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From BionicWiki

Obviously, all contributions to BionicWiki are welcome and appreciated, but to present the most professional content possible, editors should follow consistent style guidelines when editing articles.

Please Note: If you want to try out or practice wiki markup or other formatting, please use the Sandbox, not an actual article.

Style Basics

Sentences, fragments, and run-ons

Use full sentences at all times. A complete sentence must contain a verb and a subject. (Imperative sentences infer the subject "you".) Be careful that sentences with more than one predicate or subject contain proper conjunctions when necessary to avoid run-on sentences.

Conjunctions separate clauses in compound sentences. Coordinating conjunctions join independent clauses (clauses which would be complete sentences if separated). They include "for", "and", "not", "but", "or", "yet", and "so", and the semicolon. Subordinating conjunctions join a dependent clause to an independent clause; they include "because", "if", "when", "although", "while", and "even though".

Capitalization

Capitalization of sentences

• Capitalize the first word of each sentence.
• Capitalize proper nouns. Be careful to include titles when they are part of proper noun phrases (Doctor Bledsoe vs. a doctor). Proper nouns include:
  • Names of people...
    • ...unless they choose otherwise (Michele Ryan, will yun lee)
  • Names of locations and corresponding nationalities
    • Do not capitalize a definite article which precedes a location or nationality unless it is part of the formal name of the place or character. (the Phillipines, The Hague, the Haitian)
  • Names, but not mere descriptions, of specific items. (The Liberty Bell vs. Jaime's gun)
    • Capitalize a definite article which is part of the name of an object.
• Capitalize the first-person pronoun "I" (but see here).
• Capitalize nationalities, countries, cities, states.
• Trademarks and brand names should be capitalized as they are used by the owner of the mark. (Dell, iPod)
• Days of the week, months of the year, and the names of languages are always capitalized.
• Capitalize adjectives which are derived from proper nouns. (Christian, Faustian, American)

Capitalization of titles

There are a number of different conventions for capitalizing titles of works. Technically, none is any more "correct" than any other. The most widely accepted is to capitalize the first and last word of the title, and all words in between that are not articles, conjunctions, or prepositions. However, titles of works should be capitalized as by their authors when the capitalization differs from the standard rules.

Plural nouns

Most nouns take an "s" to become plural (powers, diners)

• Nouns which end in a sibilant ("s", "sh", "ch", "x") take "es" to become plural. (buses, wishes, marches, taxes)
• Nouns which end in "y" change the "y" to an "i" and add "es" to become plural. (worries, candies, flurries)
• Many nouns which are borrowed from other languages have non-standard plurals. (alumnus becomes alumni, for example)
• Some common noun phrases for occupations place an adjective after, not before, the noun. Be careful to make the noun plural, not the adjective. (attorneys general, brothers-in-law)
• Family names should be made plural when referring to more than one member of the family. Family names follow all the normal rules except that the name is never changed. (Jaime and Becca are the Sommerses, George and Laura are the Bushes, Carmelo's family is the Anthonys, not the Anthonies.)

Punctuation

Punctuate your sentences properly. All sentences should have one and only one piece of terminal punctuation (a question mark, period, or exclamation point).

Apostrophes

Apostrophes are used to denote contractions and some possessives.

• Contractions always have an apostrophe (isn't, doesn't, it's).
• Possessives only do when they are the possessive form of a noun (Nathan's campaign). Possessive pronouns do not use apostrophes (His, hers, its)
  • The possessive of a single noun always adds an apostrophe and an "s", even if the single noun ends in "s" (Will Anthros's car)
    • The only exception is a singular word which ends in a double sibilant (Moses, Isis, Texas). Such nouns take only an apostrophe to become possessives to avoid a triple sibilant. (Moses', Isis', Texas')
  • The possessive of a plural noun which ends in "s" adds only an apostrophe to the plural (The Sommerses' Home, The Anthroses' Home)
  • The possessive of a plural noun which does not end in "s" adds an apostrophe and an "s" (the men's hammers, the women's crowbars)
• Apostrophes are never used to make a word plural. The Bledsoes' is possessive and plural; The Bledsoes is plural but not possessive.

Grammatically, an apostrophe is not the same as a single quotation mark, but typographically the same mark is used. In American English, single quotation marks are used for quotations within quotations. (I told Jaime, "Becca said, 'You're a goober.'")

Colons and Semicolons

Colons:

• Introduce lists (The following are colors: red, green, and blue)
• Introduce definitions or identifications (A new character appears: Jaime's doctor, HRG: Horn-Rimmed Glasses)
• Separate titles from subtitles (Vampire: The Masquerade, Star Trek: The Next Generation)

Semicolons:

• Act as a conjunction between closely-related sentences: (Ruth has hair; it looks silly.)
• Separate list items that contain commas (Jaime, who jumps; Bledsoe, who practices medicine; and Becca, who is a family member)
• Act as a conjunction when a conjunctive adverb is used in place of a conjunction (Ruth has hair; however, it looks silly.)

Hyphens and Dashes

Hyphens:

• Separate parts of compound words (fleur-de-lis, Spider-Man, twenty-six)
  • When using multiple compound words which share a word, omit the shared word from the first instance but retain the hyphen (right- and left-handed)
• Separate syllables of some words which would otherwise lead to confusing blocks of consonants (shell-like)

Dashes:

• Denote interruptions ("I've always just known him as—Stop that you, no more shoes!")
• Set aside parenthetical information (Becca Sommers—Jaime's sister—yelled at Dr. Bledsoe.)

An em dash is produced by typing two hyphens (--). Typographically, standard American practice is not to add spaces either before or after the dash.

Quotation Marks

Quotation marks denote direct quotations. They should not be used with paraphrases. In American English, double quotation marks are used before and after the quoted material, while single marks are used before and after quotations within quotations.

There is no grammatical rule regarding the order of baseline punctuation (commas and periods) and quotation marks; in fact, in written text, baseline punctuation is traditionally placed beneath the quotation mark. However, typography requires that one appear before the other. The standard American practice has been to include periods and commas within the quotation marks without regard to whether they are part of the quoted text or not. However, this practice has been largely abandoned in favor of the British practice of only enclosing baseline punctuation when it appears in the quoted text, which is more precise. Additionally, the American practice can lead to confusion with computer file extensions and URLs. (The website is located at "primatechpaper.com." vs. The website is located at "primatechpaper.com".)

In either the British or American style, question marks and exclamation points always appear inside the quotes if they are part of the quote, and outside the quote if they are not. Semicolons and colons always appear outside the quotation marks.

Commas

Commas are used to:

• Separate items in a list (red, green, and blue)
  • The "serial comma" which appears before the last item in the list is optional, but may be necessary for clarity. "Sasquatch killed two women, Charlie and Dale" is a very different sentence from "Sasquatch killed two women, Charlie, and Dale."
• Set aside introductory phrases (Later, Once upon a time,)
• Set aside non-essential parenthetical information:
  • All of the evolved humans, who have blue eyes implies that all evolved humans have blue eyes. This is non-essential parenthetical information.
  • All of the evolved humans who have blue eyes identifies a subset of evolved humans—only those with blue eyes. This information is essential to defining the class.
• Separate dates from years (August 12, 1963)
• Separate cities from regions, states, provinces, or countries (London, England; Dallas, Texas)
• Separate independent clauses joined by a conjunction (Jaime screamed, and the sasquatch laughed.)
• Separate a dependent clause which appears before its independent clause (When Peter screamed, everyone heard it. vs. Everyone heard it when Jaime screamed.)
• Separate coordinate adjectives that modify the same noun
  • Multiple adjectives are coordinate if they are of equal importance. If the order of the adjectives does not matter to the sentence, they are coordinate.
  • "The big, red dog" implies a dog which is big and red. This would be appropriate if only one dog is being discussed. "The big red dog" specifies a red dog which is big. This would be appropriate if you needed to distinguish "the big red dog" from "the small red dog".
• Separate a speaker from a quotation when a verb which denotes speaking is used (Ruth said, "My hair is preposterous.")
  • If a verb which denotes speaking is not used, or if the quote is not the object of the verb, use a colon instead (Ruth discussed her hair: "It's preposterous.")

Pronouns and Antecedents

Be mindful of pronouns and antecedents. An "antecedent" is the noun to which a pronoun refers. Generally, a pronoun refers to the last appropriate noun (i.e. the last noun of the appropriate number and gender for the pronoun used) which precedes it. Sentences like "Jaime and Becca walk through the casino, where she sees a roulette table" are ambiguous, and if the writer intended to mean that Jaime saw a roulette table, incorrect.

Good editing practices

• Preview and spellcheck articles before saving.
• Provide an edit summary.
• Use consistent section headings. Check Help:Layout for the appropriate layout for each category.
  • Help:Layout also contains blank layouts for each category you can copy and paste into a new article.
• Use consistent formatting:
  • Write a short lead section—that is, a section that appears ahead of any section headings—and bold the article title in that section.
  • Apply sidebars and navbars consistent with other articles in the same category. For a list of these elements, see Category: Templates
  • Link to all relevant articles the first time they appear in each section. This allows readers who have followed a section link from another article or who have used the table of contents to navigate the site more readily.

Categories

Assign appropriate categories and be sure to sort the article properly (exclude articles, last name first, etc.)

• To assign a category, simply link to it anywhere in the article. For example, [[Category: People]] will assign the article to the "People" category.
• To link to a category page, be sure to precede the word "Category" with a colon, like [[:Category: People]]. This prevents the category from being assigned to the article you are editing. This is especially important when redirecting to a category.
• To change the category sort of an article, pipe the preferred sort method after the category assignment. For example, [[Category: People|Sommers, Jaime]] will cause the article to appear under "S" rather than "J".
  • Sort people by last name.
  • Sort plot points and unnamed characters to exclude articles. ("Exterminator, The" instead of "The Exterminator")
  • Sort episodes by production number (101, 102) in [[Category: Episodes]] and by sequence within the season (01, 02, 03) in [[Category: Season (#) Episodes]].

The following table lists the top-level categories, plus some primary subcategories:

Language

Tense

Whenever possible, write in the present tense. This provides consistency between articles and makes narratives more clear. Obviously, references to future and past events relative to the time you are writing about should use the future and past tenses respectively.

It's appropriate to use the past tense for deceased characters, depending on context. "Mr. Bledsoe is Jonas's late father" is appropriate, because "late father" refers to his present condition. Conversely, "Robert Fresco was an oncologist at UCLA" is appropriate because "an oncologist at UCLA" describes his past condition, not his present condition. ("Robert Fresco is crispy" would use the present tense, of course.)

Person

Use the third person at all times. Avoid the use of "I", "we", or "you". It is not clear to the reader to whom such pronouns refer.

Perspective

Narrative sections (such as episode summaries and character histories) should be written from an "in-world" perspective. That is, they should read as if the events and people of Bionic are real. This provides consistency and clarity. Avoid any mention of the viewer, scene changes, commercial breaks, actors, seasons, episodes, or the like within these sections; it will only cause confusion. References to episodes should be parenthetical or section titles only in these sections.

References to anything about Bionic as a series, including its production, actors, broadcast schedule, or the like should be confined to Notes, Fan Theories, and other appropriate sections. This makes it more clear what information is "in-world" and which is not.

"Out-of-world" articles, including those for actors, crew, and production, should conversely maintain an "out-of-world" perspective. If you need to describe events within an episode in such an article, make it clear that you are describing a scene. For example, in Michelle Ryan, it would be better to say "in the scene where Jaime jumps from roof to roof, Michelle had to wear a harness" rather than "when Jaime jumps from roof to roof, she has to wear a harness."

Tone

Bionic Wiki is generally written in a somewhat casual tone. Contractions and common slang such as "cop" or "thug" are fine. Avoid any uncommon jargon unless you provide a definition. Also avoid any overt profanity unless you are quoting a source. Be mindful that any idioms may make the work much harder for translators. Using the term "bionic" to describe the characters is generally avoided because it's a vague term. The term "enhanced humans" is preferred.

Speculation

Any information which is not confirmed in an episode of the show should be considered speculative and labeled as such, and confined to appropriate articles or sections of articles. Speculative information includes fan theories, spoilers, and information from non-canon sources or from conflicting canon sources. Fan theories should always be labeled as fan theories, and confined to theories articles. Spoilers, whether confirmed by a reputable source or not, should be confined to spoilers articles and labeled with the {{unairedspoiler}} template. Other speculative information should be confined to Notes sections and clearly labeled. Note the source of any information you include in an article with an external link whenever possible. It's not necessary to do so for common fan theories.

Be especially careful with regard to inferences. Some information has been so strongly inferred that it's practically confirmed. However, it's best to note that such information is inferred and not confirmed.

For more on speculation and sources, see Help:Sources.