User:AnnaFrance/Checklist

This is a checklist, so the elements are as short as possible. The correct answer to each item is "yes". If you catch a mistake, or notice something missing, don't hesitate to edit.

First read-through

• Is the title of article early in first sentence, and bold? (Exception: if title is more a descriptive phrase)
• Does the first sentence immediately establish context of subject?
• Is the lead section a summary only, with no unique information?
• Are all the section titles unique?
• Do any section titles restate information from a higher level?
• Are the section titles noun phrases (History of...), not prepositional phrases (About the history of...)?
  • NOTE: If you change a section title, try to catch anything that links to the old title.
• Is the Table of Contents easy to read and navigate?
• Are the appendix sections in this order:
  • See also
  • Notes (or Footnotes)
  • References (Exception: can change places with Notes)
  • Further reading (or Bibliography)
  • External links
• Is the article properly and completely categorized?
• Has the article been the subject of recent or unresolved edit wars (i.e., is it stable)?

Images

• Does the article begin with a right-aligned image? (Exception: a portrait's eyes should face text)
• If the top image is on the left, has the Table of Contents moved to the right (use {{TOCright}})?
• Are all other images staggered right and left down the page, to avoid image stackups?
• Does the article avoid text sandwiched between left and right images?
• Does the article avoid having an image come between a section header and the section text?
• Are all images captioned to explain relevance? (Exception: music album & book covers, other very obvious things)
• Are all images appropriately sized for their placement?
• Are all captions formatted properly (begin with capital, no unnecessary italics, probably a sentence fragment with no period—if a sentence, end that & any following fragment with a period)
• Are left-aligned images avoided directly below 2nd-level (===) headings? (Accessibility)

Lists

• Are lists avoided unless information is more easily read that way?
• If there are lists, are they not numbered unless for a particular reason?
• Are all elements formatted consistently (full sentences or fragments, similar grammatically, etc.)?
• Are lists of sentence fragments introduced with colon, have semicolon or no punctuation at end of each element, and have a period after the last item?

Links

• Are there a sufficient number of wikilinks?
• Are there a sufficient number of articles that link to this one?
• Are all wikilinks relevant to the subject, adding to the reading experience?
• Are all wikilinks unique on the page (no dupes)? (Exception: If sections are long, important terms can be linked once per section)
• Do all links (wikilinks & external links) work?
• Are links as short as possible in the edit window ([[foobar]]s, not [[foobar|foobars]])? (Accessibility)
• Are wikilinks given in anchored format when appropriate (don't send reader to top of page when a section is more relevant)?
• Does the article avoid wikilinks to disambiguation pages?
• Are all external links shown as meaningful text (not URLs), with a brief description if appropriate?
• Do all external links appear in their own section at the bottom, not within text?
• Are the "See also" links pertinent to the article's subject?

Citations

• Are English-language sources provided whenever possible?
• Is the citation style (preferably some form of inline citations) used consistently?
• Are quotes and particular facts cited with page numbers and book edition?

Prose

• Does the article maintain a neutral point of view?
• Does the article avoid original research?
• Are the sources cited reliable?
• Is the text clear and engaging?
• Is it complete and understandable without outside references?

Language

• Is the use of and/or avoided?
• Are statements that will date quickly avoided? (Exception: current events & regularly refactored pages)
• Does the article avoid "from ... onward" and "to the present"?
• Are "its" and "it's" used correctly?
• Are possessives of nouns ending in s sounds handled consistently (s' or s's)?
• Are first-person pronouns avoided?
• Are second-person pronouns avoided?
• Are words like "thusly", "overly", "whilst", "amongst", "as per", & "refute" avoided?
• Is language like "remember that", "note that", "of course", "naturally", "obviously", "clearly", and "actually" avoided?
• Is pretentiousness avoided? ("whereas" --> "while", "due to the fact that" --> "because", "utilize" --> "use")
• Is vague language avoided? ("a number of" --> "several", "the vast majority of" --> "most")
• Are peacock terms, weasel words ("some say that ..."), and rhetoric avoided?
• Is the article careful with quote intros ("he said ...", not "he claimed ...", etc.)?
• Are contractions avoided?
• Are complete lists introduced with "comprising", "consisting of", or "composed of" (not "including", etc.)?
• Has the use of two subset terms together been avoided ("Among the most well-known widgets include ...")?
• Does a subject with strong national ties to a particular English-speaking country use that variety of English consistently?
• Are people referred to with specific terminology (Ethiopian, not African)?
• Are groups generally referred to as <descriptive><people> ("black people", not "blacks", etc.)? (Exception: some groups, like many Jews, prefer the descriptive)
• Are the terms Arab, Arabic, Muslim, and Islamic used correctly?
• Is gender-neutral language used whenever possible or appropriate?

Checking the edit box

• Is the structure of the lead section:
  • {{otheruses}} <-- reference an appropriate disambiguation page
  • maintenance tags
  • infobox
  • image
  • text of lead section
  • navigation box

• Is the structure of each (non-lead) section:
  • == Title ==
  • {{main|whatever}} <-- reference a main article of this section's subject
  • maintenance tags
  • image
  • text of section

Getting picky

• Is the article free of typos and spelling mistakes?
• Are all ellipses given as three unspaced periods?
• Are all colons preceded by complete sentences?
• Are forward slashes (/) used for pronunciations, fractions, and fiscal years? (check any other uses)
• Is the article free of strikethrough? (Accessibility)

Capital letters

• Are acronyms the only elements in all-caps?
• Are formal titles (King of France) and titles applied to individuals (President Lincoln) capitalized?
• Are generic titles in lower case?
• Are religions, sects, and churches (but not the "the") capitalized?
• Are religious texts capitalized?
• Are the proper names of deities (but not the "the") capitalized?
• Are common nouns referring to deities, religious figures, mythical, & legendary creatures lower case?
• Are spiritual or religious events capitalized when referring to a specific event, otherwise not?
• Are philosophies, theories, and doctrines lower case unless derived from a proper noun (Marxism)?
• Are physical and natural laws & parodies of them capitalized?
• Are months, days of the week, and holidays capitalized?
• Are seasons in lower case?
• Are scientific names: family capitalized, genus capitalized & italicized, species italicized?
• Are the sun, earth, and moon capitalized only when referring to specific celestial bodies?
• Are all the other planets and stars capitalized?
• Are directions (north, south) lower case unless part of a title or proper noun?
• Are directions that have received proper noun status capitalized (Southerners, Southern California)?
• Are proper names of institutions (but not the "the") capitalized?
• Are generic terms for institutions in lower case (the university offers many courses...)?

Italics

• Are italics used for emphasis (sparingly) and when referring to a word as a word (the term hacker can mean...)?
• Are italics used for the titles of books, magazines, paintings, and musical albums?
• Are all references to section titles italicized?
• Are court cases given in italics?
• Are religious texts not italicized? (Disputed)
• Are scientific names: family capitalized, genus capitalized & italicized, species italicized?
• Is the punctuation around an italicized word or phrase not italicized unless part of the word or phrase?

Commas

• Are places names given with a comma after the largest unit (Chicago, Illinois, ...)?
• Are serial commas either used (or not) consistently? (Exception: when necessary for clarity)

Hyphens and dashes

RULE: Hyphens are used for conjunction, en dashes for disjunction.

• Are all hyphens within words and in compound words used correctly? (get dictionary)
• Are values and units hyphenated only when using the unit as a whole word (9-millimetre)?
• Are composite directions (northeast, north-east) consistently formed?
• Are all cases of a dash meaning "to" or "through" marked with en dashes (1939–45, May–December)?
• Are sports scores given using en dashes?
• Are cases such as "Canada–US border", "male–female ratio", etc., marked with en dashes?
• Are en dashes set off with spaces only when either (or both) items contain spaces?
• Are en dashes used to separate the elements within points in a list?
• Are the em dashes unspaced?
• Spaced en dashes are a substitute for em dashes. Is one or the other used consistently?
• Has the article completely avoided the use of the double hyphen (--)?

Parentheses and brackets

• Is punctuation properly inside or outside parentheses and brackets? (inside only if 1 or more sentences are)
• Are parentheses and brackets spaced properly?
• Are nested parentheses or brackets done in alternating types? (nested is best avoided, though)
• Are there no side-by-side sets of parentheses or brackets?

Quotations and quote marks

• Are the titles of articles, chapters, songs, poems, & other short works enclosed in quote marks?
• Are quote marks always double quotes (" not '), sequencing single with double working inward?
• Are quotations set off by quote marks (short) or block quoting (long)?
• Are any changes to a direct quote explained within brackets (not parentheses)?
• Is the author of any quote of a sentence or more named in the main text? (Exception: subject of article or the very obvious, like Shakespeare)
• When quoting from a foreign language, is the English translation given, with the original beside it?
• Are quotes presented in an unbiased manner ("he said...", not "he tried to defend his position with...")?
• Are all quotes free of links?
• Are all quotes of multiple paragraphs (perhaps anything more than 4 lines) block quoted?
• Are blockquotes free of quote marks?
• Are punctuation marks inside quote marks only if part of the quote?
• If the subject of the article requires quote marks (like a song title), are the quote marks outside the bolding (i.e., not bolded) in the lead paragraph?
• Is the first letter of a quoted sentence, given as part of a larger sentence, not capitalized?
• Are bracketed words added to quotations only to clarify, reduce size by paraphrase, or to make the grammar work?
• If ellipses are used in a quote, are they set off with a space on either side, unless at the beginning or end of the quote?
• If ellipses are used at the end of a quote, is final quote punctuation used only if important?
• If ellipses are used in a quote, are non-breaking spaces used only if necessary?

Abbreviations

• Are all abbreviations accepted WP usage, and formed correctly?
• Are abbreviations spelled out in full on 1st occurrence, followed by the abbreviation in parentheses?
• Even if the abbreviation is all-caps, is the spelled-out version capitalized only if warranted?
• Are abbreviations pluralized properly (-s or -es, with 's reserved for possessive)?
• Are periods used in abbreviations consistently?
• Are multi-word abbreviations spaced?
• Are units of measurement undotted, even if other abbreviations are?
• Are abbreviations avoided when unwarranted (approx.)? (Exception: tables and infoboxes)

Foreign words

• Are foreign words and phrases, not in everyday English use, italicized?
• Are foreign words used sparingly?
• Are borrowed foreign words, in current English use, not italicized? (check dictionary)
• Are anglicized spellings used for foreign words? (Exception: optional if native spelling uses English alphabet)
• Are diacritics used consistently?
• Are native spellings of non-Latin scripts given in parentheses, not italicized?

Dates and time

• Is "am" and "pm" (or "a.m." and "p.m.") used consistently and correctly throughout?
• Are dates given correctly (no "th", no comma between month & year)?
• Do American-style dates have a comma after the year (Month Day, Year, ...)? (unless at the end of a sentence)
• Are date ranges given using minimal repetition, using an unspaced en dash?
• Are all months spelled out? (Exception: tables and infoboxes)
• Are seasons avoided (for international audience) unless necessary?
• Are months & years given without "of" and "year" (May of 1920, the year 1995)?
• Are decades given without apostrophes?
• Are years either AD & BC (or CE & BCE) consistently?
• Are AD, BC, CE, & BCE always spaced, undotted, and upper case?
• Are BC, CE, and BCE always given after the year (AD either before or after)?
• Are instances of month-day (and year, if provided) wikilinked for autoformatting? (day & month together, year separately)

Money

• Are US dollars used, unless the article is country-specific?
• Is the currency identified on the first occurrence (AU$52), & thereafter shortened ($52)? (Exception: US articles & UK articles can be shortened to $ and £ immediately)
• Are all currency symbols given before the digits, unless the symbol normally occurs after?
• Of the currency symbols given before the numbers, are all that end in a symbol unspaced, all that end in an alphabetical character spaced?
• Are all currency ranges given with 1, not 2, signifiers ($250-300)?
• Are all less-familiar currencies given with a conversion, in parentheses, with a year reference date (US$763 in 2005)?
• Is the first occurrence of less-familiar currencies wikilinked?

Numbers and math

• Are the elements of numerical-nonnumerical compound measurements separated by a non-breaking space? (for longer items use {{nowrap|8 sq ft}})
• Are negative signs and subtraction represented by &minus;? (Exception: computer code meant to be copied and run)
• Are single-digit whole numbers always spelled out as a word?
• Are larger numbers spelled out only if they can be written as 1 or 2 words?
• Are digits always used for dates and times, in tables and infoboxes?
• Do digits never begin or end a sentence?
• Are digits or words used consistently within a context or list?
• Do words replace digits when necessary for clarity (thirty-six 6.4-inch rifled guns)?
• Unless they are in a percentage, with an abbreviated unit, or mixed with whole numbers, are fractions spelled out?
• Are ordinals spelled out or in digits by same rules as whole numbers? (Exception: centuries can be digits regardless)
• Is the ordinal "th" ending not superscripted?
• Are two-word, spelled out numbers 21–99 hyphenated?
• Are spelled out fractions hyphenated?
• Are spelled out numbers 100+ not hyphenated?
• Do commas break up large numbers at every three places?
• Are overly precise large numbers avoided where unlikely to be stable or are unnecessary?
• Is the abbreviation M for million used properly (after spelling out at 1st occurrence, upper case, unspaced)?
• Is the number of decimal places consistent with a list or context?
• Do numbers between −1 and 1 have a leading 0? (Exception: performance averages in sports & common terms like .22 caliber)
• Is percent used correctly (percent or per cent, % in technical text, tables, infoboxes, and complex listings)?
• Are percentage ranges given with 1, not 2, signifiers (22–28%)?
• Are all multiplication symbols given with &times;? (Exception: unspaced x for "by", like 4x4)
• Are all exponents indicated with a superscript (not a ^)?
• Are all binary operators (+ − × < > etc.) spaced on both sidies?

Measurements

• Are the elements of numerical-nonnumerical compound measurements separated by a non-breaking space? (for longer items use {{nowrap|8 sq ft}})
• Are units of measurement undotted, even if other abbreviations are?
• Are values and units hyphenated only when using the unit as a whole word (9-millimetre)?
• Is the system of measurement (metric or imperial) used consistently throughout?
• Is the conversion to the alternate system provided in parentheses immediately after?
• Is the measurement unit spelling consistent (-er endings for America, -re for all others)? (meter, metre, etc.)
• Are measurements given as: "spelled-out (abbrev.)", such as "100 millimetres (4 in)"?
• Do measurement source values & conversions use a similar level of precision?
• Do measurement conversions within a quote appear in brackets (not parentheses)?
• Are measurements supplied with proper citations?
• Are standard abbreviations for units undotted (m, kg, in, ft, lb)?
• Are kilobits, megabits, kilobytes, & megabytes per second given as: kbit/s, Mbit/s, kB/s, MB/s?
• Is the actual degree symbol (°) used for degrees?
• Are there no abbreviated units with a plural "s"?
• Do all temperatures have the proper units following them: °F, °C, or K?
• Are values and unit symbols spaced? (Exception: degrees, minutes, & seconds for angles & coordinates)
• Are all squared & cubic metric measurements expressed with a superscript?
• Are all squared & cubic imperial measurements expressed consistently (sq & cu or superscript)?
• Are gallons, miles (nautical or aeronautical contexts), & tons given sufficient scientific specificity?
• Are measurement ranges given with 1, not 2, unit signifiers (5.9–6.3 kg)?
• Are accurate measurements used whenever possible (not "small", "large", etc.)?
• Are geographical coordinates given as {{coord|deg|min|sec|N/S|deg|min|sec|E/W}}? (Precision not needed is simply not given, removing piping as well)

Biographies

• Does the opening paragraph have the full name, known-by name(s), title(s), nationality, & dates of birth & death?
• Does the opening paragraph explain what this person did and why they are significant?
• Does the opening paragraph avoid stressing ethnicity unless it's relevant?
• Is any nickname given in quotes within the name, to avoid suggestion of a legal name change (John "Tiger" Smith)?
• Have redirects been created for name alternates?
• Does the article begin with the name, not an honorific (Queen Victoria, not Her Majesty Queen Victoria)? (Exception: if that's how they're always known: Mother Teresa)
• Are academic & professional titles avoided throughout? (Exception: if that's how they're always known)
• If initials are given after a name, are they wikilinked?
• Are honorific titles (Sir/Dame, Lord/Lady) given in lead and infobox only?
• After initial mention, is a non-royal person referred to by surname?
• Are locations of birth and death given after the dates, not within?
• Is a living person's birth date given (born date), not (date –)?
• Is an unknown birth date given (died date)?
• Is an approximate date given (c. date – date) or (c. date – c. date)?
• Is an unknown death date given (born date, date of death unknown)?
• If only the approximate reign is known, is it given (reigned c. date – c. date)?
• If all that's known is an approximate "flourished" date, is it given ([[floruit|fl.]] date – date)?
• Does a living person have {{birth date and age}} in the infobox?
• Does a dead person have {{death date and age}} in the infobox?