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This Manual of Style outlines the standard of quality, clarity and consistency for articles that Torment Wiki strives for. The formatting described here is a guideline and can be overridden where circumstances warrant it. These guidelines will never be unerringly perfect for every situation. However, please try your best to keep to the advice outlined in this article so others may use your edits as inspiration when creating and editing their own articles.
These guidelines are a summary of the most important guidelines for this wiki, but a more expansive set of style guidelines can be found on Wikipedia at Wikipedia Manual of Style. A sample article based off these guidelines can be found on Project:Manual of Style/Sample.
Article title[]
The title of a page should not contain articles such as "a", "an" or "the". For example, the article about the Hive should be entitled "Hive", not "The Hive". The exception to this are character names in which "the" essentially becomes part of the name: i.e. "The Nameless One".
Titles should also be singular, since the wiki markup allows for letters to be appended to a link to appear as part of the link: i.e. [[mage]]s actually shows mages.
Article layout[]
One of the most important parts of wiki editing is how to structure an article. The structure is a powerful thing: it dictates what information the reader reads and when he or she reads it. It can influence what people contribute, where it goes, and how it might be written. Structure has the power to inform or confuse the same way good or bad writing does. Keep a well structured article, and you're more likely to have a high quality one.
Organize sections in an article in a hierarchical structure like you would an outline. Keep it logical, but feel free to forsake strict logic for readability. Wherever possible, try to have an introduction for each section. Just like the article as a whole, the section should start with an introduction and then have its subsections below it. Try using a shallow structure rather than a deep one. Too many nested sections usually leads to a confusing or unreadable article.
Above all, keep your layout consistent. Don't throw your reader a curve ball too often. The following sections will offer some good advice on keeping your articles clean, consistent, and clear.
Lead section[]
Unless an article is very short, it should start with an introductory lead section, before the first subheading. The lead should not be explicitly entitled == Introduction == or any equivalent header. The table of contents, if displayed, appears after the lead section and before the first subheading.
The lead should be capable of standing alone as a concise overview of the article, establishing context, and explaining why the subject is interesting or notable. It should be between one or two paragraphs long, and should be written in a clear and accessible style so that the reader is encouraged to read the rest of the article.
If possible, make the title the subject of the first sentence of the article. For example, write "Dhall "the Scrivener" is an extraordinarily old and sickly scribe found on the 2nd Floor of the [[Mortuary]] in the Receiving Room."
The first time the article mentions the title, put it in bold using three apostrophes — '''article title''' produces article title. Avoid other uses of bold in the first sentence, except for alternative titles of an article; for example:
Annah-of-the-Shadows, also known just as Annah, is a tiefling ...
Follow the normal rules for italics for titles of games:
Planescape: Torment is a role-playing video game developed by Black Isle Studios.
Do not put links in the bold reiteration of the title in the article's lead sentence. For example, "The Society of [[Sensation]] is one of the five joinable factions..." versus "The Society of Sensation is one of the five joinable factions..."
Table of contents[]
A table of contents will automatically appear in articles with a minimum of four headings (unless forced by the below options). By default this will be left-aligned above the first section heading.
- To the force a TOC position (left-aligned):
__TOC__ - To completely remove the TOC from a page:
__NOTOC__
The table of contents can be right-aligned - but only if it is very long (over 15 entries) and an information box is not occupying the top-right corner of the article (rare exceptions exist).
- Right-aligned TOC that floats next to text: {{tocright}}
Infoboxes[]
Infoboxes should be used on most pages, as a way to summarize important information so it is available at a glance. See Category:Infobox templates for more information.
Section headings[]
Use the == (two equal signs) style markup for main headings, equivalent to <h2>. Do not use a single =. This is because a single = creates an <h1> heading which is already used by the page header and would be bad coding. Also, do not use wikilinks in subject headings. When edited, these sections become confusing in the edit history because of the link code. Consider instead putting the word in the first or second sentence of the section and linking it there.
Capitalize the first letter only of the first word and of any proper nouns in a heading and leave all of the other letters in lowercase. Use "Founding and history", not "Founding and History". Note that this is different from most section title rules you'll encounter elsewhere.
Avoid special characters in headings, such as an ampersand (&), a plus sign (+), curly braces ({}), or square braces ([]). In place of the ampersand, use the word "and" unless the ampersand is part of a formal name.
Always keep headings short and simple. Headings are guidelines to your page's structure and should inform the reader rather than confuse. To keep it short, avoid unnecessary words or redundancy in headings, i.e. avoid a, an, and the, pronouns, repeating the article title, and so on. Also, try to avoid giving identical titles to different sections.
Images[]
Caption
Images make an article memorable and pretty. They can speak where words fail. At the same time, misplaced or untidy images can detract from an article. When choosing images, keep in mind placement, size, and the appropriateness of the image to the section. Let images flow with the text instead of break it up.
Large images such as screenshots should use the "thumb" (example:[[Image:CoolImage.png|thumb]]) option which displays large images as thumbnails. Images should generally be right aligned to enhance readability by allowing a smooth flow of text down the left margin - the "thumb" option does this by default. If an infobox is not being used in an article, a right aligned picture in the lead section is encouraged.
For more information, see Help:Images.
Galleries[]
When an article has many images, or can be improved by having more, and having inline images be detract from the readbility of an articles, the use of a <gallery> section is encouraged.
Tables[]
Tables should use a "class" design when possible, and should include as little 'fancy' formatting as possible. Tables can also be made sortable by adding a "sortable" class.
For long tables, it is recommended to create an "alt" class to alternate row colours to enhance readability. The below examples use "toccolours" as a class, but this is only for the purposes of demonstration, and isn't generally recommended.
With row headings, table caption, sortable[]
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Without row headings, with alt rows[]
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The last sections, if they exist, should always be "See also", followed by "References", followed by "External links". In the case of "See also", use bullets to list the internal links. Under the references section should be placed <references/>. Finally, in the external links should be all external links.
Categories[]
Categories should be added to the end of an article - a full list can be found on Special:Categories. They take the form [[Category:Categoryname]].
All articles should be accessible starting from Category:Browse, via subcategories.
Disambiguation[]
A disambiguation line is sometimes put at the beginning of an article to link to another article with the same or similar title. The line should be italicized and indented once. Most usually contain the phrase, "Were you looking for X?" For example:
- Were you looking for "[[The Battle of Terrafield]]", an official novel?
The template {{for}} can also be used for this purpose.
Redirects[]
Redirects should be used when an article can be referred to in multiple ways, such as different wording or spelling. A good example would be the faction pages, where a link to "Sensate" redirects the reader to the article entitled "Society of Sensation".
Redirects shouldn't be used for plurals except in rare occasions, since the wiki markup allows for letters to be appended to a link to appear as part of the link: i.e. [[Fighter]]s actually shows Fighters.
Quotations[]
Format a long quote (over four lines) as an italicized block quotation, which will be indented from both margins. Do not enclose the block quote in quotation marks. To format a block quotation, do not use the wiki indentation mark ":" — instead, use the HTML <blockquote> element.
Another option to make quotes stand out more is the {{quote|<quote>|<speaker>|<source>}} template.
{{quote|This is a quote|Speaker|''Source''}} results in:
| “ | This is a quote | ” |
—Speaker, Source | ||
Grammar[]
Grammar is a writer's toolbox. You can't build good sentences without knowing how to use your tools. Since a wiki article must be as clear as possible for all the people reading it, editors must keep close to correct grammar standards to ensure clear communication.
Capitalization[]
Titles such as lord or lady start with a capital letter when used as a title (followed by a name): "Lady of Pain", not "lady of Pain". When used generically, they should be in lower case: "Thorncombe is a lady."
Classes should only be capitalized when used as a proper noun, i.e. as someone's name. ("Mage, go be evil" versus "That mage is quite evil.")
Races such as githzerai, human, tiefling or undead should not be capitalized except when used as a proper noun or at the beginning of a sentence. Factions such as Dustmen, Godsmen, Sensates, or Mercykillers should always be capitalized.
Titles of works[]
Italics are used for the titles of works, such as books and games. The titles of articles, chapters, and other short works are not italicized but are enclosed in double quotation marks.
For example, italicize [[Planescape: Torment]] and [[Torment: Tides of Numenera]].
Protagonist and pronouns[]
The protagonist in Planescape: Torment should be referred to as "The Nameless One".
The main character in Torment: Tides of Numenera will be referred to as "The Last Castoff" or "Last Castoff". The Last Castoff can be male or female, so remember to write in a gender-neutral way. Use "they" and "their" instead of "he/she", "s/he" or "his/hers".
"The player" refers to the individual playing the game, not a character.
The second person ("You") should only be used in walkthrough sections or direct quotations. The first person ("I") should never be used except for on talk pages.
Writing[]
- “I believe the road to hell is paved with adverbs” -- Stephen King
We now come to the meat of an article: the words themselves. When you're editing wikis, you're both academic and artist. You have to be accurate, but you also have to be interesting. Neither one can dominate; you have to skillfully balance both.
Keep your writing concise. Don't use two words where one will do. Keeping your writing simple will make it easy to understand and easy to expand on. Use complete sentences whenever possible. When you write, use grammar as a toolbox: know the rules, but only break them on purpose.
Check your spelling and grammar. Do not use 'u' in place of 'you' or '2' in place of 'to'. Write the way you would for a class paper or a newspaper article.
Keep all of the topics you cover within the scope of the article. What that means is, you don't need to give a detailed history of humans on the page about Winston Churchill. Consider the article's title as your point of origin and write from that perspective. Make use of the wiki's ability to link to more detailed articles or external sources for more information.
Write from an impersonal perspective.' Do not use "I." For example, do not write, "Ravel Puzzlewell is a night hag of the Gray Wastes. She is a powerful witch, As far as I know." Avoid drawing attention to the author (yourself) as much as possible.
Be bold. If you know something is wrong, correct it. If you think you could word something better, write it. If an article has a glaring deficiency, fill it. Even if your first attempt isn't golden, you can fix it later or someone else will come along and fix it for you. Don't be afraid to screw up.
Conclusion[]
Every article can be improved (even this one). Following these guidelines will not ensure a perfect article the first time, but it will give the article a stronger skeleton. It's ultimately your job as an editor to put meat on it.
See also[]
- Project:Manual of Style/Sample - a sample wiki article.