Wikipedia:Manual of Style

This guideline is a part of the English Wikipedia's Manual of Style.

It is a generally accepted standard that editors should attempt to follow, though occasional exceptions may apply. Any substantive edit to this page should reflect consensus. When in doubt, discuss first on the talk page.

Shortcut

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This Manual of Style has the simple purpose of making things easy to read by following a consistent format — it is a style guide. The following rules do not 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.

Article titles

Main article: Wikipedia:Naming conventions

If possible, make the title the subject of the first sentence of the article (as opposed to putting it in the predicate). In any case, the title should appear as early as possible in the article — preferably in the first sentence.

The first time the title is mentioned in the article, put it in bold using three apostrophes. Here's an example: '''article title''' produces article title. You should not put links in the title.

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.

Capitalize the first letter only of the first word and of any proper nouns in a heading, and leave all of the other letters in 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. Likewise, royal titles should be capitalised: "Her Majesty" or "His Highness". (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. In regards to pages about other cultures, choose either style, but be consistent.

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.

Mythical creatures, such as elves, fairies, nymphs or genies should not be capitalized. The exception is some works of fantasy, such as those of J.R.R. Tolkien, where the mythical creatures are considered an ethnicity and thus written with an initial capital.

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 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 to 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 Southern United States 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, compared to the Great North Road.

If you are not sure whether a region has attained proper-noun status, assume it has not.

Institutions

Proper names of specific institutions (for example, Harvard University, New York-Presbyterian Hospital, George Brown College, etc.) are proper nouns and should be capitalized.

However, the words for types of institutions (university, college, hospital, high school, etc.) are not capitalized if they are not appearing in a proper name:

Incorrect: The University offers programs in arts and sciences.

Correct: The university offers... or The University of Ottawa offers...

Italics

Use the '' (italic) markup. Example:

''This is italic.''

which produces

This is italic.

Italics are mainly used to emphasise certain words. They are also used in other cases that are mentioned here.

Titles

Main article: Wikipedia:Manual of Style (titles)

Italics should be used for titles of the following:

Bacteria, when named as genus-species. For example: Bacillus subtilis and Escherichia coli
Books
Computer and video games
Court cases
Films
Foreign language words
Long poems/epic poems
Musical albums
Named passenger trains
Orchestral works
Periodicals (newspapers, journals, and magazines)
Plays
Ships
Television 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 double 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 in neither italics nor quotation marks:

Scripture
Legal or constitutional documents

Words as words

Use italics when writing about words as words or letters as letters (to indicate the use-mention distinction). For example:

The term panning is derived from panorama, a word originally coined in 1787.
The most common letter in English is e.

Loan words

Italics are preferred for phrases in other languages and for isolated foreign words that have not yet been incorporated into the English language. Anglicized spellings can be used for such words, or the native spellings can be used if they use the Latin alphabet (with or without diacritics). For example: Reading and writing in Japanese requires familiarity with hiragana, katakana, kanji, and sometimes rōmaji. Foreign words or phrases that have passed into the English language, however—praetor, Gestapo, samurai, esprit de corps—should not be italicized. If looking for a good rule of thumb, do not italicize words that appear in an English language dictionary. As per the guide to writing better Wikipedia articles, foreign words should be used sparingly, and native spellings in non-Latin scripts may be included in parentheses.

Quotations

There is normally no need to put quotations in italics unless the material would otherwise call for italics (emphasis, use of non-English words, etc.). It is necessary to indicate whether the italics are used in the original text or were added later. For example:

Now cracks a noble heart. Good night sweet prince: And flights of angels sing thee to thy rest!

(emphasis added). See also quotation marks.

Note that italicising text can make it harder for people with visual or cognitive disabilites to read [1]

Punctuation

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

Quotation marks

With quotation marks we split the difference between American and British usage. Though 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".

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 search string is 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 style used in Australia, New Zealand, and Britain, for example. (A fuller treatment of the recommendations given here can be found in Fowler's Modern English Usage and other style guides for these countries, some of which vary in fine details.) "Stop!", for example, has the punctuation inside the quotation marks because the word "stop" is said with emphasis. When using "scare quotes", however, 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 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 period is part of the quotation.)

Longer quotations may be better rendered in an indented style by starting the first line with a colon or by using <blockquote> </blockquote> notation, which indents both left and right margins. Indented quotations do not need to be marked by quotation marks. Double quotation marks belong at the beginning of each paragraph in a quotation of multiple paragraphs not using indented style, though at the end of only the last paragraph.

Use quotation marks or indentations to distinguish quotations from other text. There is normally no need to put quotations in italics unless the material would otherwise call for italics (emphasis, use of non-English words, etc.).

Use straight quotation marks and apostrophes

^{[dubious – discuss]} For uniformity and to avoid complications use straight quotation marks and apostrophes (' ") not the typographically correct curved ones (“ ” ‘ ’) in article titles. Never use acute and grave accents or backticks (´ `) as quotation marks. (See also Help:Special characters.)

This applies to both titles and article text, but unusual characters are particularly pernicious in titles, because Wikipedia uses exact matches for link text and default searches.

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. When using these characters, include them directly instead of using HTML entity references or numeric character references.

Use of punctuation in presence of brackets/parentheses

Punctuation goes where it belongs logically, that is it goes with the text to which it belongs. A sentence wholly inside brackets will have its punctuation inside the brackets. (As shown here, this applies to all punctuation in the sentence.) If a sentence ends with a clause in brackets, the final punctuation stays outside the brackets (as shown here). This applies to square "[ ]" as well as round "( )" brackets (parentheses).

Serial commas

The Oxford or serial comma is the optional last comma in a list in the phrases such as "ham, egg(,) and chips". Sometimes omitting the comma can lead to an ambiguous sentence, as in the example "The author would like to thank her parents, Sinéad O'Connor and President Bush." In these cases, there are three options for avoiding ambiguity:

A final serial comma can be used to avoid ambiguity.
The sentence can be recast to avoid listing the items if possible.
The items in the list can be presented using a wiki list (like this).

In most cases, however, the presence of the final serial comma does not affect ambiguity of the sentence, and in these cases there is no Wikipedia consensus on whether it should be used.

Some style authorities support the mandatory final serial comma, such as Fowler's Modern English Usage, the Chicago Manual of Style, and Strunk and White's The Elements of Style, while other style authorities recommend avoiding the comma where possible, such as that used by The Times and The Economist.

By common convention, and by consensus of the Trains wikiproject, the serial comma should never be employed when specifying the name of a railroad or railway. For example, "Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago and St. Louis Railroad", not "Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago, and St. Louis Railroad".

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, formal writing is preferred. Therefore, avoid excessive use of contractions — such as don't, can't, won't, would've, they'd, and so on — unless they occur in a quotation.

Pronunciation

See Wikipedia:Manual of Style (pronunciation).

Scientific style

Main article: Wikipedia:Technical terms and definitions

For units of measure, use SI units in science articles, unless there are compelling historical or pragmatic reasons not to do so: (for example, Hubble's constant should be quoted in its most common units of km/s/Mpc rather than its SI unit of Hz). For other articles, either Imperial or metric units may be used. See Wikipedia:Manual of Style (dates and numbers)#Measurements. Wikipedia Style for numbers is 12,345,678.901.
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 after and attributed to the 6th century BC Greek philosopher and mathematician Pythagoras

The '''Pythagorean theorem''' is named after 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 (Na O H), also known as caustic soda or lye...

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

Make the context clear in the first few words.

In quantum physics, the Heisenberg uncertainty principle...

In [[quantum physics]], the '''Heisenberg uncertainty principle'''

Avoid links in the title and circular definitions. However, most words in titles should be linked to.

Buddhist meditation, meditation used in the practice of Buddhism, "includes any method of meditation that has Enlightenment as its ultimate aim." (Kamalashila 1996)

'''Buddhist meditation''', [[meditation]] used in the practice of [[Buddhism]], "includes any method of meditation that has Enlightenment as its ultimate aim." (Kamalashila 1996)

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 top 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]]

Notice that, consistent with the policy of Wikipedia:Lists, See also list items are not capitalized unless the word normally would be, such as, in the above example, Internet.

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 the preferred order) are:

Quotations
See also
References
External links

All succession boxes should go at the very end of the article, following "External links" but preceding the categories and interwiki links.

Simple tabulation

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

foo     bar     baz
alpha   beta  gamma

A line that starts with a blank space with nothing else on it forms a blank line.

Usage and spelling

Possessives of singular nouns ending in s may be formed with or without an additional s. Either form is generally acceptable within Wikipedia. However, if either form is much more common for a particular word or phrase, follow that form, such as with Achilles' heel.
If a word or phrase is generally regarded as correct, then prefer it to any other word or phrase that might be regarded as incorrect. For example, "other meaning" should be used instead of "alternate meaning" or "alternative meaning", because not all English speakers regard "alternate" and "alternative" as meaning the same. The American Heritage Dictionary "Usage Note" at alternative says: "Alternative should not be confused with alternate." Alternative commonly suggests "non-traditional" or "out-of-the-mainstream" to an American-English speaker. Some traditional usage experts consider alternative to be appropriate only when there are exactly two alternatives.

National varieties 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 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 certain etiquette generally accepted on Wikipedia:

Proper names should retain their original spellings, for example, United States Department of Defense and Australian Defence Force.
Each article should have uniform spelling and not a haphazard mix of different spellings, which can be jarring to the reader. For example, do not use center in one place and centre in another in the same article.
Articles that focus on a topic specific to a particular English-speaking country should generally conform to the spelling of that country. For example:
- article on the American Civil War: American English usage and spelling
- article on Tolkien's Lord of the Rings: British English usage and spelling
- article on Uluru (Ayers Rock): Australian English usage and spelling
- article on European Union institutions and documents: British, Hiberno-English and Maltese English usage and spelling
- article on the city of Montréal: Canadian English usage and spelling
- article on Taj Mahal: Indian English usage and spelling.
^{[dubious – discuss]} When abbreviating United States, please use "U.S."; that is the more common style in that country, is easier to search for automatically, and we want one uniform style on this. When referring to the United States in a long abbreviation (USA, USN, USAF), periods should not be used.
When including the United States in a list of countries, do not abbreviate the United States. (for example "France and the United States", not "France and the U.S.").
If the spelling appears in an article name, you should make a redirect page to accommodate the other variant, as with Artefact and Artifact, 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.
When referring to German words that use the eszett (ß), render it in English as "ss" and follow the first time with the German form of the word: "Franz Josef Strauss (German: Strauß)..."
- Note that the use of ß is not universal in the German language (see Switzerland and Liechtenstein under ß), that its usage has changed in recent years (see German spelling reform of 1996), and that not all versions of the same name use it (Franz Josef Strauß, but Levi Strauss), so be sure of your usage.
- Where such a word appears in the title of the article, use the English form (ss) for the main page and create a redirect from the German form (Franz Josef Strauß → Franz Josef Strauss).
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.
If all else fails, consider following the spelling style preferred by the first major contributor (that is, not a stub) to the article.

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|120px|right|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. Wikipedia's neutral point of view and no original research policies always take precedence. However, here are some non-binding guidelines that may help:

Where known, use terminology that subjects use for themselves (self identification). This can mean calling an individual the term they use, or calling a group the term most widely used by that group.
Use specific terminology: People from Ethiopia (a country in Africa) should be described as 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.
The term Arab refers to people and things of ethnic Arab origin. The term Arabic refers to the Arabic language or writing system (and related concepts). For example: Not all Arab people write or converse in Arabic, but nearly all are familiar with Arabic numerals.

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.

Don't 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. Don't make the markup any more complex than is necessary to display the information in a useful and comprehensible way. Use HTML and CSS 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.

In particular, do not use the CSS float or line-height properties because they break rendering on some browsers when large fonts are used.

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 you absolutely must specify a font size, use a relative size i.e. font-size: 80%; not an absolute size, for example, font-size: 4pt. Color coding of information should not be done, but if necessary, try to choose colors that are unambiguous when viewed by a person with color blindness. In general, this means that red and green should not both be used. Viewing the page with Vischeck (http://www.vischeck.com/vischeck/vischeckURL.php) can help with deciding if the colors should be altered.

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 .

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.

Avoid self-referential pronouns

Wikipedia articles cannot be based on one person's opinions or experiences. Thus, 'I' or 'we' can never be used, except, of course, when they appear in a quotation. For similar reasons, avoid the use of "one," as in: "One should note that some critics have argued in favor of the proposal," as it sounds more personal than encyclopedic.