Talk: Duration
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What is this article about? Could context be given? -- Tarquin 18:00 Jan 2, 2003 (UTC)
- Please make your notion of context reproducible for Wikipedia:Wikipedia. Since the article is about duration (its definition; in my view especially with applicability to Wikipedia:Physics), how ought to be deterimined whether context may be given to this notion (e.g. as opposed to the notion of duration having to give context to the supposed notion of context)?
- Best regards, Frank W ~@) R, Jan. 4, 2003
- p.s.
- In my view, the This_Page:Style appears somewhat unlike what Wikipedia:Style observes generally. (Sorry, it was my first attempt at Wikipedia:how to start a page; I'll try to Wikipedia:How does one edit a page shortly to express this view as well.)
- p.p.s.
- Thanks for your assistance with one of the This_Page:Other_Pages. Is there a general and comprehensive Wikipedia:Subset concerning Wikipedia:How to request technical assistance ?
Erm? Start from the Main Page and go to Help and the FAQ. As for my request for context: imagine that a reader arrives on this page from nowhere. What is it about? In what field? With a title like this, another writer may link, for example from "the film Some Like it Hot has a duration of 1 hour 30 minutes". You must cater for the reader who follows this link too. -- Tarquin 23:10 Jan 4, 2003 (UTC)
As for issuing requests:
- Thanks; yes, the Wikipedia:FAQ appears to contain even single instances of requests, and to be as editable by any one Wikipedia:Wikipedian as Wikipedia:Wikipedia is as a whole.
As for any Wikipedia:Wikipedians who were to link "the film Some Like it Hot has a duration of 1 hour 30 minutes"
- if eventually your example assertion took the form as "the film Some Like it Hot:Some Like it Hot has a duration of 1 hour and 30 minutes, then in my view, the indicated Wikipedia:Wikipedians and Wikipedia:Wikipedia as a whole had been instructed, AFAIK at least to good approximation. Could Wikipedia:Wikipedia carters to readers who follow these links otherwise?
- Indeed, This_talks_about:Referenced_article is mainly concerned with Wikipedia:Wikipedia being able to evaluate whether the assertion which is being linked had been instructive at all, by virtue of involving the string duration.
- As conceived, the contents of This_talks_about:Referenced_article might eventually be subsumed as one Wikipedia:Wikevaluation, in turn to instruct Wikipedia:Physics as well as Wikipedia:Movies.
Best regards, Frank W ~@) R, Jan. 4, 2003
As for Duration constituting a Wikipedia:Wikevaluation:
- instead: a Wikipedia:Wikevaluation may eventually provide that
- Template:Duration will appear (at least approximately) equal to 1, for instance,
- while the commensurate use of Duration in these two particular instances may identify this articulated notion as a Wikipedia:Wikinstruction.
- Best regards, Frank W ~@) R, Jan. 4, 2003
I'm afraid I'm finding it very hard to understand you. COuld you not link so many things in your Talk text? "Duration T is a commensurate relation by which Physics instructs sciences such as Cinematography? and Lexicography." is even more confusing than before. See Wikipedia:Establish context for examples of what I meant -- something like "In quantum physics, duration is ..." and try & give a general introduction of this concept. Assume a reader who is intelligent but ignorant of the subject. -- Tarquin 10:12 Jan 5, 2003 (UTC)
As for
"Duration T is a commensurate relation by which Physics instructs sciences such as Cinematography? and Lexicography." is even more confusing
and
I meant -- something like "In quantum physics, duration is ..."
- I mean "In Wikipedia, duration is ... how physics tells us to keep catering to Marilynistas and to Wikipedia alike".
- What do you suppose Wikipedia means for instance by the notions Encyclopedia, or Chart; and how better to express this meaning than to write
- ṭ ... is a commensurate relation by which Template:P instructs ... (some others like) ṣ ...
As for not link so many things in your Talk text
- Doesn't that make it more difficult for Wikipedia to apprehend what I try to Template:Talk text about?
As for Assume a reader who is intelligent but ignorant of the subject.
- That's my principal assumption (and that's just how I chose to first express this particular article.):Please reference if you disagree|although I view Wikipedia not even as entirely ignorant of the notion intelligence either.
- Also, I've been com--Wiki--peting not even for three days by now ... please bear with me while I still try to grasp the exact style by which the presumed intelligence of the readers instructs them on lasting subjects.
As for (any physicists about?)
- Sure. (and that's just how I chose to first express this particular article.):Please reference if you disagree|although I'm presently not quite sure yet whether and how to explore the User Namespace further, and I've read in passing about IIRC experts certifying certain pages -- I can't even reference this striking presumption right now ...
As for See Wikipedia:Establish context for examples
- Thanks; I found and read through that page. My difficulty seemed to be that it's not returned as an Article when I search Wikipedia for context. Perhaps that's better Template:Talk text about in the Wikipedia:FAQ ? ...
- Best regards, Frank W ~@) R, Jan. 5, 2003
As for in the common sense has a duration greater than zero (but not very long) at the outset.
Since this article is concerned with how to make common sense of amounts to begin with, reference to a nonzero value cannot be made initially.
If it is viewed that (and how) the common sense which is established as a result of this article is relevant in the definition of event, then ought this not rather be described Template:Duration:Not:Event|there.
I view it as essential to make the distinction between Template:Duration:Definition and Template:Duration:Result:Values otherwise manifest; which may not be difficult to express.
Best regards, Frank W ~@) R, Jan. 5, 2003
p.s. I'd even be hesitant at the outset to qualify the amounts to be determined with an notion as ambiguous as time, too.
p.p.s. Is it {| style="float:right" |- |
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|} 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, Wikipedia 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, and pages will either gradually be made to conform with this guide or this guide will itself be changed to the same effect.
Contributors, note that because this document is considered policy, significant or substantive changes should be discussed on the talk page first, or they will be removed.
Article titles
Main article: Wikipedia:Naming conventions
If possible make the title the subject of the first sentence of the article. In any case the title should appear in the first sentence. The first time the title is mentioned in the article, put it in bold using
'''three apostrophes'''. Do not self-link or put links in title when it first appears. Follow the normal rules for italics in choosing whether to put part or all of the title in italics.
Headings
Main article: Wikipedia:Manual of Style (headings)
Use the == (heading) markup for headings, not the ''' (bold) markup. Example:
==This is a heading==
which produces
- This is a heading
If you mark headings this way, 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.
- Start the first word and any proper nouns in headings with a capital letter, but leave the rest of the heading lower case.
- Avoid links within headings.
- Avoid overuse of sub-headings.
Capital letters
Titles
Titles such as president, king, or emperor start with a capital letter when used as a title (followed by a name): "President Nixon", not "president Nixon". When used generically, they should be in lower case: "De Gaulle was the French president." The correct formal name of an office is treated as a proper noun. Hence: "Hirohito was Emperor of Japan". Similarly "Louis XVI was the French king" but "Louis XVI was King of France", King of France being a title in that context. (Reference: Chicago Manual of Style 14th ed., par. 7.16; The Guardian Manual of Style, "Titles" keyword.) Exceptions may apply for specific offices.
In the case of "prime minister", either both words begin with a capital letter or neither, except, obviously, when it starts a sentence. Again, when being used generically, no capital letter is used: "There are many prime ministers around the world." When reference is made to a specific office, upper case is generally used: "The British Prime Minister, Tony Blair, said today..." (However to complicate matters, some style manuals, 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, use "Prime Minister". If a is used, go with "prime minister".)
American English and British English differ in their inclination to use capitals. British English uses capitals more widely than American English does. This may apply to titles for people. If possible, as with spelling, use rules appropriate to the cultural and linguistic context. In other words, do not enforce American rules on pages about British topics or British rules on pages about American topics.
Religions, deities, philosophies, doctrines and their adherents
Names of religions, whether used as a noun or an adjective, and their followers start with a capital letter. Mormonism requires special care — see Wikipedia:Naming conventions (Mormonism).
Deities begin with a capital letter: God, Allah, Freya, the Lord, the Supreme Being, the Messiah. The same is true when referring to Muhammad as the Prophet. Transcendent ideas in the Platonic sense also begin with a capital letter: Good and Truth. Pronouns referring to deities, or nouns (other than names) referring to any material or abstract representation of any deity, human or otherwise, do not begin with a capital letter.
Philosophies, doctrines, and systems of economic thought do not begin with a capital letter, unless the name is derived from a proper noun: Lowercase republican refers to a system of political thought; uppercase Republican refers to a specific Republican Party (each party name being a proper noun).
Calendar items
The names of months, days, and holidays always begin with a capital letter: June, Monday, Fourth of July.
Seasons start with a capital letter when they are used with another noun or are personified. Here they function as proper nouns: "Winter Solstice"; "Autumn Open House"; "I think Spring is showing her colours"; "Old Man Winter".
However, they do not start with a capital letter when they are used generally: "This summer was very hot."
Animals, plants, and other organisms
Main articles: Wikipedia:WikiProject_Tree_of_Life#Article_titles_and_common_names, Wikipedia:Naming conventions (fauna)
Whether the common names of species should start with a capital letter or not has been hotly debated in the past and has remained unresolved. As a matter of truce both styles are acceptable (except for proper names), but a redirect should be created from the alternative form.
Celestial bodies
Names of other planets and stars are proper nouns and begin with a capital letter: "The planet Mars can be seen tonight in the constellation Gemini, near the star Pollux."
The words sun, earth, and moon are proper nouns when used in an astronomical context, but not elsewhere: so "The Sun is a main sequence star, with a spectral class of G2"; but "It was a lovely day and the sun was warm." Note that these terms are only proper nouns when referring a specific spectral body (our Sun, Earth and Moon): so "The Moon orbits the Earth"; but "Pluto's moon Charon".
Directions and regions
Regions that are proper nouns, including widely known expressions such as Southern California start with a capital letter. Follow the same convention for related forms: a person from the American South is a Southerner.
Directions (north, southwest, etc.) are not proper nouns and do not start with a capital letter. The same is true for their related forms: a road that leads north might be called a northern road.
If you are not sure whether a region has attained proper-noun status, assume it has not.
Italics
Titles
Main article: Wikipedia:Manual of Style (titles)
Italics should be used for titles of the following:
- books
- films
- long poems
- musical albums
- newspapers
- periodicals (journals and magazines)
- plays
- TV series
- works of visual art
Italics are generally used for titles of longer works. Titles of shorter works, such as the following, should be enclosed in quotation marks ("").
- articles, essays, or papers
- chapters of a longer work
- episodes of a television series
- short poems
- short stories
- songs
There are a few cases in which the title should be neither italicized nor placed in quotation marks:
- the Bible
- legal documents (examples: the Constitution, the Declaration of Independence)
Words as words
Use italics when writing about words as words. Similarly for letters. For example:
- The term panning is derived from panorama, a word originally coined in 1787.
- The letter E is the most common letter in English.
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 split the difference between American and British usage.
Although not a rigid rule, we use the "double quotes" for most quotations – they are easier to read on the screen – and use 'single quotes' for "quotations 'within' quotations". This is the American style.
Note: if a word or phrase appears in an article with single quotes, such as 'abcd', the Wikipedia:Searching facility considers the single quotes to be part of the word and will find that word or phrase only if the the search string is also also within single quotes. (When trying this out with the example mentioned, remember that this article is in the Wikipedia namespace.) Avoiding this complication is an additional reason to use double quotes, for which the difficulty does not arise. It may even be a reason to use double quotes for quotations within quotations.
When punctuating quoted passages, include the mark of punctuation inside the quotation marks only if the sense of the mark of punctuation is part of the quotation. This is the British style. (A fuller treatment of the recommendations given here can be found in Fowler's Modern English Usage and other British style guides, some of which vary in fine details.) For example, "Stop!" has the punctuation inside the quotation marks because the word "stop" is said with emphasis. However, when using "scare quotes", the comma goes outside.
Other examples:
- Arthur said the situation was "deplorable". (The full stop (period) is not part of the quotation.)
- Arthur said, "The situation is deplorable." (The full sentence is quoted; the full stop (period) is part of the quotation.)
- Arthur said that the situation "was the most deplorable he had seen in years." (Although the full sentence is not quoted, the sense of finality conveyed by the full stop (period) is part of the quotation.)
Longer quotations may be better rendered in an indented style by starting the first line with a colon. In a quotation of multiple paragraphs not using indented style, double quotation marks belong at the beginning of each paragraph, but only at the end of the last paragraph.
Since quotations are already marked by quotation marks or indentations, they need not be put into italics.
Use straight quotation marks and apostrophes
For uniformity and to avoid complications use straight quotation marks and apostrophes ( ' " ) not curved (smart) ones, grave accents or backticks ( ‘ ’ “ ” ` ).
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"! Many other modern word processors have a smart quotes setting—please read the appropriate documentation for your editor.
Characters identical in appearance to left single quotation mark or right single quotation mark are used as letters in some Latin-letter transliteration systems and in some languages, for example to display the ‘okina character in Hawaiian. The characters may also be used in discussions about the quotation marks themselves. If using a left or right quotation mark for such a purpose, to assure proper display on all browsers, do not type or paste such a quotation mark directly into the Wikipedia editor. Instead, use the HTML entities ‘ or ’ or the correponding numeric forms: ‘ and ’ or ‘ and ’. If necessary to represent such characters as letters in article titles, the normal straight apostrophe ( ' ) should usually be used in place of the right quotation mark and the grave accent ( ` ) in place of the left quotation mark.
Commas
When a conjunction joins the last two elements in a series of three or more elements, a comma should be used before the conjunction to prevent the last two elements from being confused as a unit. For example: "The wires were brown, blue, and green". (This is recommended by the Chicago Manual of Style and other authoritative sources.) Consider the comma's utility in this sentence: "The author would like to thank her parents, Sinéad O'Connor and Pope John-Paul II." This comma is known as the Oxford comma.
Spaces after the end of a sentence
There are no guidelines on whether to use one or two spaces after the end of a sentence but it is not important as the difference only shows up in the edit box. See Wikipedia talk:Manual of Style archive (spaces after the end of a sentence) for a discussion on this.
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.
Scientific style
Main article: Wikipedia:Technical terms and definitions
- For units of measure use SI units; see also Wikipedia:Manual of Style (dates and numbers). Wikipedia Style for large numbers is 10,000.
- In articles about chemicals and chemistry, use the style of the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) for chemical names wherever possible, except in article titles, where the common name should be used if different, followed by mention of the IUPAC name. For general information see systematic name, and for organic compounds in particular see IUPAC nomenclature.
- In periodic table groups, use the new IUPAC names: (these use Arabic numerals, not Roman numerals or letters).
- For mathematics and mathematical formulae, see Wikipedia:WikiProject Mathematics
Sections
Main article: Wikipedia:Section
Introduction
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.
In wikitext this would be:
'''Sodium hydroxide''' ([[sodium|Na]][[oxygen|O]][[hydrogen|H]]), also known as '''caustic soda''' or '''lye'''
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
See also: Wikipedia:Guide to writing better articles#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 also" and "Related topics" sections
Mostly, topics related to an article should be included within the text of the article as free links.
If the article is divided into sections and See also refers to a particular section only, references to related articles that have not been linked from free links in the text may be placed at the bottom of the section:
''See also:'' [[Internet troll]], [[flaming]]
which produces:
- See also: Internet troll, flaming.
The above form may also be used in short articles without sections.
When the See also refers to the entire article, not just a section, it should be a heading of level 2 so that it appears in the table of contents. Place it at the bottom of the article, before External links. For example:
==See also==*[[Internet troll]]*[[flaming]]
The heading Related topics may be used instead of See also.
If you remove a redundant link from the See also section of an article, it may be an explicit cross reference (see below), so consider making the link in the main text bold instead.
Sometimes it is 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, make the link bold. For example:
- The legal status of circumcision varies from country to country.
Other sections
Other common sections (in their preferable order) are:
- References
- Compare against
- External links
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.
Usage and spelling
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 from yours, including different spellings, grammatical constructions and punctuation. For the English Wikipedia, there is no preference among the major national varieties of English. 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, do not use center (American) in one place and centre (British) in another.
- Proper names should retain their original spellings. For example, United States 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 (for instance the British "Labour Party"). 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.
- When referring to the United States, using "U.S." rather than "US" makes it easier to search for automatically. When referring to the United States in a long abbreviation (USA, USN, USAF), stops (periods) should not be used.
- 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.
- Words with multiple spellings: In choosing words or expressions, there may be value in selecting one that does not have multiple spellings, if there are synonyms that are otherwise equally suitable.
- 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 and American and British English differences.
- Scholarly abbreviations of Latin terms like i.e., e.g., or n.b. should be avoided and English terms such as such as, for example, or note used instead.
- If all else fails, consider following the spelling style preferred by the first major contributor (that is, 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 "other meanings" should be used rather than "alternate meaning" or "alternative meaning". Some dictionaries discourage or do not even recognize this latter use of alternate. The American Heritage Dictionary "Usage Note" at alternative says: "Alternative should not be confused with alternate." But, alternative is also not entirely acceptable because of the very common connotations in American English of "non-traditional" or "out-of-the-mainstream". Some traditional usage experts consider alternative to be appropriate only when there are exactly two alternatives.
Pictures
Main article: Wikipedia:Picture tutorial
Articles with a single picture are encouraged to have that picture at the top of the article, right-aligned, but this is not a hard and fast rule. Portraits with the head looking to the right should be left-aligned (looking into the article).
The current image markup language is more or less this:
[[Image:picture.jpg|thumb|Blah blah caption]]
Captions
Main article: Wikipedia: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, a caption is not needed for a portrait of the subject, pictured alone.
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:
- Where known, use terminology which they themselves use for themselves (self identification).
- Use specific terminology: Ethiopians should be described Ethiopian, not African.
- Though often a more general name will prove to be more neutral or more accurate. For example, a List of African-American composers is acceptable, though a List of composers of African descent may be more useful.
- If possible, terms used to describe people should be given in such a way that they qualify other nouns. Thus, black people, not blacks; gay people, not gays; and so forth.
- Do not assume that any one term is the most inclusive or accurate.
Miscellaneous notes
When all else fails
If this page does not specify which usage is preferred, use other resources, such as The Chicago Manual of Style (from the University of Chicago Press) or Fowler's Modern English Usage (3rd edition) (from the Oxford University Press). Also, please feel free to carry on a discussion on Wikipedia talk:Manual of Style, especially for substantive changes.
Even simpler is 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 are there. Almost every article can be improved.
Do not get fancy
It is easier for you and whoever follows you if you do not try to get too fancy with your markup. Do not assume that any markup you put in is guaranteed to have a certain appearance when it is displayed. Do not make the markup any more complex than is necessary to display the information in a useful and comprehensible way. Use HTML markup sparingly and only with good reason. A useful encyclopedia is the first goal, but ease of editing and maintaining that encyclopedia is right behind.
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.
Make comments invisible
Avoid highlighting that the article is incomplete and in need of further work.
Similarly, there is little benefit to the reader in seeing headings and tables without content.
If you want to communicate with other potential editors, make comments invisible to the ordinary article reader. To do so, enclose the text which you intend to be read only by editors within <!-- and -->.
For example, the following:
hello <!-- This is a comment. --> world
is displayed as:
- hello world
so the comment can be seen when viewing the HTML or wiki source.
See also
- Style guide, the Wikipedia entry on "style guides". Contains links to the online style guides of some magazines and newspapers.
- Wikipedia:Welcome, newcomers is a gentle introduction to the world of Wikipedia.
- Wikipedia:WikiProject sets out boilerplates for certain areas of knowledge.
- Be bold in updating pages should define your attitude toward page updates.
- Policies and guidelines is the main stop for policies and, well, guidelines.
- Avoiding common mistakes gives a list of common mistakes and how to avoid them.
- Editing policy has even more editing guidelines.
- 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.
- The perfect stub article shows what you should aim for at a minimum when starting a new article.
- Wikipedia:Definitions
ca:Viquipèdia:Llibre d'estil
da:Wikipedia:Stilmanual
es:Wikipedia:Manual de Estilo
ga:Lámhleabhar Stíle
he:ויקיפדיה:המדריך לעיצוב דפים
ja:Wikipedia:スタイルマニュアル
minnan:Wikipedia:Siá-chok ê kui-hoān
ro:Wikipedia:Manual de stil
sl:Wikipedija:Slogovni priročnik
fi:Wikipedia:Tyyliopas
sv:Wikipedia:Rekommendationer
zh-cn:Wikipedia:格式指南/简
zh-tw:Wikipedia:格式指南/繁
|admissable to new mail at the top of the buffer; perhaps at least after suitable rearrangements and Template:W:How to|editing ??
The { and } characters have no special meaning in Wiki markup. So writing "{| style="float:right"
|-
|
|- |
| Part of the Style and how-to series |
|- |
| Wikipedia: Guidance on style |
| Manual of Style |
|---|
| Main Manual of Style |
| Supplementary Manuals of Style |
| Biographies |
| China-related articles |
| Dashes |
| Dates and numbers |
| Headings |
| Japan-related articles |
| Sister projects |
| Trademarks |
| Other guidance |
| Picture tutorial |
|} 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, Wikipedia 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, and pages will either gradually be made to conform with this guide or this guide will itself be changed to the same effect.
Contributors, note that because this document is considered policy, significant or substantive changes should be discussed on the talk page first, or they will be removed.
Article titles
Main article: Wikipedia:Naming conventions
If possible make the title the subject of the first sentence of the article. In any case the title should appear in the first sentence. The first time the title is mentioned in the article, put it in bold using
'''three apostrophes'''. Do not self-link or put links in title when it first appears. Follow the normal rules for italics in choosing whether to put part or all of the title in italics.
Headings
Main article: Wikipedia:Manual of Style (headings)
Use the == (heading) markup for headings, not the ''' (bold) markup. Example:
==This is a heading==
which produces
- This is a heading
If you mark headings this way, 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.
- Start the first word and any proper nouns in headings with a capital letter, but leave the rest of the heading lower case.
- Avoid links within headings.
- Avoid overuse of sub-headings.
Capital letters
Titles
Titles such as president, king, or emperor start with a capital letter when used as a title (followed by a name): "President Nixon", not "president Nixon". When used generically, they should be in lower case: "De Gaulle was the French president." The correct formal name of an office is treated as a proper noun. Hence: "Hirohito was Emperor of Japan". Similarly "Louis XVI was the French king" but "Louis XVI was King of France", King of France being a title in that context. (Reference: Chicago Manual of Style 14th ed., par. 7.16; The Guardian Manual of Style, "Titles" keyword.) Exceptions may apply for specific offices.
In the case of "prime minister", either both words begin with a capital letter or neither, except, obviously, when it starts a sentence. Again, when being used generically, no capital letter is used: "There are many prime ministers around the world." When reference is made to a specific office, upper case is generally used: "The British Prime Minister, Tony Blair, said today..." (However to complicate matters, some style manuals, 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, use "Prime Minister". If a is used, go with "prime minister".)
American English and British English differ in their inclination to use capitals. British English uses capitals more widely than American English does. This may apply to titles for people. If possible, as with spelling, use rules appropriate to the cultural and linguistic context. In other words, do not enforce American rules on pages about British topics or British rules on pages about American topics.
Religions, deities, philosophies, doctrines and their adherents
Names of religions, whether used as a noun or an adjective, and their followers start with a capital letter. Mormonism requires special care — see Wikipedia:Naming conventions (Mormonism).
Deities begin with a capital letter: God, Allah, Freya, the Lord, the Supreme Being, the Messiah. The same is true when referring to Muhammad as the Prophet. Transcendent ideas in the Platonic sense also begin with a capital letter: Good and Truth. Pronouns referring to deities, or nouns (other than names) referring to any material or abstract representation of any deity, human or otherwise, do not begin with a capital letter.
Philosophies, doctrines, and systems of economic thought do not begin with a capital letter, unless the name is derived from a proper noun: Lowercase republican refers to a system of political thought; uppercase Republican refers to a specific Republican Party (each party name being a proper noun).
Calendar items
The names of months, days, and holidays always begin with a capital letter: June, Monday, Fourth of July.
Seasons start with a capital letter when they are used with another noun or are personified. Here they function as proper nouns: "Winter Solstice"; "Autumn Open House"; "I think Spring is showing her colours"; "Old Man Winter".
However, they do not start with a capital letter when they are used generally: "This summer was very hot."
Animals, plants, and other organisms
Main articles: Wikipedia:WikiProject_Tree_of_Life#Article_titles_and_common_names, Wikipedia:Naming conventions (fauna)
Whether the common names of species should start with a capital letter or not has been hotly debated in the past and has remained unresolved. As a matter of truce both styles are acceptable (except for proper names), but a redirect should be created from the alternative form.
Celestial bodies
Names of other planets and stars are proper nouns and begin with a capital letter: "The planet Mars can be seen tonight in the constellation Gemini, near the star Pollux."
The words sun, earth, and moon are proper nouns when used in an astronomical context, but not elsewhere: so "The Sun is a main sequence star, with a spectral class of G2"; but "It was a lovely day and the sun was warm." Note that these terms are only proper nouns when referring a specific spectral body (our Sun, Earth and Moon): so "The Moon orbits the Earth"; but "Pluto's moon Charon".
Directions and regions
Regions that are proper nouns, including widely known expressions such as Southern California start with a capital letter. Follow the same convention for related forms: a person from the American South is a Southerner.
Directions (north, southwest, etc.) are not proper nouns and do not start with a capital letter. The same is true for their related forms: a road that leads north might be called a northern road.
If you are not sure whether a region has attained proper-noun status, assume it has not.
Italics
Titles
Main article: Wikipedia:Manual of Style (titles)
Italics should be used for titles of the following:
- books
- films
- long poems
- musical albums
- newspapers
- periodicals (journals and magazines)
- plays
- TV series
- works of visual art
Italics are generally used for titles of longer works. Titles of shorter works, such as the following, should be enclosed in quotation marks ("").
- articles, essays, or papers
- chapters of a longer work
- episodes of a television series
- short poems
- short stories
- songs
There are a few cases in which the title should be neither italicized nor placed in quotation marks:
- the Bible
- legal documents (examples: the Constitution, the Declaration of Independence)
Words as words
Use italics when writing about words as words. Similarly for letters. For example:
- The term panning is derived from panorama, a word originally coined in 1787.
- The letter E is the most common letter in English.
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 split the difference between American and British usage.
Although not a rigid rule, we use the "double quotes" for most quotations – they are easier to read on the screen – and use 'single quotes' for "quotations 'within' quotations". This is the American style.
Note: if a word or phrase appears in an article with single quotes, such as 'abcd', the Wikipedia:Searching facility considers the single quotes to be part of the word and will find that word or phrase only if the the search string is also also within single quotes. (When trying this out with the example mentioned, remember that this article is in the Wikipedia namespace.) Avoiding this complication is an additional reason to use double quotes, for which the difficulty does not arise. It may even be a reason to use double quotes for quotations within quotations.
When punctuating quoted passages, include the mark of punctuation inside the quotation marks only if the sense of the mark of punctuation is part of the quotation. This is the British style. (A fuller treatment of the recommendations given here can be found in Fowler's Modern English Usage and other British style guides, some of which vary in fine details.) For example, "Stop!" has the punctuation inside the quotation marks because the word "stop" is said with emphasis. However, when using "scare quotes", the comma goes outside.
Other examples:
- Arthur said the situation was "deplorable". (The full stop (period) is not part of the quotation.)
- Arthur said, "The situation is deplorable." (The full sentence is quoted; the full stop (period) is part of the quotation.)
- Arthur said that the situation "was the most deplorable he had seen in years." (Although the full sentence is not quoted, the sense of finality conveyed by the full stop (period) is part of the quotation.)
Longer quotations may be better rendered in an indented style by starting the first line with a colon. In a quotation of multiple paragraphs not using indented style, double quotation marks belong at the beginning of each paragraph, but only at the end of the last paragraph.
Since quotations are already marked by quotation marks or indentations, they need not be put into italics.
Use straight quotation marks and apostrophes
For uniformity and to avoid complications use straight quotation marks and apostrophes ( ' " ) not curved (smart) ones, grave accents or backticks ( ‘ ’ “ ” ` ).
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"! Many other modern word processors have a smart quotes setting—please read the appropriate documentation for your editor.
Characters identical in appearance to left single quotation mark or right single quotation mark are used as letters in some Latin-letter transliteration systems and in some languages, for example to display the ‘okina character in Hawaiian. The characters may also be used in discussions about the quotation marks themselves. If using a left or right quotation mark for such a purpose, to assure proper display on all browsers, do not type or paste such a quotation mark directly into the Wikipedia editor. Instead, use the HTML entities ‘ or ’ or the correponding numeric forms: ‘ and ’ or ‘ and ’. If necessary to represent such characters as letters in article titles, the normal straight apostrophe ( ' ) should usually be used in place of the right quotation mark and the grave accent ( ` ) in place of the left quotation mark.
Commas
When a conjunction joins the last two elements in a series of three or more elements, a comma should be used before the conjunction to prevent the last two elements from being confused as a unit. For example: "The wires were brown, blue, and green". (This is recommended by the Chicago Manual of Style and other authoritative sources.) Consider the comma's utility in this sentence: "The author would like to thank her parents, Sinéad O'Connor and Pope John-Paul II." This comma is known as the Oxford comma.
Spaces after the end of a sentence
There are no guidelines on whether to use one or two spaces after the end of a sentence but it is not important as the difference only shows up in the edit box. See Wikipedia talk:Manual of Style archive (spaces after the end of a sentence) for a discussion on this.
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.
Scientific style
Main article: Wikipedia:Technical terms and definitions
- For units of measure use SI units; see also Wikipedia:Manual of Style (dates and numbers). Wikipedia Style for large numbers is 10,000.
- In articles about chemicals and chemistry, use the style of the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) for chemical names wherever possible, except in article titles, where the common name should be used if different, followed by mention of the IUPAC name. For general information see systematic name, and for organic compounds in particular see IUPAC nomenclature.
- In periodic table groups, use the new IUPAC names: (these use Arabic numerals, not Roman numerals or letters).
- For mathematics and mathematical formulae, see Wikipedia:WikiProject Mathematics
Sections
Main article: Wikipedia:Section
Introduction
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.
In wikitext this would be:
'''Sodium hydroxide''' ([[sodium|Na]][[oxygen|O]][[hydrogen|H]]), also known as '''caustic soda''' or '''lye'''
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
See also: Wikipedia:Guide to writing better articles#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 also" and "Related topics" sections
Mostly, topics related to an article should be included within the text of the article as free links.
If the article is divided into sections and See also refers to a particular section only, references to related articles that have not been linked from free links in the text may be placed at the bottom of the section:
''See also:'' [[Internet troll]], [[flaming]]
which produces:
- See also: Internet troll, flaming.
The above form may also be used in short articles without sections.
When the See also refers to the entire article, not just a section, it should be a heading of level 2 so that it appears in the table of contents. Place it at the bottom of the article, before External links. For example:
==See also==*[[Internet troll]]*[[flaming]]
The heading Related topics may be used instead of See also.
If you remove a redundant link from the See also section of an article, it may be an explicit cross reference (see below), so consider making the link in the main text bold instead.
Sometimes it is 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, make the link bold. For example:
- The legal status of circumcision varies from country to country.
Other sections
Other common sections (in their preferable order) are:
- References
- Compare against
- External links
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.
Usage and spelling
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 from yours, including different spellings, grammatical constructions and punctuation. For the English Wikipedia, there is no preference among the major national varieties of English. 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, do not use center (American) in one place and centre (British) in another.
- Proper names should retain their original spellings. For example, United States 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 (for instance the British "Labour Party"). 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.
- When referring to the United States, using "U.S." rather than "US" makes it easier to search for automatically. When referring to the United States in a long abbreviation (USA, USN, USAF), stops (periods) should not be used.
- 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.
- Words with multiple spellings: In choosing words or expressions, there may be value in selecting one that does not have multiple spellings, if there are synonyms that are otherwise equally suitable.
- 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 and American and British English differences.
- Scholarly abbreviations of Latin terms like i.e., e.g., or n.b. should be avoided and English terms such as such as, for example, or note used instead.
- If all else fails, consider following the spelling style preferred by the first major contributor (that is, 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 "other meanings" should be used rather than "alternate meaning" or "alternative meaning". Some dictionaries discourage or do not even recognize this latter use of alternate. The American Heritage Dictionary "Usage Note" at alternative says: "Alternative should not be confused with alternate." But, alternative is also not entirely acceptable because of the very common connotations in American English of "non-traditional" or "out-of-the-mainstream". Some traditional usage experts consider alternative to be appropriate only when there are exactly two alternatives.
Pictures
Main article: Wikipedia:Picture tutorial
Articles with a single picture are encouraged to have that picture at the top of the article, right-aligned, but this is not a hard and fast rule. Portraits with the head looking to the right should be left-aligned (looking into the article).
The current image markup language is more or less this:
[[Image:picture.jpg|thumb|Blah blah caption]]
Captions
Main article: Wikipedia: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, a caption is not needed for a portrait of the subject, pictured alone.
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:
- Where known, use terminology which they themselves use for themselves (self identification).
- Use specific terminology: Ethiopians should be described Ethiopian, not African.
- Though often a more general name will prove to be more neutral or more accurate. For example, a List of African-American composers is acceptable, though a List of composers of African descent may be more useful.
- If possible, terms used to describe people should be given in such a way that they qualify other nouns. Thus, black people, not blacks; gay people, not gays; and so forth.
- Do not assume that any one term is the most inclusive or accurate.
Miscellaneous notes
When all else fails
If this page does not specify which usage is preferred, use other resources, such as The Chicago Manual of Style (from the University of Chicago Press) or Fowler's Modern English Usage (3rd edition) (from the Oxford University Press). Also, please feel free to carry on a discussion on Wikipedia talk:Manual of Style, especially for substantive changes.
Even simpler is 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 are there. Almost every article can be improved.
Do not get fancy
It is easier for you and whoever follows you if you do not try to get too fancy with your markup. Do not assume that any markup you put in is guaranteed to have a certain appearance when it is displayed. Do not make the markup any more complex than is necessary to display the information in a useful and comprehensible way. Use HTML markup sparingly and only with good reason. A useful encyclopedia is the first goal, but ease of editing and maintaining that encyclopedia is right behind.
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.
Make comments invisible
Avoid highlighting that the article is incomplete and in need of further work.
Similarly, there is little benefit to the reader in seeing headings and tables without content.
If you want to communicate with other potential editors, make comments invisible to the ordinary article reader. To do so, enclose the text which you intend to be read only by editors within <!-- and -->.
For example, the following:
hello <!-- This is a comment. --> world
is displayed as:
- hello world
so the comment can be seen when viewing the HTML or wiki source.
See also
- Style guide, the Wikipedia entry on "style guides". Contains links to the online style guides of some magazines and newspapers.
- Wikipedia:Welcome, newcomers is a gentle introduction to the world of Wikipedia.
- Wikipedia:WikiProject sets out boilerplates for certain areas of knowledge.
- Be bold in updating pages should define your attitude toward page updates.
- Policies and guidelines is the main stop for policies and, well, guidelines.
- Avoiding common mistakes gives a list of common mistakes and how to avoid them.
- Editing policy has even more editing guidelines.
- 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.
- The perfect stub article shows what you should aim for at a minimum when starting a new article.
- Wikipedia:Definitions
ca:Viquipèdia:Llibre d'estil
da:Wikipedia:Stilmanual
es:Wikipedia:Manual de Estilo
ga:Lámhleabhar Stíle
he:ויקיפדיה:המדריך לעיצוב דפים
ja:Wikipedia:スタイルマニュアル
minnan:Wikipedia:Siá-chok ê kui-hoān
ro:Wikipedia:Manual de stil
sl:Wikipedija:Slogovni priročnik
fi:Wikipedia:Tyyliopas
sv:Wikipedia:Rekommendationer
zh-cn:Wikipedia:格式指南/简
zh-tw:Wikipedia:格式指南/繁
" just makes your text hard to read. What does this mean: " ṭ ... is a commensurate relation by which Template:P instructs ... (some others like) ṣ"? Is this some scientific notation? If so, explain it.
The article said:
- ROBERTS, JANE (1929-1984), One of the 20th century's most gifted psychics. Inadvertent founder of the latter-day "channeling" movement though neither she nor SETH‚ who spoke through her, called it that. She channeled her last book, _The Way Toward Health_, from a hospital bed and then died. Seth's dictations were taken down by her husband, Robert Butts. Lived in Elmira, New York, USA. Partial bibliography: _The Seth Material_ (1970), _Seth Speaks_ (1972), _The Nature of Personal Reality_ (1974), _The “Unknown” Reality_ (1979), _The Nature of the Psyche_ (1979), _The Individual and the Nature of Mass Events_ (1981).
- [This original post made by Mark M Giese on 12/12/02 and adapted from Mark M's _Mcyclopedia_ (1999) by Mark M (Giese).]
What's this? Unwritten article? --Taku
??????????
This article is complete nonsense, disguised with some big words like "wordline" and "relativity". Before I waste my time disecting it in detail, I want to see a single text book reference to the following concept and notation:
- their ratio obtains as the real number value relative duration t, G{ σ } t ( φ ) L{ s c } = T( σG, φG ) / T( s L, c L ).
AxelBoldt 17:54 Jan 5, 2003 (UTC)
