The Magicians Wiki:Manual of Style

This page is currently under construction. The information contained within should not be considered fully accurate and/or complete.

The Magicians Wiki is continually revising our policies.
If you locate any unwritten rule that should be clarified, use the talk page to make a proposal

The Manual of Style is the codified set of standards for clean, consistent formatting for all articles on The Magicians Wiki. The formatting described here establishes the House-style, helping editors produce articles with consistent, clear, and precise language, layout, and formatting. The Manual is, in basic terms, a guideline, and can be overwritten in special circumstances, but should nevertheless be followed by all editors.

The goal of this wiki is to create an encyclopedia that is easier and more intuitive to use. Consistency in style, wording and formatting promotes clarity and cohesion; this is especially important within an article and across related media. For all this, edits that ignore this manual can be undone without further reason.

Article Names, Sections, and Headings

Names

Every article in The Magicians Wiki must have a name, chosen according to the Naming Policy of the wiki. If a name is not provided in any canonical material, the name of the article can be chosen regarding the exceptions provided in the Conjecture Policy.

The following points are critical to formatting article titles:

• "Title Case": The first letter of every word in a title must be capitalized, except for articles (a, an, the), coordinating conjunctions, prepositions and the "to" in an infinitive.
• Singular form: Article names should be singular as a general rule, however, some exceptions are accepted, such as members of a particular race ("Humans"), groups, grouped items or lists ("List of Brakebills Staff").
• Full names without ranks: Articles about characters should avoid the title or rank, (e.g. Professor Mischa Mayakovsky, not Professor Mischa Mayakovsky).
• Avoid definite or indefinite articles: The definite article (the) and indefinite articles (a/an) should be avoided in article titles except if they are used as the official title.

Sections

For a detailed description of how an in-universe article must be written and structured, consult the Layout Guide.

As a general guide, all in-universe articles should be structured as follows:

1. Infobox
2. Quote
3. Description
4. Main Sections
5. Trivia
6. Creator's Notes
7. References
8. External Links
9. Categories

Article Bodies

Links

• Internal Links: Any internal article should be linked in every mention in another article's infobox, once upon its first mention in another article's intro, and once upon its first mention in each of other articles' sub-sections.
• Unnecessary Punctuation: Linking unnecessary punctuation should be avoided in the articles. Letters or words touching the link will be included in the link and should be avoided as well (e.g. use [[Jane Chatwin]]'s instead of [[Jane Chatwin|Jane Chatwin's]]).
• Redirects and Piped Links: All redirects on The Magicians Wiki serve a specific purpose, other than to facilitate searching for articles. Therefore, a redirect must be linked as such, instead of circumventing the redirect with a piped link (e.g. use [[The Beast]] instead of [[Martin Chatwin|The Beast]]).
• Do not add external links to other sites without permission.
• Do not use external links in the body of an article: External Links must be reserved for the trivia, external links, and references sections.

Images

• Images appearing in articles should avoid having external logos of the series/networks where they have aired.
• Avoid having text between two or more images (sandwich effect), or between an image and an infobox.
• Thumbnails shown in the article should generally be 200px/250px. Images containing important details (e.g. a map, diagram, or chart) may need larger sizes than usual to make them readable.

Templates

Templates should be added where they are necessary and removed when they are unnecessary. This specially includes the Maintenance templates.

• Specific Wiki templates, such as disambiguation templates (Template:Otheruses and Template:For) and Maintenance templates (Template:Stub, Template:Imageless, Template:Upcoming, must go at the very top of the article, before the article itself starts. This does not apply to Maintenance templates dedicated to specific sections (Template:Expand or Template:Rewrite).
• Do not add categories to an article that are automatically added by a template.
• The prefix "Template:" does not need to be added, as long as you are using these form of brackets ({{ }}).
• Infobox templates (such as Template:Character) should always be at the top of the article.

Trivia

Trivia helps readers learn more facts about the subject that were not originally in the main body of the article.

• Avoid opinions (even general opinions), such as "It is widely believed by fans...", as they are not true trivia facts, and this section must adhere to the Conjecture Policy.
• Avoid redundancy. Always check to see if the article has the fact before adding them.
• Decide whether the fact is more relevant in the body or trivia. If the fact is important, or there is a specific section to note it, it should belong in the body of the article. If it is only worth noting, it should belong in the trivia. (e.g. A character using a type of magic or using a specific weapon belongs to either the "Magic" or "Equipment" section, respectively, not the Trivia section)
• Only post relevant information to the subject of the article. If it belongs in a more specific article or another topic, post it in the other article.
• If a trivia is related to another trivia, add an indented list below the parent trivia. If that should be the case, however, decide whether the facts are enough to generate their own main body paragraph.
• Information relative to the mainstream counterpart should cover only one trivia fact. Only very justified exceptions may be used for that one fact. Information relative to alternate versions of the main timeline should not be added, unless explicitly relevant to the versions of the subject. (e.g. Quentin Coldwater's appearance based on the Magicians Trilogy timeline rather than the version in the Magicians TV series timeline.

Categories

Every article must be categorized, adding one of the existing categories that can be applied to it. Consult the Layout Guide and its derived sub-pages in order to consult the categories that should be applied to each article. A list of categories can be found here.

Due to misunderstandings of the whole purpose of categorizing, we ask that you not create new categories and add them to articles. Most of the time, if a category does not exist, it is not intended to exist, or there is already an existing category that covers its purpose. Please be sure to ask the Administrators before creating a category.

Perspective

The Magicians Wiki presents two types of articles

1. Articles narrating elements, like characters, locations, or items; called In-Universe articles.
2. Articles about production elements, such as actors, crew members, or episodes; called Out-of-Universe articles.

Each type requires a particular approach.

In-Universe

• If an article is in-universe or described as such, it belongs to the Magicians universe exclusively and not to the real world. Characters, for example, are in-universe, but the actors who play them are out-of-universe.
• Articles about any in-universe subject, such as characters, locations, items, vehicles, organizations or races, should always be written from an in-universe perspective, which means that they must be written as if the writer was in the same world as the subject being described.
• However, some sections in an in-universe article are out-of-universe per se, such as the Appearances and Behind the Scenes sections.
• Titles of TV series, episodes, comics... should not be referred to in a sentence of an in-universe article.
• Phrases like "It is unknown", "At some point", "Some time later", "Somehow"... are greatly discouraged, and ultimately not allowed to be used in articles, as from an in-universe point of view, for example, the event marked as "It is unknown" is surely known by the people involved in said event or the point marked as "At some point in his life" can surely be exactly pointed to by someone related to the event.

Out-of-universe

• If an article is Out-of-universe or described as such, it belongs to the real-world, such as actors, crew members, films, TV series, and episodes, or comics, and therefore, those articles must acknowledge the fact that the Magicians universe is fictional.
• As such, articles about real-life subjects should obviously be written from an out-of-universe perspective.

Bold and Italic Fonts

Bold

When text is in bold, it appears like this. It can be accomplished by typing three single quotes (') on both ends of a word or phrase.

• The name of the subject of the article must be bolded in its first mention.
• Alternate names for the subject of the article must be bolded in their first mention. This includes names of titles that redirect to said article.

Italics

When text is in italics, it appears like this. It can be accomplished by typing two single quotes (') on both ends of a word or phrase. Using double quotes will not make the word or phrase italicized.

• Italics must be used for the titles of works of art and literature, such as films, short films, television series, episodes, and comics.
• The proper names for a vehicle must be written in italics (e.g. Muntjac versus Muntjac).

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.

Three C's

To best achieve a Good Article, writers here generally apply this rule of thumb: language should be clear, consistent, and concise.

• Clarity mandates that the language relay its message sharply, unambiguous, and be wholly self-evident. It is important to be as clear and neutral as possible to communicate the idea of a sentence effectively to the reader.
• Consistency ensures article flow, an important aspect in being clear. The article should be easy to read and predictable while assuming a reasonable comprehension level.
• Concision, or brevity, is the art of using no more words than necessary to convey an idea, though it should not be misunderstood with "leaving out information". It is an important practice when writing so that you do not lose your audience — try to think "get to the point" as much as possible.

Capitalization

Despite unnecessary capitalization should be avoided, it should not be reserved for proper names only.

Links

According to the Naming Policy of The Magicians Wiki, every word in an article's name, with few exceptions, must be capitalized. As such, all links must be capitalized even though they describe common names (e.g. "Battle Magic" instead of "battle magic") either in the first mention and every other subsequent mention. On the other hand, words included in a title must not be capitalized in subsequent mentions.

Capitalization of "The"

In general, do not capitalize the definite article in the middle of a sentence. However, some idiomatic exceptions, including most titles of artistic works, should be quoted exactly according to common usage.

Human and Sentient Species

In all sections of in-universe articles, the word "Humans" or "Human" should be capitalized, just as the name of any other sentient species (Fairies, Fillorians, Nymphs). Derived words such as "humanoid", however, should not be capitalized.

Ranks and Titles

Ranks and titles are to be capitalized when they immediately precede an individual's name. Do not capitalize ranks or titles when used as a substitute for the name or in a sentence.

Locations

Names of institutions, such as Brakebills University, are proper nouns and require capitals. However, generic words for institutions (university, college...) do not use take capitals.

Political or geographical units, such as cities, towns, and countries, follow the same rules: as proper nouns, they require capitals (New York City); but as generic words, they do not.

Spelling and Punctuation

This Manual of Style is not intended to be a detailed English guide. Knowledge of basic spelling and punctuation is automatically assumed. However, some cases have brought themselves up and are thus considered noteworthy; and therefore suitable for being listed here.

Run-on Sentences

Aside from obvious, common rules for using full stops (.) and commas (,), there are some instances where you should review a sentence you wrote in "preview mode" to determine whether or not your sentence is a run-on sentence. Run-on sentences aren't good for several reasons, particularly when two separate thoughts (clauses) are not differentiated from each other thus causing a considerable amount of confusion. Similarly, some sentences are a single thought but are really long. Full stops, or periods, can be used to give the reader a resting spot.

However, randomly adding a period or comma in the middle of a sentence does not "fix" a run-on. A clause must still be an independent thought that above all, makes sense. Some users may request peer-review if they are unsure.

Formal Vocabulary

Formal use of language is mandatory on all encyclopedia articles.

• Contractions: Uncontracted forms such as Did not or He would are the default in encyclopedic style; don't and he'd are too informal.
• Contested vocabulary: In encyclopedia articles, avoid such phrases as remember that and note that, which address readers directly in a less-than-encyclopedic tone. Similarly, phrases such as of course, naturally, obviously, clearly, and actually make presumptions about readers' knowledge, and call into question the reason for including the information in the first place. Do not tell readers that something is ironic, surprising, unexpected, amusing, coincidental, unfortunate, etc. This supplies a point of view. Simply state the sourced facts and allow readers to draw their own conclusions.
• Familiar names: Some characters are often referred to using familiar names or nicknames. However, their use in encyclopedic articles must be strictly avoided, and a character must always be referred to by its full name when first mentioned, and surname only in subsequent references. There are two general exceptions to this rule:
  • For characters that use a "codename", the full codename may be substituted for the full name or surname wherever they are mentioned.
  • When a paragraph or section refers to at least two members of the same family, characters can be referred to by their first name, in order to clarify which one of the characters is being discussed.

Language and Spelling

Though the readers and editors of The Magicians Wiki speak many languages, the Marvel Cinematic Universe Wiki uses standard American English spelling, grammar, and punctuation, as it is the variety of English used in the original releases of most canonical materials.

However, direct quotes should never be altered, even if they do not use American spelling or the English language at all.

Tense

As a general rule, every article, both in-universe and out-of-universe, must be written in past tense, as they are considered to narrate past events. Though there could be some exceptions, such as actors or crew members articles about Upcoming content, the initial description of in-universe articles, or the Timeline, that has its particular set of rules.

The articles on the Magicians Wiki are presented as "historical recordings" of the events that have occurred in another reality, and during said reality's fractured timeline, and as such, many details pertaining to this history have not yet been uncovered, and more information may be added at a later date. Keeping articles written in the past tense provides consistency and flavor.

Paragraphs and Formatting

Inexperienced writers have a tendency towards "run on" paragraphs. Some of these may number dozens of lines and many column inches without a break. This makes the articles difficult to read as everything seems to flow together. It also makes it tough to quickly skim articles for data points.

A good paragraph (grammatically speaking) is two to five sentences in length on average. It covers one thought or idea or piece of information. Any time there is a change in the thought, idea, or piece of information, there should also be a paragraph change.

When formatting paragraphs, adding an empty line between paragraphs looks better in the articles than the traditional "paragraph indent" on the first line. It makes for a more definite "breakpoint" visually, and allows the reader to more easily see that they are reading a new paragraph at that point.

Also, many writers tend to start paragraphs using the format "After (insert event here)", "When (insert character here)", "During (insert event here)" or similar choices of words. Those formats are greatly discouraged in The Magicians Wiki, as the initial context of the event must be referred in the title of the specific subsection in the main Biography / History section. Simply put, do not start any paragraphs with a sentence beginning with "After", especially if it is the first paragraph of a section.

Attribution

Adapted from Manual of Style on Marvel Cinematic Universe Wiki.