Bulbapedia:Manual of style
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This article is a proposed guideline for Bulbapedia.
Please discuss the proposed guideline and suggest possible changes on the article's talk page. |
This is the working space for the upcoming refresh of the Manual of Style.
Keeping Continuity with Existing Style
General Style Guidance
This section deals with general style issues across Bulbapedia.
Article Titles
The conventions for titles dictate that all proper nouns are capitalized, as are all locations, and names unless specifically not capitalized. Titles are not written like book titles with most words capitalized (unless the article is about a book); note the title of this page as Manual of style, not Manual of Style.
Uniformity in the titling of pages is much appreciated in that it makes for a much more professional appearance with regards to the public perception of Bulbapedia. Any page title that includes a name should not be stored in a biographical format; i.e., "Gary Oak", not "Oak, Gary" as the page title for Ash's rival. In cases where only a first name (Bill) exists, or where a character is known by a title (such as Professor Oak) more than their proper name, those should be used as the sole title of the page. In the case of Professor Oak, redirects from "Prof. Oak" and "Samuel Oak" may be used.
In most cases, titles referring to a specific group should be kept singular, such as item rather than items. However, some exceptions are allowed when the group name is plural, such as Eevee brothers rather than Eevee brother.
Also, only link to an article once within a given portion of text; if you say "Ash" more than once in a paragraph, only link it the first time. Instances further apart may be linked to more than once, it is up to you how far apart to place repeated links. For consistency, if most elements of a list are links, then link to an article as many times as needed in that list.
Japanese titles should be romanized in titles, but see the following sections for details.
Opening Line
The full name of the subject of an article should appear within the first few words of the article itself. Alternate and popular names may be described later. The name should be given in its original form if it differs from its Anglicized form. Note that a name need not be romanized more than once. Song, episode and movie titles should be translated, not romanized. Also note that names in languages besides Japanese and English should not be included in the opening line, but rather further in the article, preferably in a section titled In other languages near the bottom with only Related articles and External links following after. Some examples follow:
- Archaic
- Liam Pomfret, better known as Archaic, is the current head of Bulbagarden.
- Hirokazu Tanaka
- Hirokazu "Hip" Tanaka (Japanese: 田中宏和 but usually credited in hiragana only, born December 13, 1957) is a Japanese composer and musician best known for creating or co-creating various video games by Nintendo.
- Hiromoto SIN-Ichi
- Hiromoto SIN-Ichi (Japanese: ヒロモト森一 Hiromoto Shin'ichi) is a manga artist, born on January 4, 1966.
- Professor Oak
- Professor Samuel Oak (Japanese: オーキド・ユキナリ博士 Dr. Yukinari Ōkido, Ookido and Orchid are also seen) is a Pokémon Professor and has a home and research lab located in Pallet Town.
- Bulbasaur
- Bulbasaur (Japanese: フシギダネ Fushigidane) is a Grass/Poison-type Pokémon.
- Aim to Be a Pokémon Master
- めざせポケモンマスター (Mezase Pokémon Masutā exact, Mezase Pokémon Master is common; English: Aim to Be a Pokémon Master) was the first opening theme song of the Pokémon anime series, ...
Naming and Syntax
Subpoints
Placeholder for syntax subpoints.
Opinion
Templates and List Sorting
Sectional Style Guidance
This section will contain links to the Manuals of Style for specific subsections.
Anime
Core Games
TCG
Manga
Side Games
Language
American English should be used rather than Commonwealth English in Bulbapedia articles. This consistent with most English language Pokémon games, as well as much of Pokémon media as a whole.) In general, Bulbapedia follows standard American English style conventions, not all of which are listed here.
- Exceptions to the preference for American English are made if the spelling is officially the Commonwealth one, such as "Catalogue."
- 's should be included at the end of singular possessives ending in s. While it is correct to either omit or include the s after the apostrophe in these cases, Bulbapedia follows the games' convention (for a multitude of reasons, including the games' usage) and appends the s. For example, Iris's should be used, not Iris'.
- The serial comma should be used where applicable (matching the syntax of the Pokémon games).
- Evolutionary levels should be designated as "unevolved," "first evolution," and "second evolution" for Pokémon that have undergone zero, one, and two evolutions respectively during their development. The TCG terminology of "basic Pokémon," "stage 1 Pokémon" and "stage 2 Pokémon" do not apply to other media.
- For example, in the TCG Pikachu and several other Pokémon are considered Basic Pokémon, but have a pre-evolved form, making them first-evolution Pokémon. This discrepancy typically applies to evolutionary families that include a baby Pokémon.
Japanese
Kanji
Romanization
Multimedia and External Content
Addressing images, videos, and content from other websites and sources.