HRWiki:Manual of Style

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(Miscellaneous: Well, there are cases where it's acceptable, and in transcripts when a character SAYS it, it's unavoidable. I added something like this to the Standards recently.)
(Miscellaneous: don't put backwards speech literally in the transcript)
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{{rename|Rename as HRWiki:Styles}}
[[Image:Hrwikistylesuponstyles.png|thumb|Styles upon styles!]]
[[Image:Hrwikistylesuponstyles.png|thumb|Styles upon styles!]]
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{{shortcut|MS}}
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{{shortcut|MS|STYLES|[[HRW:MOS]]}}
==Capitalization==
==Capitalization==
*Capitalize as much as possible according to how it is displayed on the official site. This especially includes what Strong Bad types in [[Strong Bad Emails]].
*Capitalize as much as possible according to how it is displayed on the official site. This especially includes what Strong Bad types in [[Strong Bad Emails]].
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===Special cases===
===Special cases===
*''Alright'' is nonstandard for ''all right''. If Strong Bad types "alright", however, spell it as he does.
*''Alright'' is nonstandard for ''all right''. If Strong Bad types "alright", however, spell it as he does.
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*''Ya'll'' often appears on the website: spell it this way when referencing the written word on the site. Use the correct spelling, ''y'all'', otherwise.
===American English===
===American English===
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==Miscellaneous==
==Miscellaneous==
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*In most cases (unless subtitled), write "''{The Cheat noises}''" and "''{bubbles}''" for [[The Cheat]] and [[Pom Pom]]'s speech, respectively; more can be added to the stage directions to indicate emotion or other actions, but do not put words in their mouths.
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*In most cases (unless subtitled), write "''{The Cheat noises}''" and "''{bubbles}''" for [[The Cheat]] and [[Pom Pom]]'s speech, respectively; more can be added to the stage directions to indicate emotion or other actions, but do not put words in their mouths without clear consensus to do so.
 +
*If a character is speaking especially oddly, it is usually better to describe it in words rather than transcribe the actual sounds. For example, put "''{speaking backwards}''" in transcripts rather than spelling out words with the letters reversed.
*When listing, if a character, place, or item has a clear debut, note it with "'''Debut:'''" before the first appearance. Use bullets for each entry with a link to each cartoon, game, etc., regardless of whether there is already a link in the running text of the article above the list. If a description follows the link, use normal text.
*When listing, if a character, place, or item has a clear debut, note it with "'''Debut:'''" before the first appearance. Use bullets for each entry with a link to each cartoon, game, etc., regardless of whether there is already a link in the running text of the article above the list. If a description follows the link, use normal text.
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*Do not use the terms "you" or "we see" on the mainspace of the wiki when it is avoidable, outside of character dialogue in transcripts (this does not include User pages, HRWiki policy, Special pages, or Talk pages). Ex: Change "You can see Homestar peeking over The Paper at the end of the email," to "Homestar peeks over The Paper at the end of the email."
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*Avoid the terms "you" or "we see" in articles, especially in descriptions in transcripts. Addressing the reader is acceptable when describing how to do a task, such as accessing Easter eggs and DVD content and playing games, but keep the wording concise.
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*:''Instead of:'' "We see Homestar peeking over The Paper at the end of the email."
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*:''Preferred:'' "Homestar peeks over The Paper at the end of the email."
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*:''Instead of:'' "You can click on the Lappy's screen at the end to see Strong Sad continuing his weather forecast."
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*:''Preferred:'' "Click on the Lappy's screen at the end to see Strong Sad continuing his weather forecast."
== See also ==
== See also ==

Revision as of 23:50, 5 March 2011

Styles upon styles!

Contents

Capitalization

  • Capitalize as much as possible according to how it is displayed on the official site. This especially includes what Strong Bad types in Strong Bad Emails.
  • Whenever the words are spoken but not seen, use standard capitalization.
  • Teen Girl Squad is a special case. Correct Strong Bad's capitalization to be more in line with standard capitalization.
  • Capitalize the article in names that have been established to contain an integral article (e.g., The Cheat, An Ice Machine).
  • Pay attention to things that have lowercase i's in unusual places.
  • Strong Mad's lines should almost always be in all uppercase letters, because of his way of speaking. Exceptions are possible, such as "Did you just say parakeet?".

Spelling

  • Spell words as much as possible according to how they are displayed on the official site. This especially includes what Strong Bad types in Strong Bad Emails.
  • If Strong Bad misspells a word, and it needs to be pointed out, put "[sic]" following the word in question. Use brackets and italics as illustrated here.
  • Always transcribe the email Strong Bad receives exactly as it appears on his screen. If he makes any comments about the email, pronounces any words differently from the email, or pronounces a misspelled word as it is written, note it below the blockquote using the following form: {Reads "A" as "B".}
  • If a word is mispronounced but not written, then spell it phonetically as it is pronounced. For instance, if Coach Z is trying to say the word bomb but it comes out "baermb", write only the latter unless the former is shown in writing somewhere relevant. Do not add a visible comment (besides maybe "[sic]") unless the phonetic spelling is identical to the standard spelling. For instance, if Homestar pronounces Colonel as "col-o-nel" (instead of "ker-nel"), it should be noted.

Special cases

  • Alright is nonstandard for all right. If Strong Bad types "alright", however, spell it as he does.
  • Ya'll often appears on the website: spell it this way when referencing the written word on the site. Use the correct spelling, y'all, otherwise.

American English

  • American spelling is the preferred form on all article pages (with a few exceptions). The Brothers Chaps use American English throughout homestarrunner.com, and the characters live in Free Country, USA.

Punctuation

Colon

  • When a colon follows a word that is bold, the colon should be bold also. The two most common occurrences of this are in transcripts and filmographies:
STRONG BAD: What are you talking about, Emily?
Debut: for kids
  • The Glossary is an exception to this rule, because some entries have punctuation as part of them:
BALEETED!: Another way to say "deleted".

Ellipsis points and suspension points

  • Whenever you are quoting material and are omitting a portion of it, use ellipsis points preceded and followed by a space:
"Well, Lasko, The Cheat is not very popular and ... I don't even think he has a computer."
  • Whenever the omitted part of what you are quoting falls at the end of a complete sentence, use a period plus ellipsis points (with a space before and after the points):
"Except for that Strong Sad. That guy's a real bore. ... So, I hope I bored you back into your mind."
  • Whenever the omitted part is at the end of the quotation, use ellipsis points plus a period with no internal space:
"So, I hope I bored you...."
  • Whenever you are using suspension points to indicate a pause or break in thought, put a space after but not before.
STRONG BAD: You know, like the Great Leg... the Leg of Hope... Tape-Leg?
  • Whenever you are using suspension points to indicate a continuation of thought, do not put a space after.
VOICEOVER: ...to have as many hot '60s-looking girls in your filmstrips as possible.
  • For convenience of editing and predictability of display, use three periods (...) to represent an ellipsis, not the actual ellipsis character (…). When pasting text into the wiki that you typed in another editor, be careful that these characters were not automatically "corrected" for you, as Microsoft Word often likes to do. To avoid this, it's advisable to use a suitable plain-text editor, like Notepad, as your external editor. Note: It is also important that your external editor be UTF-8 compliant, in case there are any stray Unicode characters in the existing text.

Em dash (Long Dash)

  • Whenever one character's speech is interrupted by another character, use an em dash (—) at the end of the first character's speech with no space before the dash.
HOMESTAR RUNNER: Oh, right. Okay, here goes—
STRONG BAD: No wait, put this stuff on. It'll add to the illusion.
  • Whenever you are breaking up a character's speech in order to insert an action script on a separate line, use an emdash immediately at the end of the first line of speech, with no space before the dash. Start the second speech line with the character's name and another emdash at the beginning, with no space after the dash.
COACH Z: OK, drap it! Coach, Z, Coach, Z, 1, 2—
{Cut to Bubs and Coach Z wearing ties. While Coach Z's voice continues on the boom boxes, Bubs glares at him.}
COACH Z: —3, 4, I said Coach, Z, Coach, Z, 1, 2...
  • When making a list of toons (games, emails, etc.) and descriptions, use an emdash between the name and description.
Not the 100th Email!!! — Strong Bad tells Homestar to "keep his pants on". Homestar replies, "Pants? Hmm..."

Quotation marks

  • Use double quotation marks for most quoted material.
  • Use single quotation marks for quotations within quotations.
  • As for whether to include punctuation inside or outside the quotation marks, there isn't really one standard, due to the vastly different things that get quoted. In the second example here, there's no doubt as to whether or not the punctuation is part of the link. Use your best judgment based on which particular style fits a given sentence.
  • For running text, punctuation inside the quotation marks is usually appropriate:
"One o' them said they'd buy me lunch. But I don't see nobody taking me to Chick-fil-A."
  • For other things, it is sometimes better to put the punctuation outside the quotation marks:
One of the links in the navbar is called "rando".
  • Use quotation marks for image captions only if the caption is a direct quote from a toon.
  • Again, when pasting text into the wiki that you typed in another editor, be careful that you haven't used "curly quotes" (i.e., ‘ ’ and “ ”). Microsoft Word also likes to change these silently. Single and double quotation marks, as well as apostrophes, should always be written with straight quotes (i.e., ' ' and " "). Again, using a plain-text editor, like Notepad, will prevent this problem before it happens.

Apostrophe

  • Place an apostrophe outside a link when it is not part of the link. This carries the benefit of not requiring a piped link.
Marzipan's guitar is called Carol.
  • See the note in the section above about not using "curly quotes".
  • Possessive forms of singular nouns ending in s should always be written with a second s after an apostrophe, unless the accepted convention is to do otherwise (see Wikipedia:Apostrophe#Singulars). Examples of this would include Dr. Christmas's, Nibbles's, and even Reinforcements's. A notable exception to this rule is to write Bubs's name without the extra -s whenever it is spelled or pronounced that way within the official body of work (the most common example of this is Bubs' Concession Stand); otherwise, use the standard possessive spelling.

Linking

Homestar Runner and related links

Similar links in close proximity

If two otherwise identical links (like Homestar Runner and Homestar Runner) are in very close proximity to each other, it is strongly recommended to include disambiguating text as part of one of the links. Otherwise, put any necessary disambiguation outside the link and word the sentence so that the context speaks for itself. It is usually not necessary to include the extra text for emails where the capitalization is different from the character name.

Miscellaneous

  • In most cases (unless subtitled), write "{The Cheat noises}" and "{bubbles}" for The Cheat and Pom Pom's speech, respectively; more can be added to the stage directions to indicate emotion or other actions, but do not put words in their mouths without clear consensus to do so.
  • If a character is speaking especially oddly, it is usually better to describe it in words rather than transcribe the actual sounds. For example, put "{speaking backwards}" in transcripts rather than spelling out words with the letters reversed.
  • When listing, if a character, place, or item has a clear debut, note it with "Debut:" before the first appearance. Use bullets for each entry with a link to each cartoon, game, etc., regardless of whether there is already a link in the running text of the article above the list. If a description follows the link, use normal text.
  • Avoid the terms "you" or "we see" in articles, especially in descriptions in transcripts. Addressing the reader is acceptable when describing how to do a task, such as accessing Easter eggs and DVD content and playing games, but keep the wording concise.
    Instead of: "We see Homestar peeking over The Paper at the end of the email."
    Preferred: "Homestar peeks over The Paper at the end of the email."
    Instead of: "You can click on the Lappy's screen at the end to see Strong Sad continuing his weather forecast."
    Preferred: "Click on the Lappy's screen at the end to see Strong Sad continuing his weather forecast."

See also

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