Gone Home Wiki:Manual of Style

The Manual of Style (often abbreviated MoS or MOS) is a style guide for all Gone Home Wiki articles and official documents. It establishes our house style, to help editors produce articles with consistent, clear, and precise language, layout, and formatting. The goal is to make the encyclopedia easier and more intuitive to use. Consistency in style and formatting promotes clarity and cohesion; this is especially important within an article.

Article titles, sections, and headings

Article titles

An article title is a convenient label for the article, which distinguishes it from other articles. It need not be the name of the subject; many article titles are descriptions of the subject.

• Use "sentence case" or "sentence-style": The initial letter of a title is capitalized; otherwise, capital letters are used only where they would be used in a normal sentence e.g. Sam's diary, not Sam's Diary.
• Use the singular form: Article titles should be singular e.g. Self-help book, not Self-help book.
• Use full names without ranks for characters: Articles about characters should avoid the title or rank, unless the character is known only by the title e.g. Oscar Masan, not Doctor Masan, Doctor Oscar, Oscar "Doc" Masan, or any other variation thereof.
• Use parentheses to distinguish similar articles: e.g. Daniel, Daniel (journal entry).

Article sections

Main article: Project:Layout guide

• Headings should not normally contain links, especially where only part of a heading is linked.
• Citations should not be placed within or on the same line as section and subsection headings.
• Headings should not contain images, including flag icons.

Spelling

American spelling should be used on all canon encyclopedia articles on Gone Home Wiki, on any template transcribed on articles, on transcripts and on all official projects and blog posts. This is to reflect the American origin of Gone Home. There are the following exceptions:

• Regional variations in spelling may be used in all other contexts on Gone Home Wiki, such as comments, talk pages, user pages, blog posts, fanon and fan fiction.
• If quoting a source, never alter any part of the quotation, even if it does not use American spelling.

Capital letters

Unnecessary capitalization should be avoided. For example, use journal rather than Journal. This is sometimes referred to as the "down style". Capitalization should be reserved for proper names only.

Capitalization of "The"

In general, do not capitalize a definite article in the middle of a sentence. However, some idiomatic exceptions, including most titles of artistic works, should be quoted exactly according to common usage.

Incorrect	(generic):	an article about The First Day of School
Correct	(generic):	an article about the First Day of School
Incorrect	(title):	She wrote the Nunnery.
Correct	(title):	She wrote The Nunnery.

Titles

• In generic use, apply lower case for words such as doctor and senior conservationist e.g. Janice was a senior conservationist with the Takelma County Forestry Service..
• In parts of a person's title, begin such words with a capital letter e.g. Doctor Masan, not doctor Masan.

Calendar items

Seasons should be in lower case e.g. her last summer; the winter solstice.

Flora and fauna

Flora and fauna should be in lower case e.g. cat. An exception to this is if a character is known by the name of their species.

Locations

• Names of institutions (Reed College) are proper nouns and require capitals.
• Generic words for institutions (university, college, hospital, high school) do not take capitals:

Incorrect	(generic):	The College offers programs in arts and sciences.
Correct	(generic):	The college offers programs in arts and sciences.
Correct	(title):	Reed College offers programs in arts and sciences.

• Political or geographical units such as cities, towns, and countries follow the same rules: as proper nouns they require capitals; but as generic words (sometimes best omitted for simplicity) they do not.

Incorrect	(generic):	The County has a population of 55,000.
Correct	(generic):	The county has a population of 55,000.
Correct	(title):	The County of Boon has a population of 55,000.
Correct	(title):	The Boon County has a population of 55,000.
Correct	("city" omitted):	Boon has a population of 55,000.

"Internet" and "web"

Like with other cases involving generic terms, "web" should not be capitalized unless it is used as part of the official name of a system or an organization. "Internet" is always capitalized.

Italics

• Use italics for the titles of works of literature and art, such as books, pamphlets, films (including short films), television series, music albums, and paintings e.g. Gone Home. The titles of articles, chapters, songs, television episodes, and other short works are not italicized; they are enclosed in double quotation marks e.g. "Some Special".
• Italicize only the elements of the sentence affected by the emphasis. Do not italicize surrounding punctuation e.g. What are we to make of that?, not What are we to make of that?.

Punctuation

Apostrophes

Consistent use of the straight (or typewriter) apostrophe ( ' ) is recommended, as opposed to the curly (or typographic) apostrophe ( ’ ).

Quotation marks

• Use double quotation marks: Enclose quotations with double quotation marks e.g. Janice said, "It's just a phase." Enclose quotations within quotations with single quotation marks e.g. Terrence said, "Did Janice say 'It's just a phase' just before?"
• When the title of an article appearing in the lead paragraph requires quotation marks (for example, the title of a song or poem), the quotation marks should not be in boldface, as they are not part of the title e.g. "Some Special".

Place all punctuation marks inside the quotation marks if they are part of the quoted material and outside if they are not. This practice is sometimes referred to as logical punctuation. This is more in keeping with a principle of minimal change. This punctuation system does not require placing final periods and commas outside the quotation marks all the time, but rather maintaining their original positions in (or absence from) the quoted material.

Brackets and parentheses

• If a sentence contains a bracketed phrase, place the sentence punctuation outside the brackets (as shown here).
• If one or more sentences are wholly inside brackets, place their punctuation inside the brackets.

There should be no space next to the inner side of a bracket. An opening bracket should be preceded by a space, except in unusual cases; for example, when it is preceded by an opening quotation mark, another opening bracket, or a portion of a word.

Ellipses

An ellipsis is an omission, often used in a printed record of conversation. The ellipsis is represented by ellipsis points: a set of three dots.

Style

Ellipsis points, or ellipses, have traditionally been implemented in three ways:

• Three unspaced periods (...). This is the easiest way in the context of web publishing, and gives a predictable appearance in HTML. Recommended.
• Pre-composed ellipsis character (…); generated with the … character entity, or as a literal "…". This is harder to input and edit, and too small in some fonts. Not recommended.
• Three spaced periods (. . .). This is an older style that is unnecessarily wide and requires non-breaking spaces to keep it from breaking at the end of a line e.g.  . . . . It is now generally confined to some forms of print publishing. Not recommended.

Function and implementation

Use an ellipsis if material is omitted in the course of a quotation, unless square brackets are used to gloss the quotation (see above, and points below).

• Put a space on each side of an ellipsis, except that there should be no space between an ellipsis and:
  • a quotation mark directly following the ellipsis
  • any (round, square, curly, etc.) bracket, where the ellipsis is on the inside
  • sentence-final punctuation, or a colon, semicolon, or comma (all rare), directly following the ellipsis
• Only place terminal punctuation after an ellipsis if it is textually important (as is often the case with exclamation marks and question marks, and rarely with periods).
• Use non-breaking spaces ( ) only as needed to prevent improper line breaks, for example:
  • To keep a quotation mark from being separated from the start of the quotation ("... we are still worried").
  • To keep the ellipsis from wrapping to the next line ("Heavens to Betsy, Bratmobile, ... and The Youngins but not Girlscout").

With square brackets

An ellipsis does not normally need square brackets around it, because its function is usually obvious—especially if the guidelines above are followed. Square brackets, however, may optionally be used for precision, to make it clear that the ellipsis is not itself quoted; this is usually only necessary if the quoted passage also uses three periods in it to indicate a pause or suspension. The ellipsis should follow exactly the principles given above, but with square brackets inserted immediately before and after it (Her long rant continued: "How do I feel? How do you think I ... look, this has gone far enough! [...] I want to go home!").

Commas

• Pairs of commas are often used to delimit parenthetic material, forming a parenthetical remark. This interrupts the sentence less than a parenthetical remark in (round) brackets or dashes. Do not be fooled by other punctuation, which can mask the need for a comma, especially when it collides with a bracket or parenthesis, as in this example:

• Place quotation marks in accordance with logical punctuation:

Incorrect:	She said, "Punctuation styles on Gone Home Wiki are way too complicated," and also made other policy-related complaints.
Correct:	She said, "Punctuation styles on Gone Home Wiki are way too complicated", and also made other policy-related complaints.

• Use serial commas. This is more consistent with the recommendations of authoritative style guides.

Incorrect:	Lonnie listened to Heavens to Betsy, Bratmobile and Girlscout.
Correct:	Lonnie listened to Heavens to Betsy, Bratmobile, and Girlscout.

• Modern practice is against excessive use of commas; there are usually ways to simplify a sentence so that fewer are needed.

Colons

A colon (:) informs the reader that what comes after it demonstrates, explains, or modifies what has come before, or is a list of items that has just been introduced. The items in such a list may be separated by commas; or, if they are more complex and perhaps themselves contain commas, the items should be separated by semicolons:

The House on Arbor Hill has several features: the an enclosed landing, an expansive basement, and a cozy attic, to name a few.

In most cases a colon works best with a complete grammatical sentence before it. There are exceptions, such as when the colon introduces items set off in new lines like the very next colon here.

The word following a colon is capitalized, if that word effectively begins a new grammatical sentence, and especially if the colon serves to introduce more than one sentence:

The argument is easily stated: We have been given only three tickets. There are four of us here: you, the twins, and me. The twins are inseparable. Therefore, you or I will have to stay home.

No sentence should contain more than one colon. There should never be a hyphen or a dash immediately following a colon. Only a single space follows a colon.

Semicolons

A semicolon (;) is sometimes an alternative to a period, enabling related material to be kept in the same sentence; it marks a more decisive division in a sentence than a comma. If the semicolon separates clauses, normally each clause must be independent (meaning that it could stand on its own as a sentence); often, only a comma or only a semicolon will be correct in a given sentence.

Correct:	Though he had been here before, I did not recognize him.
Incorrect:	Though he had been here before; I did not recognize him.

Above, "Though he had been here before" cannot stand on its own as a sentence, and therefore is not an independent clause.

Correct:	Oranges are an acid fruit; bananas are classified as alkaline.
Incorrect:	Oranges are an acid fruit, bananas are classified as alkaline.

This incorrect use of a comma between two independent clauses is known as a comma splice; however, in very rare cases, a comma may be used where a semicolon would seem to be called for:

Accepted:	"Life is short, art is long." (citing a brief aphorism; see Ars longa)
Accepted:	"I have studied it, you have not." (reporting brisk conversation)

A semicolon does not force a capital letter in the word that follows it.

A sentence may contain several semicolons, especially when the clauses are parallel; multiple unrelated semicolons are often signs that the sentence should be divided into shorter sentences, or otherwise refashioned.

Unwieldy:	Oranges are an acid fruit; bananas are classified as alkaline; pears are close to neutral; these distinctions are rarely discussed.
One better way:	Oranges are an acid fruit, bananas are alkaline, and pears are close to neutral; these distinctions are rarely discussed.

Dashes

Two forms of dash are possible: en dash (–) and em dash (—). On Gone Home Wiki, the former is preferred. A hyphen (-), or two hyphens (--) should never be used to substitute for a dash.

Incorrect:	Another "threat" was detected - but it was later found to be simply a group of misfits.
Correct:	Another "threat" was detected – but it was later found to be simply a group of misfits.

Do not use more than two dashes in a single sentence. More than two makes the structure unclear; it takes time for the reader to see which dashes, if any, form a pair.

• The birds – at least the ones he saw – had red and blue feathers.
• Avoid: First in the procession – and most spectacularly – came the Queen – then the nobles.

Slashes

Avoid joining two words by a slash, also known as a forward slash or solidus (/). Consider alternative wordings to avoid it.

Terminal punctuation

• Clusters of question marks, exclamation marks, or a combination of them (such as the interrobang), are highly informal and inappropriate in articles.
• Use the exclamation mark with restraint. It is an expression of surprise or emotion that is generally unsuitable for an encyclopedia.

Spacing

• Never place a space before commas, semicolons, colons, or terminal punctuation.
• Always place a space after the punctuation marks just mentioned, unless it is the end of a paragraph, dot point, list element or the article.
• Use one space after terminal punctuation. The use of double spaces is pointless as MediaWiki automatically condenses any number of spaces to just one when rendering the page.

Punctuation and footnotes

Footnotes are used to add references. "Ref" tags should immediately follow the text to which they refer, with no space before the tag. When they coincide with punctuation, the tag is placed immediately after the punctuation. Multiple tags should have no space between them.

Exceptions: "ref" tags are placed before, not after, dashes; and where a reference or other footnote applies only to material within a parenthetical phrase, placing the tag within the closing parenthesis may be appropriate.

Dates and time

• Use of the term "current" should be avoided. What is current today may not be tomorrow; situations change over time. Instead, use date and time-specific text.

Numbers

• In general, write whole numbers one through nine as words, write other numbers that take two words or fewer to say as either numerals or words, and write all other numbers as numerals: 1/5 or one fifth, 84 or eighty-four, 200 or two hundred, but 3.75, 544, 21 million). This applies to both ordinal and cardinal numbers.
• Use a comma to delimit numbers with four or more digits to the left of the decimal point: 12,345 and 1,000.

Grammar

• For the possessive of singular nouns ending with just one s, add just an apostrophe.
• For a normal plural noun, ending with a pronounced s, form the possessive by adding just an apostrophe e.g. his sons' wives.

Tense

For in-universe articles:

• Past tense must be used on any event articles, articles describing entities that are deceased or no longer exist, or sections of any in-universe article detailing past events e.g. Sam ran away from home, not Sam runs away from home.
• Present tense must be used on any location, creature, and character article, where this does not conflict with the first guideline.

Vocabulary

Formal use of language is mandatory on all canon encyclopedia articles e.g. Lonnie's dedication to her training was evident in her attitude towards the army, not Lonnie looked really awesome in her cadet clothes!.

Formality and neutrality

• Uncontracted forms such as do not or it is are the default in encyclopedic style; don't and it's are too informal.
• On encyclopedia articles, avoid such phrases as remember that and note that, which address readers directly in a less-than-encyclopedic tone. Similarly, phrases such as of course, naturally, obviously, clearly, and actually make presumptions about readers' knowledge, and call into question the reason for including the information in the first place. Do not tell readers that something is ironic, surprising, unexpected, amusing, coincidental, unfortunate, etc. This supplies a point of view. Simply state the sourced facts and allow readers to draw their own conclusions.

Perspective

Articles on Gone Home Wiki are one of two types:

• In-universe: Article should be written as if the Avatar world was the real world. Episodes should not be referred to in a sentence, and characters should not be treated as fictional constructs. These articles include all character, location, flora and fauna, event etc. articles – all articles not in the real world category.
• Real world: Article should be written from "our" perspective. This includes all actor, staff, episode, and film articles.

Images

• Avoid sandwiching text between two images that face each other, or between an image and an infobox.
• Lead images, which usually appear inside an infobox, should usually be no wider than 250px.
• Thumbnails shown in the article should generally be 200px. Images containing important detail (e.g. a map, diagram, or chart) may need larger sizes than usual to make them readable.

Links

To add a link in a text, surround the word with brackets (i.e. [[word]]).

• Make links only where they are relevant and helpful in the context: Hyperlinks are distracting and may slow the reader down. Link only on first instance when relevant (e.g. Linking to Katie in the opening paragraph of Sam's page) and link less relevant pages (e.g. a link to Katie's postcards) later on, as to not clutter the page and make high-value links that are worth pursuing stand out clearly.
• Do not add external links to other Avatar-related sites without permission.
• Do not use external links in the body of an article. Articles can include an external links section at the end, pointing to further information outside Gone Home Wiki as opposed to citing sources.

Use direct links rather than linking via a redirect page (e.g. [[Samantha Greenbriar]]., not [[Sam]]), as well as simple links rather than pipe-links (e.g. Doctor [[Oscar Masan]]., not [[Oscar Masan|Doctor Masan]]).

Pipe-links are only to be used when the linked text is different from the title of the linked page (e.g. [[Girlscout|the band Lonnie joined]]. When using a pipe-link, the first letter of the link should always be capitalized (e.g. Sam left a [[Letters to Katie|final letter]]., not Sam left a [[letters to Katie|final letter]].)

When linking to a normally uncapitalized word in the body of a text, it suffices to create a lower-cased link (e.g. Richard has [[an extra ticket]], not Richard has [[An extra ticket|an extra ticket]]), and when linking to an article for plural use, it suffices to create the plural form of the linked word outside the link rather than creating a pipe-link (e.g. Sam received a few [[birthday card]]s., not Sam received a few [[birthday card|birthday cards]].).

Miscellaneous

Source mode editing markup

• Place spaces on either side of the text in a heading e.g. == Heading ==.
• Place a blank line before a line containing a heading, except when a sub-heading immediately follows a heading, where there should be no blank line between the heading and the sub-heading.
• Do not place a blank line between a heading and the text or files below it.
• File link parameters should appear in this order: [[File:Filename.png|thumb|right|200px|Description.]]
• Place blank lines before and after a file, separating it from body text.
• Place a space after the asterisk and hash symbols in unordered and ordered lists respectively, so that each new list item is easier to find e.g. * Item.
• Sparingly, longer quotes of short passages of dialogue may be emphasized by using <blockquote> tags. Of course, the quoted text should be in italics and be enclosed with quotation marks e.g. <blockquote>"''Quote''" — Who said it to [[Whom]].</blockquote>
• Reference lists should be enclosed within a scroll box.

To promote consistency and ease of editing, the following items, if appropriate, should appear in this order before the lead section of an article.

1. Information about other uses, similar topics and links to disambiguation pages.
2. Infobox template, if a relevant one exists, split apart with a line for each template parameter. The closing curly bracket for the infobox template should be on a new line. The lead section should begin directly after this curly bracket, not on a new line.

Separate each of the items listed above with a blank line.

Other points

• Quotes may be added to any page. Quote boxes should only be used once at the top of the page.
• Speculation may not be added to any article.