Wikipedia:Manual of Style

A Manual of Style has the simple purpose of making things look alike. 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.

Please see Wikipedia: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.

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. There should also probably be an associated article Wikipedia:Guide to Layout.

Article Style

All articles should have the title or subject in bold in the first line. 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|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''' (NaOH), also known as '''caustic soda''' or '''lye'''

If the subject is a person, however, articles should start with the name and dates. Full dates are preferable to years only, but in any case they should always be links.

• Karel Capek (1890 - 1938)
  
  • '''Karel Capek''' ([[1890]] - [[1938]])

• Carl Sandburg (January 6, 1878 - July 22, 1967)
  
  • '''Carl Sandburg''' ([[January 6]], [[1878]] - [[July 22]], [[1967]])

Dates

A page title that is just anumber is always a year. Pages also exist for days of the year, decades, centuries and even millenia. The formats are:

• February 11
• February 11, 1958
• 1958
• 18th century (note lower-case C)
• 1830s (note no apostrophe)

Headline Styles

Use the == style markup for headlines, not '''. Start with "==". If the resulting font looks too big, that's an issue for the wikipedia-wide stylesheet, not individual articles.

Title Styles

Use italics for the title or name of books, movies, albums, TV series, magazines, and ships. If the title is also a link, you should usually place the italic markup outside the brackets.

• Huckleberry Finn, DCL Command Language Manual
  
  • ''[[Huckleberry Finn]]'', ''DCL Command Language Manual''

• Casablanca, Boccacio '70
  
  • ''[[Casablanca]]'', ''Bocaccio '70''

• The Mary Tyler Moore Show
  
  • ''The [[Mary Tyler Moore]] Show''

• Life magazine, Astounding Science Fiction
  
  • ''Life'' magazine, ''[[Astounding Science Fiction]]''

• RMS Titanic, only the name is italicized, not the classification. This link will require a pipe, as italics tags will not work within a link
  
  • [[RMS Titanic|RMS ''Titanic'']]

Use "quotes" for the title or name of short stories, statues, short films, individual episodes of TV shows.

• "An Occurence at Owl Creek Bridge", Rodin's "The Thinker", "Goober and Gomer Change a Tire", "Do's and Don'ts of Dating"

• "She's Leaving Home" appears on Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band

Style for Words as Words

Italicize words when they are being referenced in a sentence, rather than used normally.

• 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]]

Spelling Style

For the English Wikipedia, either American or English spelling is acceptable.

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 styles

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

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.

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.

Scientific styles

Somebody help me out here!

Simple Tablulation

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

When all else fails

If you are faced with a fine point that isn't covered here, feel free to use other resources, such as A Manual of Style from the University of Chicago Press, or Fowler. Where this page differs from the other sources, the usage on this page should be followed, 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 that encyclopedia is right behind it.

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 Wikipedia.
• Wikipedia policy lists some other general policies to follow.
• Be bold in updating pages should define your attitude toward page updates.
• Rules to consider has guidelines ticles, and the like.
• Most common Wikipedia faux pas gives a list of common mistakes and how to avoid them.
• Lee's notes on writing style contains one Wikipedian's advice on good language usage.
• 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.