| Unbeliever Wiki Policies |
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This page details the Manual of Style (MOS or MoS) for this wiki. When a MOS guideline offers a choice of style, use only one alternative consistently throughout an article, and do not unreasonably alter a choice that has already been made. The MOS has too many suggestions to memorize, or even to consult regularly, but because they are based on consensual discussion, they often settle time-wasting arguments. This wiki has no firm rules, but these suggestions help create consistent articles. For a descriptive directory of the pages which make up the Manual of Style, see Manual of Style/Contents.
Capital letters[]
Use sentence case for article titles and section headings Tips and pointers, not Tips and Pointers.
Capitalize names of characters and real life people.
Avoid capitalizing names of plants and animals.
The seasons (summer, winter, spring, and fall/autumn) are not to be capitalized.
Abbreviations[]
To indicate approximately, the non-italicized abbreviation c. (followed by a space) is preferred over circa, ca., or approx..
Write US or U.S., but not USA.
Use "and" instead of the "&" sign, except in tables, infoboxes, and official names.
Punctuation[]
Apostrophes and quotation marks[]
Use straight quote marks " and apostrophes ' as available from the keyboard, and not alternatives such as Template:FormattingError and Template:FormattingError.
Italicize names of books(, films, TV series).
Both James' house and James's house are correct.
Periods and commas[]
Place a full stop (a period) or a comma before a closing quotation mark if it belongs as part of the quoted material; otherwise put it after: The word carefree means "happy". But She said, "I'm feeling carefree." (Please do so irrespective of any rules associated with the variety of English in use.)
An ellipsis should be written as three separate dots (...): not spaced (. . .), and not using the single-character option (…).
The serial comma (for example the comma before and in "ham, chips, and eggs") is optional; be sensitive to possible ambiguity from thoughtless use or thoughtless avoidance.
Avoid comma splices.
Picture captions should not end in a full stop (a period) unless they are complete sentences.
Dashes and hyphens[]
Avoid using a hyphen after a standard -ly adverb (a newly available home).
A hyphen is not a dash. Hyphens are used within words or to join words, but not in punctuating the parts of a sentence. Use an en dash (–) with before and a space after; or use an em dash (—) without spaces. Avoid using two hyphens (--) to make a dash; and avoid using a hyphen for a minus sign.
Use an en dash, not a hyphen, between numbers: pp. 14–21}; xt|1953–2008. An en dash is also to connect parallel terms: red–green colorblind; a New York–London flight. Use spaces around the en dash only if the connected terms are multi-unit dates: January 1999 – December 2000.
References[]
There are multiple citation styles. The most common uses <ref>...</ref> (ref tags) to create footnotes (sometimes called endnotes or notes), which will appear in the reference or endnote section. This citation should immediately follow the text to which it applies, including any punctuation (with some exceptions).