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Of course, if you're the person who really likes the details and wants to know how to edit other people's work to be in line with the conventions, well, here's a bunch of conventions!
==
Articles should be written so that they resemble an encyclopedia; keep it informative and written using formal language. Don't include your personal opinion. For example, on an article like Shards, don't add random parenthetical statements that say "I learned this crazy fact!" or, even worse, "This is cool!" or "Where did you learn this?" Articles should stand on their own. If a fact seems a bit extraordinary, you should cite it, so there is no question about its factual accuracy. Above all, there is absolutely no reason to use first person. This is a collaborative effort, and so personal facts or interjections are totally irrelevant. If you find something cool, just add the new fact into the article. That said, all of these sort of personal comments or discussion is totally reasonable for an article's talk page (click the Discussion tab at the top, to the right of "Page")! So, you can totally discuss things like this, but the actual article itself should remain an encyclopedia entry and free of that stuff.
;Literary Style
Generally, articles should be factual and written from an in-world perspective. Exceptions to this include meta (out-of-world) pages such as articles on the actual book. In terms of in-world pages, Development sections and Trivia sections can include out-of world-references, however, all other sections should be written from an in-world perspective.
Remember that the Coppermind is '''not''' a repository of quotes. Do not simply copy and paste things from the novels directly; put things into your own terms and cite it. It is very obvious when you see a quote pretended to be an encyclopedia entry, because the novels are--shockingly--not encyclopedia entries! Use the primary sources to inform you, but don't copy them directly. When adding information to a topic, try and make it flow with the structure of the article. Or, restructure the article! But new facts should always flow in the article.
Generally, write articles in present tense, except when obviously necessary to write in past tense, such as in history sections. There may exist additional exceptions to this rule.
;Linking Other Pages
You don't have to wikilink every instance of every term on a page! That gets tedious really quick. Instead, you need only to link the first instance of a new term on the page (this is why many articles have their first paragraph full of links to other articles!). You can add additional wikilinks if it is convenient. Long articles, for example, can benefit from linking terms in each new section, but that remains your stylistic preference as an editor. However, new terms in the article should definitely be linked.
;Smart Punctuation from Word Processors
In a strange turn of events with the wiki software, there's a difference between the quotation marks that, say, Word produces and those that a plain text editor. Normal text editors like Notepad or the wiki edit screen produce characters like " and '. But, if you typed "Vin's" into Word, that apostrophe would be more "curly". Word does this because that makes things look better in a book or printed page, but the wiki software makes a distinction between normal quotes and the curlier "smart" quotes. When possible, use normal quotes. This is especially necessary when dealing with '''bold''' and ''italics'', as they use the apostrophe to delimit themselves.
Don't use dashes. Similarly to the smart quotes, dashes are things generated by a word processor. When you want to use a dash, use two hyphens. For example, if I were to give you an example--and wanted a parenthetical statement--I'd do it like this!
=== General Style Conventions ===
*Use American English (British English isn't a big deal, but the correct spelling will probably be eventually edited out in favor of its corrupt brethren). So, use [[aluminum]] instead of aluminium.
*To create a new paragraph, make sure you have an empty line. If you just press enter once, the wiki will render that new line as part of the same paragraph. Do not put each sentence of a paragraph on their own line, just write like you normally would.
*When you end a sentence, do not put two spaces after it (Grammar Girl agrees it is a silly, archaic habit that's entirely unnecessary anyway). One space will do.
*Use the [[wikipedia:serial comma|Oxford comma]]
*As in usual written text, typically do not use numerals. Use "one" instead of "1", and so on. There are of course certain exceptions, such as dates.
==Titles==
=== Article Titles ===
Article titles should generally be the full name of their subject, though other factors, including what is commonly used in the books and any spoiler implications should also be considered. Article titles should also be singular, unless only the plural form of a name is known. However, it is easy to have wikilinks that are plural which direct to singular titles. For example: <code><nowiki>[[Highprince]]s</nowiki></code> instead of <code><nowiki>[[Highprinces]]</nowiki></code>. You can also use apostrophes similarly.
For characters, "full name" means what the character would consider to be their full name, which may not be the same as their birth name. For [[Shin]], this generally means the complete "Name-son/daughter-Parent" name. In most cases, [[Epic]] names are considered a new name representing a new identity and are used even when the Epic's original name is known, so the article title for most Epics is their Epic name. If a character's full name is not known ''and'' they are generally addressed with a title (e.g., [[Mrs. Chamwit]] and [[Lady Lentin]]), the article's title should include the character's title. Titles may also be used when the article name needs to be made [[#Disambiguation|unambiguous]] (e.g., [[Lady ZoBell]] and [[General Khal]]). Characters with a title in their name should be added to [[:Category:Titled characters]].
In situations where a character is addressed both with and without a title and one isn't much more common than the other, consider the surrounding context (e.g. the two lords who switch their votes from [[Ashweather Cett|Cett]] to [[Ferson Penrod|Penrod]] are given the pages [[Lord Hue]] and [[Lord Habren]]; Lord Habren has an equal number of references with the "Lord" title and without it, but Lord Hue is always called Lord Hue, and so Lord Habren's page is titled "Lord Habren" to match Lord Hue's), but you should generally consult with the [[Coppermind:Keepers|Keepers]] when naming the articles in grey areas like this.
If it is unclear whether what a character considers to be their full name has changed in a book, their article will not generally be renamed immediately. For example, [[Moash]]'s page was not moved to "Vyre" after the release of ''[[Oathbringer]]'' and indeed ''[[Rhythm of War]]'' bore out that he uses both names. Similarly, [[Shallan Davar]]'s page was not moved to "Shallan Kholin" at that time, as it was unclear whether she had changed her last name, and indeed Brandon later [[wob:14904|confirmed]] that [[Veden]] women generally do not take their husband's last name.
When the above guidelines don't seem to fit with the individual circumstances of an article, the best thing to do is to talk with other editors; the [[Coppermind: Keepers|Keepers]] will determine the best name to use on a case-by-case basis for such articles. Exceptions to the guidelines given above are:
* [[Vin]] is used over Vin Venture
* [[Szeth]] is used over Szeth-son-son-Vallano, Szeth-son-Neturo, or Szeth-son-Honor
* Some Epics (e.g., [[Jonathan Phaedrus]], [[Megan Tarash]], and [[Edmund Sense]]) use their personal names
Beware that article titles are case sensitive for all letters except the first (so, there is a difference between <code>[[BioChromatic Breath]]</code>, <code>Biochromatic Breath</code>, and <code>Biochromatic breath</code>, but not between <code>[[BioChromatic Breath]]</code> and <code>[[bioChromatic Breath]]</code> [though, even if you made that first <code>b</code> lowercase when you created the page, MediaWiki would still render it as uppercase]). Always use standard capitalization for terminology. MediaWiki also differentiates articles depending on whether apostrophes are smart quotes or not, so be sure to use regular quotes, not the curlier quotes a rich word processor like Microsoft Word produces.
==== Disambiguation ====
When multiple distinct characters or other topics share the same name, their article names have to be changed slightly so that they can be [[Template: Disambig|disambiguated]]. Usually, this is done by adding something, usually a parenthetical, to each page name that distinguishes that page from other pages with the same name. The order of preference for these additions is generally:
# Distinction by specific name (e.g., [[Inkwell Flight]] to [[Inkwell (Epic)]] and [[Inkwell (town)]])
# Distinction by type (e.g., [[Burl (character)]] and [[burl (species)]])
# Distinction by setting
#* For cosmere things, this means the world a thing is from (e.g., [[Zu (Sel)]] and [[Zu (Roshar)]]
#* For non-cosmere things, this means the series a thing is from (e.g., [[Molly (Perfect State)]] and [[Molly (Snapshot)]])
#* For a mix of cosmere and non-cosmere things, follow the rule for each each setting for its pages (e.g., [[Vent (Scadrial)]] and [[Vent (Skyward)]])
# Distinction by some other characteristic (e.g., [[Ton (Veden)]] and [[Ton (singer)]])
While those are the general guidelines used, the best practice is generally to ask a Keeper when you encounter something that needs to be disambiguated. This will often be necessary anyways, as only Keepers can move existing pages to a new title. Occasionally, if the topic of one page is significantly more important than the other topics with the same name, it may be kept at the exact name, without a parenthetical.
==
Do not apply formatting to section titles, and do not put wikilinks in them either. It just looks tacky.
Section titles should use title case, like "Food and Drink" rather than "Food and drink."
==Capitalization==
*Verbs and Modifiers related to Metallic Arts - burn, flare, store, tap, charge, spike, atium shadow, pulse, etc.
*Steel Ministry Rankings when not used as an honorific - obligator, prelan, high prelan, lord prelan, etc.
*Terms with the
*Mundane terms - boxing, mists, ashfalls, streetslot, etc.
===Stormlight Archive===
*Knights Radiant and Orders of Knights Radiant (Windrunners, Dustbringers)
*Magic systems and their users - Surgebinding, Surgebinders, Voidbinding, Old Magic, Surge, Soulcasters, Lashings
*Mythological things - Heralds
'''Things to never be capitalized:'''
===Elantris and Emperor's Soul===
'''Things to be capitalized:'''
*Magic related things - Aon
'''Things to never be capitalized:'''
*Magic related things - seon, skaze
===Warbreaker===
'''Things to be capitalized:'''
*Awaken and its variants
*God King
*Locations: Idris, Hallandren
*Type Two BioChromatic entity
*Lifeless
*Command
*Breath
===White Sand===
'''Things to be capitalized:'''
*Diem
*Dayside/Darkside
*Taisha/Taishin
*Profession (when referring to the official Professions)
*Slatrification (as a noun)
*Sand Lord
'''Things to never be capitalized:'''
*sand mastery/master
*Diem ranks (except for the title Lord Mastrell)
*deep sand
*general fauna and flora (e.g. sandling, tonk, dorim vine)
===The Rithmatist===
'''Things to be capitalized:'''
*Line of Warding etc.
*Glyph of Rending
*Professor (if used as honorific)
*Knight-Senator (if used as honorific)
*The names of the Defenses (i.e. Easton Defense)
*Warding Hall, Making Hall (and two others)
'''Things to never be capitalized:'''
*inception ceremony
*chamber of inception
*the office
*campus
*(Rithmatic) lines, defenses, offenses etc.
*(wild) chalkling
=== Sixth of the Dusk ===
'''Things to be capitalized:'''
*Sixth of the Dusk, or Dusk for short
*Aviar
*Pantheon
*the Ones Above
'''Things to never be capitalized:'''
*"normal" lifeforms (nightmaw, nightwind fungi, deathant, deepwalker etc.)
*trapper
===Cosmere===
'''Things to never be capitalized:'''
*[[focus]],
*[[cosmere]] (this is not consistent, but it is not capitalized in [[The Letter]], and that is our current convention. This may change)
'''Note''' that we follow capitalization rules of the main sequence of published novels. Other, secondary titles--especially [[Mistborn Adventure Game]]--may not follow the same styles.
=== Cytoverse ===
'''Things to be capitalized:'''
*FTL travel
*Sense (when referring to Cytonics sensing)
'''Things to never be capitalized:'''
*cytonics(it is capitalized in ''[[Defending Elysium]]'', but Skyward does not capitalize it)
*telanium
*mindblade
*(cytonic) suppression
[[Category:help|{{PAGENAME}}]]
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