ERE: Manual of Style
Table of Contents
This page is a style guide for ERE. It attempts to provide instructions for language use, graphical elements and article layout. Note that, since this wiki is in very early stages, the style guide is far from definitive. It will hopefully be fleshed out in the future, but so far it’s pretty much an experiment, and by trial and error this guide will be expanded and changed. Some style rules may very well change. This guide is also not complete yet and leaves out many details on style conventions. Apply it in a flexible way. If something just really looks better a certain way, while the style guide advises otherwise, maybe it’s the style guide that’s wrong, or there are certain exceptions.
Headings
For headings in an article, use the special header syntax. Capitalise the first character in the header title, and, if the title is a name, all other appropiate letters that are supposed to be capitalised in the should be capitalised.
Quotations
Quotations, for example quotes by a developer, if they are on their own block (for example in a quotes section) and not part of a paragraph. If the quote is part of a paragraph, it should be enclosed within quotation marks and italicized.
Example for a quote in its own block (quote from Dean Dodrill taken from the Everything2 entry for Lori:
Originally Lori was meant to be a distant cousin of Eva. Originally at the end of JJ2 I animated this yellow bunny in as a love interest for Spaz. He goes goo-goo over her and pursues. Well, I started to head the TSF project and thought it would be cool to add a new playable character. That yellow bunny seemed good (and I love female playable characters), but she was too goofy looking.
Example for quotations in a paragraph from Cliff Bleszinski:
He has said that he was, together with Dean Dodrill, working on “something very early”. He also said that “if Jazz were to return, he would probably be a 3rd person 3d title [and] appear on a next-generation console first”
To indent the text from a quote use the bq. Textile tag in a seperate paragraph, like this:
bq. Originally Lori was meant to be a distant cousin of Eva. Originally at the end of JJ2 I animated this yellow bunny in as a love interest for Spaz. He goes goo-goo over her and pursues. Well, I started to head the TSF project and thought it would be cool to add a new playable character. That yellow bunny seemed good (and I love female playable characters), but she was too goofy looking.
Article introduction
In an article, the first paragraph should provide a short description/summary of the subject. Ideally, the first line should provide the definition of the phenomenon described, with the title of the entry mentioned in that line, in bold (put it between =*asterisks*= to do this). In the paragraphs that follow, the subject can be described in more detail.
Example of a introduction that is probably proper:
Jazz Jackrabbit Advance, or JJGBA as it’s abbreviated by the community, is a Game Boy Advance game featuring Jazz Jackrabbit. It is not connected to the other Jazz Jackrabbit games, and has a storyline that is different from the Jazz Jackrabbit 1 or Jazz Jackrabbit 2 stories. It was created by Game Titan, and published by Jaleco Entertainment.
Point of view and Addressment of readers
Wiki entries are in essence non-personal: usage of the first person (I, me, my, etcetera) should be avoided. Never address the reader directly, but write like if the information provided are personal notes, not addressed at anyone directly.
Note that the reader may not know as much about the entry subject as you do. It is good practise to write like the reader knows nothing about the subject, linking everything that would be worth an article and explaining as much as possible. For example, the following is wrong:
When you use the JJGOD cheat, you will gain invincibility. I found this out by opening Jazz2.exe in a hex editor.
Instead, use the following style:
When the player uses the JJGOD cheat, he will gain invincibility. This can be found out by opening Jazz2.exe (the Jazz Jackrabbit 2 main executable file) in a text editor, and searching for “JJ” (this will show you the list of cheats).
Though strictly taken you should use “him/her” everytime when you refer to “the player” or a similiar virtual person, it is okay to use “him”.
External Links
- Wikipedia Manual of Style (a good template for this style guide)