do not even recognize the latter. For example, the American Heritage Dictionary "Usage Note" at alternative simply says: "Alternative should not be confused with alternate."

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.

Pictures

Articles with a single picture should have that picture at the top of the article, right-aligned. Portraits with the head looking to the right should be left-align (looking into the article).

All pictures should "float" - that is, the text should wrap around them. Although this (any many other things) can be done using HTML, wikiformat is preferable, where possible.

Pictures should be approximately 200-300 pixels wide.

Captions

Photos and other graphics should have captions unless they are "self-captioning" as in reproductions of album or book covers, or when the graphic is an unambiguous depiction of the subject of the article. For example, in a biography article, it's presumed that the portrait is that of the person in the article, thus a caption is not necessary (unless more than one person is in the picture).

Identity

This is perhaps one area where wikipedians flexibility and plurality are an asset, and where one would not wish all pages to look exactly alike. Nevertheless, here are some guidelines:

  • When writing an article about specific people or specific groups always use the terminology which those individuals or organizations use
  • Use the most specific terminology available, thus if someone is of Ethiopian descent one would describe them as Ethiopian, not African.
  • Almost always use terms as adjectives rather than nouns, thus, black people, not blacks, gay people, not gays, adults with disabilities etc.

Sexuality

Avoid homosexuality and thus heterosexuality, use alternatives such as gay/lesbian/bisexual/straight/same-sex/different-sex. Avoid the use of queer (or any term) as being most inclusive.

Detailed Wikipedia style manuals

Biographies

See Wikipedia:Manual of Style (biographies).

Citing sources

See Wikipedia:Cite your sources.

Dates, numbers, measurements

See Wikipedia:Manual of Style (dates and numbers).

Headings

See Wikipedia:Manual of Style (headings).

Linking to sister projects

See Wikipedia:Manual of Style (sister projects).

Lists

See Wikipedia:List.

Naming conventions

See Wikipedia:Naming_conventions.

Proper names

See Wikipedia:Proper_names.

Titles

See Wikipedia:Manual of Style (titles).

Wikiprojects

If you can't find anything specific enough for a particular type of article, see Wikipedia:WikiProject — some of these WikiProjects set out boilerplates for certain areas of knowledge.

Miscellaneous notes

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 Wikipedia_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 Wikipedia, 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. A useful encyclopedia is the first goal, but ease of editing and maintenance of that encyclopedia is right behind it.

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

Further information

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.

Formatting issues

Formatting issues such as font size, blank space and color are issues for the Wikipedia site-wide style sheet and should not be dealt with in articles except in special cases. If for example you feel that headline fonts are too large or there should be spaces underneath headlines, these are issues for the style sheet, not article markup.

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