Wikipedia:Manual of Style
This page is a guideline on the Simple English Wikipedia. Many editors agree with the ideas on this page. It is a good idea to follow it, but it is not policy. You can change the page as needed, but please use the talk page to make sure that other editors agree with any big changes. |
This Manual of Style is to help make the encyclopedia easier to read by having rules for its format. It is a style guide. The rules on this page are not the final word on Wikipedia style. One way is often as good as another, but if everyone does things the same way, Wikipedia will be easier to read and use, and easier to write and edit. These are not laws: they are rules that many editors have found to work well in most cases. Editors should try to have their articles follow these guidelines, but remember, often there is an exception to every rule, so also use common sense above all.
One of the great things about changing a wiki is that changes do not have to be perfect—they can always be changed, improved or corrected later on. Wikipedia does not require writers to follow all or any of these rules, but their efforts will be more appreciated when they use this guide.
Article titles
In picking the best article title, remember these guidelines:
- Use the singular. For example, if you added a new article about cars, you would name it "Car", not "Cars". (This rule is different for making categories, though.)
- Use English. If you make a new article about the capital of Russia, you would name it "Moscow", not "Moskva".
- Do not use abbreviations. An article on the World Health Organization should not be titled "WHO".
Do not worry if the wrong name is chosen for an article – it can always be moved, and this automatically creates a redirect from the older entry. Redirects should also be made from all other entries someone might type when looking for your article.
Places
- Countries should usually be listed under their simple name, not their full name, for example Ethiopia, not Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia.
- For places inside countries or states, the name of the country or state can appear after a comma and space, especially if there is more than one place of that name. Example: Scottsdale, Arizona.
Movies
- If the name of a movie is the same as something else, add (movie), and not (film), to the title to disambiguate it from other articles. Otherwise, this is not needed. Example: Jaws (movie).
First sentence
If possible, make the article's topic (usually the same as its title) the subject of the first sentence of the article (instead of putting it in the predicate, or in another sentence). For example, write "This Manual of Style is a style guide", not "This style guide is known as..." .
If the article's title is an important word, use it as early as possible in the article. Bold the article title the first (and only the first) time it is used. Also, bold any important synonyms – other names for the same thing, or older names. Use three apostrophes to make the bold: '''article title'''
will appear as article title.
This example shows how bold words are used in an article on the Byzantine Empire:
The Byzantine Empire (or Eastern Roman Empire) is the name given to the Roman Empire that existed during the Middle Ages.
Do not bold any other words in the first paragraph, so that the reader will not be confused.
It is usually better not to link any of the bold title words and synonyms. For example, do not write "The Byzantine Empire is..."
Things like foreign words, and names of books or movies, are usually put in italics, and can be combined with the bold text, for example:
Citizen Kane is a movie from 1941, starring Orson Welles in his first full-length movie.
If the article is about a foreign person or place, the name in the original language(s) should be given in parentheses immediately after the title is first mentioned. Link the name of the language, followed by a colon (:), just before the native name. A transliteration into the Latin alphabet should also be included if a different writing system is used. A pronunciation guide or a sound file can also be included here. Example:
Sections and headings
Markup
Use the == (two equal signs) markup for headings (also called section titles), not the ''' (triple apostrophes) used to make words appear bold in character formatting. Start with ==, add the heading title, then end with ==.
This section’s heading was created by writing:
== Sections and headings ==
This subsection’s heading was created by writing:
=== Markup ===
Wording
- In a heading, capitalize only the first letter of the first word and the first letter of any proper nouns, and leave all of the other letters in lowercase. Example: "Rules and regulations", not "Rules and Regulations".
- Do not use special characters in headings, such as a slash (/), a plus sign (+), curly braces ({}), or square braces ([]). In place of an ampersand (&) use the word and, unless the ampersand is part of a formal name.
- Do not put links in headings. Instead, link the word or phrase the first time it appears in the section.
- Keep the heading short. Try not to use more than ten words in the heading.
- Try not to use extra words in headings if they aren't needed, such as a, an, the, and pronouns. Do not use the title of the whole article as a heading.
- Do not give the same title to different sections. This will confuse the reader. It also makes it difficult for any editor to create a section link to any such section except the first one.
Creating and using sections
Sub-headings help readers quickly see what is covered in an article and find subtopics of interest. Create sub-headings if a section becomes too long, and choose a wording that describes what is discussed in the section.
- Do not italicize the section name, unless it needs italics (for example, if it is the title of a book).
- If you link directly to a section, leave an editor’s note to remind others that the section title is linked. List the names of the linking articles, so when the title needs changing, others can fix the links more easily. For example: <!-- This section is linked from [[Richard Dawkins]] and [[Daniel Dennett]] --> .
- Try not to change section headings and sub-headings too often. Other articles may have linked to that section, and the section link will be broken.
Capital letters
Do not capitalize the first letter in a word or the entire word to add importance to it. For example, "aardvarks, which are Not The Same as anteaters" and "aardvarks, which are NOT THE SAME as anteaters" are both wrong. If a word needs to show added importance or emphasis, use italics ("aardvarks, which are not the same as anteaters").
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 in a general way, they should be in lower case: "De Gaulle was the French president." The correct formal name of an office is a proper noun and should be capitalized. So: "Hirohito was Emperor of Japan." Similarly, "Louis XVI was the French king" but "Louis XVI was King of France", because King of France is a specific title. Royal titles should also be capitalized: "Her Majesty" or "His Highness".
In the case of "prime minister", either both words begin with a capital letter or neither, except when the term begins a sentence. When using the term in a general way, do not capitalize it: "There are many prime ministers around the world." When referring to a specific office, generally use uppercase: "The British Prime Minister is Tony Blair." (A good rule for this is: when it is the "Prime Minister", it should be capitalized; when it is a "prime minister", do not capitalize it.)
Religions, deities/gods, philosophies, doctrines, and their followers
Names of religions, whether as a noun or an adjective, and their followers start with a capital letter. For example, Roman Catholics are followers of Roman Catholicism.
Names of deities/gods begin with a capital letter: God, Allah, Freya, the Lord, the Supreme Being, the Messiah. (Note that "the" is not capitalized.) The titles of important religious figures should be capitalized, such as Muhammad, who is known as the Prophet. Transcendent ideas also begin with a capital letter, as in Good and Truth. Pronouns referring to deities, or nouns (other than names) referring to any deity, do not begin with a capital letter. One would say "He prayed to the god Wotan", not "He prayed to the God Wotan". The following sentence would be correct usage: "It was thought that he prayed to God, but he actually prayed to one of the Norse gods."
Do not capitalize the names of types of mythical or fictional creatures, such as elves, fairies, nymphs and genies. However, in some fantasy stories, such as those by J. R. R. Tolkien, capital letters are used to show that the different categories of mythical creatures are being treated as ethnic groups or races. It is okay to use capitals in this specific case.
Philosophies, theories, doctrines, and systems of thought do not begin with a capital letter, unless the name comes 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 (when referring to the U.S. Independence Day, otherwise July 4 or 4 July).
Seasons, in almost all cases, are not capitalized: "this summer was very hot"; "the winter solstice occurs on December 22"; "I’ve got spring fever". When personified, season names may be used as proper nouns: "I think Spring is showing her colors"; "Old Man Winter".
Dates normally should be followed by commas: "In 2001, Bob married Lisa"; "On April 10, I will have a party". An exception is when they are used to describe other words: "The 1993 edition was very long".
Animals, plants, and other organisms
Capitalize the name of a genus, but not the name of a species (and italicize both names): for example, the tulip tree is Liriodendron tulipifera.
Higher categories (e.g. order; (family etc.) are not italicized. If the Latin form is used it should be capitalized; if used as a common word, then not. So Dinosauria, but dinosaurs.
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." In cases where the name has multiple words, it is treated like other proper nouns where each leading letter is capitalized: "Alpha Centauri" and not "Alpha centauri".
The words sun, earth, and moon are proper nouns when the sentence uses them in an astronomical sense, 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 proper nouns only when they refer to specific celestial bodies (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 well known phrases such as Southern California, start with a capital letter. This is also true for related words, so 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: someone might call a road that leads north a northern road, compared to the Great North Road.
Institutions
Proper names of specific institutions (for example, Harvard University, Addenbrooke's Hospital, Hampshire College, etc.) are proper nouns and need capitalization.
However, the words for types of institutions (university, college, hospital, high school, etc.) should not be capitalized if they do not appear in a proper name:
- Incorrect:
- The University offers programs in arts and sciences.
- Correct:
- The university offers… or The University of Ottawa offers…
Italics
For italics, use the ''
(italic) markup on both sides of the text to be italicized. For example:
''This is italic.''
will give:
- This is italic.
Effect on nearby punctuation and links
In all of the uses mentioned here, italicize only what should properly be affected by italics, and not the surrounding punctuation of the sentence. Examples:
- What are we to make of that?
- [Incorrect: only the word that should be italicized; the following question mark should not be italicized.]
- The word was tack; it certainly was not tick, tap, or tab.
- [Correct: the punctuation marks here are not italicized; they are normal parts of the sentence.]
If an italicized word or phrase is linked, the italics markup should be placed outside of the link markup, otherwise you will get a "redlink". Example:
- ''[[Jurassic Park]]'' is [[Michael Crichton]]'s best book.
- [Correct: it will show the text with a correct link: "Jurassic Park is Michael Crichton's best book."]
Emphasis
Italics are mainly used to emphasize (show importance of) certain words. Italics for emphasis should not be used too often.
They are also used in these other cases:
Titles
Italics are used for the titles of works of literature and art, such as books, movies, albums and paintings. The titles of articles, chapters, songs, and other short works are not italicized; instead they are put in double quotation marks ("Chapter Title").
Music: songs are in quotes ("Love Song", "Rainy Days and Mondays"), but albums are italicized (Dark Side of the Moon, A Night at the Opera, Abbey Road)
Words as words
Use italics when writing about words as words, or letters as letters. For example:
- Deuce means "two".
- The word liqueur comes from the Latin word liquifacere.
- The most common letter in the English language is e.
- In English class I received an A.
Foreign terms
Wikipedia prefers italics for phrases in other languages and for foreign words that do not yet have common use in the English language. Use the native spellings if they use the Latin alphabet. If a word or phrase is used from a language that uses another writing system, do not italicize it, but put it in parentheses, and give a Romanized transliteration in italics right after the word.
Foreign words or phrases that have common use in English — such as Gestapo and samurai — do not need to be italicized.
Quotations in italics
Do not put an entire quotation in italics just because it is a quotation.
Italics within quotations
Use italics inside quotations if the source material does, or if you want to add emphasis. If you are adding emphasis, write "[emphasis added]" at the end of the quotation. For example: "Now cracks a noble heart. Good night sweet prince: And flights of angels sing thee to thy rest. [emphasis added]"
If the source uses italics for emphasis, and you want to show that the emphasis is the source's and not yours, you can add "[emphasis in original]" after the quote.
Acronyms and abbreviations
Do not assume that your reader knows the acronym or abbreviation you are using. The acronym or abbreviation should be spelled out the first time it is used (wikilinked if appropriate) and then show the acronym or abbreviation after it, in parentheses. For example:
The United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP) is a political party that wants Britain to leave the European Union. There are currently about 25,000 people who are members of the UKIP.
If the term is already in parentheses, use or to indicate the acronym. For example:
It was first discussed in 2006 (at a meeting for the members of the United Kingdom Independence Party or UKIP).
Acronyms and abbreviations are made plural by adding -s or -es. For example:
- More than one CD-ROM are CD-ROMs
- More than one NGO are NGOs
Style books today do not use as many periods and spaces with acronyms and abbreviations for personal titles, as were traditionally used in the past. For example, PhD is more common than Ph.D. or Ph. D., and is preferred here. If an abbreviation is not clear without periods, the periods should not be removed.
Punctuation
In most cases, follow the usual rules of English punctuation. A few points where Wikipedia may be different from usual rules are listed below.
Quotations and quote marks
Whenever possible, faithfully use the same style that was used in the original quotation; do not change it to follow Wikipedia's rules on punctuation. If there is a spelling or other mistake in the original quote, it can be noted with [sic].
The guideline is to use the double-quotes (" ") – they are easier to read on the screen – and use single-quotes (‘ ’) for quotations that are within quotations. Quotation marks that are next to each other should be separated by a space. This best way to do this is to type .
For example, you might quote an article that says, "She disputed his statement that ‘Voltaire never said "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it" ’ ". (Note that quote marks that are next to each other, as at the end of this example, should always have a space between them. This should be done by typing instead of a normal space.)
When punctuating quoted passages, put the punctuation mark inside the quotation marks only if the sense of the punctuation mark is part of the quotation (logical quotation style).
Examples:
- Arthur said the situation is "deplorable". (When part of a sentence is quoted, the period/full stop is outside.)
- Arthur said, "The situation is deplorable." (When a complete sentence is quoted, the period is inside.)
- Martha asked, "Are you coming?" (When quoting a question, the question mark is inside.)
- Did Martha say, "Come with me"? (When questioning a quote, the question mark is outside. Do not use a period.)
If you change the capitalization of the first letter of a quote, you do not need to "[s]how the case change with square brackets".
Here are two examples that show how to handle commas and capital letters at the beginning of a quote within a sentence:
He said that "to have is to hold".
She said, "Go now."
Words inside quotes can be linked, for example: (quoted from John Adams) "If Aristotle, Livy, and Harrington knew what a republic was, the British constitution is much more like a republic than an empire."
Except with well-known quotations (from Shakespeare etc.), and those from the subject of the article or section, always name the person you are quoting for a full sentence or more. Name the person in the text, not in a footnote, unless the person is the subject of the article or is otherwise obvious. In the case of a famous line from a play in an article on the play, it is not necessary to say the quote is from the play.
When the title of an article needs quotation marks (for example, the title of a song or poem), the quotation marks should not be bolded, because they are not part of the title:
"Jabberwocky" is a nonsense poem by Lewis Carroll.
Longer quotes
A quote longer than four lines should be written as a block quotation. Do not put the block quote in quotation marks. To do a block quotation, do not use the wiki indentation mark :
– instead, use the HTML <blockquote>
tag:
<blockquote> Four score and seven years ago, our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. </blockquote>
Result:
Four score and seven years ago, our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.
Look of quotation marks and apostrophes
There are two options when considering the look of the quotation marks themselves:
- “text”, ‘text’, foo’s
- "text", 'text', foo's
Either way is okay. Never use grave and acute accents or backticks (`text´) as quotation marks or apostrophes.
Brackets
If only part of a sentence is in brackets, the punctuation goes outside the brackets (as shown here). (If the entire sentence is inside brackets, the punctuation should also be inside the brackets.) These rules are true for square "[ ]" as well as round "( )" brackets (parentheses). There should be a space before an opening bracket in most cases. In certain rare cases, there will not be a space before the first bracket. This is the case when the bracket has one of these in front of it:
- an opening quotation mark
- He said to the group, "(Ahem…) Ladies and gentlemen, welcome!"
- another opening bracket
- Several companies ([ten omitted for brevity –ed.] GMH, Ford, and Mazda) resisted.
- an ellipsis (
…
) not followed by a space, or an unspaced em dash (—)
- Well…(how could I continue?).
- a part of a word, or a hyphen, etc., where the brackets surround only a part of a word
- We went on the Inter[continental].
There should be a space after a closing bracket, except where another punctuation mark (other than an apostrophe or a hyphen) follows, and except in cases similar to those listed for opening brackets.
If a set of brackets must be put inside another, use the contrasting type (normally square brackets are put inside round brackets [parentheses]).
Try not to put two sets of brackets next to each other. For example, this sentence:
- Nikifor Grigoriev (c. 1885–1919) (also known as Matviy Hryhoriyiv) was a Ukrainian insurgent leader.
would be better written as either of these:
- Nikifor Grigoriev (c. 1885–1919), also known as Matviy Hryhoriyiv, was a Ukrainian insurgent leader.
- Nikifor Grigoriev (c. 1885–1919) was a Ukrainian insurgent leader. He was also known as Matviy Hryhoriyiv.
Serial commas
The serial comma (also known as the Oxford comma or Harvard comma) is a comma used immediately before a conjunction in a list of three or more items. The phrase "ham, chips, and eggs" is written with a serial comma, but "ham, chips and eggs" is not. Sometimes not using a serial comma makes an unclear sentence, as in this example: "The author would like to thank her parents, Sinéad O’Connor and President Bush." Sometimes using the comma can also make a sentence unclear, as in: "The author would like to thank her mother, Sinéad O’Connor, and President Bush" which may be a list of either two or three people. In such cases, there are three options to make the sentence more clear:
- A choice can be made whether or not to use the comma.
- The sentence can be rewritten to avoid listing the items in an unclear way.
- The items in the list can be presented using a formatted list.
If the presence of the final serial comma does not affect the clarity of the sentence (which is the case most of the time), there is no Wikipedia consensus on whether it should be used.
The names of railroads and railways do not generally use the serial comma (for example, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago and St. Louis Railroad). This is also the standard for law firms (for example, Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom).
Colons
Colons ( : ) should not have spaces before them:
- Correct:
- He attempted it in two years: 1941 and 1943
- Incorrect:
- He attempted it in two years : 1941 and 1943
Colons should have complete sentences before them:
- Correct:
- He attempted it in two years: 1941 and 1943
- Incorrect:
- The years he attempted it included: 1941 and 1943
Dashes
The hyphen (-) is used to form some compound words, e.g. free-electron, well-known, etc. The hyphen is used for compound adjectives, but there is a space before the noun, e.g. run-of-the-mill Wikipedian. It is also used to show when separate words run together, e.g. man-of-war. As well as these uses, the hyphen is also used to split words that will not fit on one line.
The en dash (–) used to show sequences and ranges, e.g. A–Z, 1999–2003. The en dash is also used in compounds when the connection might otherwise be expressed with to, versus, and, or between. (Here the relationship is thought of as parallel, symmetric, equal, oppositional, or at least involving separate or independent elements.) For example, boyfriend–girlfriend problems; the Paris–Montpellier route; a New York – Los Angeles flight or iron–cobalt interactions. In these cases, there are no spaces around the dash if it is separating single words. Spaces are added on both sides of the dash if the thing you are dashing has more than one word, e.g. north pole – south pole.
The em dash (—) is used to link clauses and to show breaks in sentences, e.g. Put frankly, he was an accomplice—in fact, a conspirator—to the murder of these people. e.g. I saw it—the large blue flag. Note that there are no spaces around the dash. However, an en dash with spaces can do the same job: I saw it – the large blue flag.
The minus sign (−) is a different symbol to the hyphen or any other dash.
Other dashes, such as the double-hyphen (--), should not be used unless in plain text documents.
Spaces after the end of a sentence
There are no guidelines on whether to use one space after the end of a sentence, or two. The issue is not important because the difference can only be seen in the edit box.
Contractions
Do not use contractions – such as don’t, can’t, won’t, would’ve, they’d, and so on – unless they are in a quotation. Contractions can be difficult for people who do not know English well. Because this is Simple English Wikipedia, each word should be written out in its full form. The contraction o’clock is an exception, as it is mandatory.
Slashes
Try not to join two words with a slash (/
), because it suggests that the two are related, but does not say exactly how. There is almost always a better choice than a slash. When it is possible, be specific to avoid wording that is not clear.
An example: "The parent/instructor must be present at all times." Must both be present? (Then write and say "the parent and the instructor".) Must at least one be present? (Then write and say "the parent or the instructor".) Is it intended that the same person is both parent and instructor? (Then use an en dash or a hyphen: "the parent–instructor".)
In situations involving a distinction or disjunction, the en dash is usually better than the slash, for example, "the novel–novella distinction".
The slash does have some good uses. It can be used to separate lines of poetry ("To be or not to be: that is the question: / Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer / The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune") or to show how something is spoken or pronounced ("ribald is pronounced /ri-bəld/" or to separate the numbers in a fraction ("7⁄8").
"And/or"
The phrase and/or is especially awkward. For example, "x and/or y" can be written as "x or y, or both", or "either x or y" and optionally add "but not both", if necessary.
When there are more than two choices, it is even more important to not use and/or. With two choices, at least the intention is clear; but with more than two it may difficult to know what is trying to be expressed. Instead of "x, y, and/or z", use an appropriate alternative: "one or more of x, y, and z"; "some or all of x, y, and z"; etc.
Ellipses
An ellipsis is a series of three dots (periods) that shows that words have been left out.
Examples: in the middle of your sentence … or after your comma, … or before one…, or at the end of your sentence…. In your question…? Or even your exclamation…!
Note that square brackets indicate editorial replacements as well as editorial insertions. For example, suppose that a source says, "X contains Y. Under certain circumstances, X may contain Z as well." Then it is correct to quote this work as saying "X contains Y [and sometimes] Z" (without ellipsis).
Question marks and exclamation marks
The question mark is used in the normal English way: any direct question should have a question mark. There should never be a space just before the question mark in a sentence. They will normally be used in quotations, since it is rare for an encyclopedia article to pose direct questions.
The question mark and the exclamation point go within quotation marks when they apply to the quoted matter only. They go outside when they apply to the whole sentence.
The exclamation mark should not be used as punctuation, unless it is in a quotation. This is because exclamation marks are an expression of surprise or emotion that is not appropriate for a 'neutral' encyclopedia.
More than one question mark (?? or ???), or exclamation mark (!! or !!!), or some combination of these (such as !?) are never appropriate for use in Wikipedia articles, unless reproducing actual quotes that use them in this way.
Date and time
Writing precisely
Avoid words and statements that indicate vague time or will quickly go out of date (unless their meaning is made clear by the rest of the sentence or paragraph). These include:
- at the moment
- currently
- in modern times
- is now considered
- lately
- nowadays
- presently
- recently
- soon
- to date
- today
- years ago
Instead of these, use either:
- more precise terms ("in January 2005"; "since the start of 2005"; "during the 1990s"); or
- an as of phrase ("as of August 2008"), which tells readers that the statement was correct as of a certain date, and reminds editors that the statement may need to be updated.
It may not be necessary to follow the above rules on pages that are regularly updated, such as those that cover current events.
Times
Whether the 12- or 24-hour clock should be used to show a time depends on the article. In both cases, hours, minutes and seconds should be separated by colons ("1:38:09 pm" and "13:38:09").
- 12-hour clock times end with dotted or undotted lower-case a.m. or p.m., or am or pm. Put a non-breaking space between the time and the a.m. or p.m. ("2:30 p.m." or "2:30 pm", not "2:30p.m." or "2:30pm"). To create a non-breaking space, type " ", like this: "2:30 p.m." Instead of using 12 pm and 12 am, use noon or 12 noon and midnight or 12 midnight.
- 24-hour clock times do not have a.m., p.m., noon or midnight after the time. If the hour only has one digit, you can choose either to add a zero or not ("08:15" or "8:15"). 00:00 refers to midnight at the start of a date, 12:00 to noon, and 24:00 to midnight at the end of a date.