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The manual of style of Federation Legacy Wiki is a basic set of guidelines that govern the layout of articles on the wiki. A good article should conform to the following guidelines as much as possible.

Because these are not a set of strict rules, they may change over time. Please do not think of them as the be-all and end-all for writing a well-structured article. It is highly recommended that you do read through this article so you have a decent understanding of how to structure an article, though.

Article layout

Naming an article

Choosing the right name for your article is one of the most important parts of the whole writing process! In most instances, it's best to use the name that the subject of your article is best known by, rather than its full name. For example, James T. Kirk instead of James Tiberius Kirk. An exception to this is the United Federation of Planets, instead of its shortened name, the Federation. In most instances, using your best judgment will suffice.

Do not use the, an, or a as the first word in the article name unless absolutely necessary. I.e., for battles, use Battle of Sector 001 instead of The Battle of Sector 001. Exceptions to this rule are when one of these words is considered inclusive with the rest of the name; e.g., The Doctor. Titles of stories, series, chapters, episodes, or other works may also include these words at the beginning.

Introduction

The introduction is a short but important part of the article. It is the first part of the page that people will see. It should be concise and contain one or more paragraphs, describing the main topic of the article. The title of the article should also be bolded the first time it appears in the article's content.

Some things to include in the introduction section:

  • Quote – a quote by or about the subject of the article (optional but recommended).
  • Banners – these have various purposes, but should be used sparingly.
  • Maintenance banners – these are to be placed if the article is in need of improvement or even deletion.
  • Sidebar – the all-important sidebar (also known as an infobox), which contains basic information about the subject of the article (note that some articles do not require a sidebar).

Characters

There is no explicit rule that your article must begin this way, but the general rule of thumb is to list the character's gender and species and the century/centuries in which they lived in the first sentence of the article, like so:

Jean-Luc Picard was a male Human who lived during the 24th century.

Starships

Starship names should always be italicized no matter where the name appears in an article. The first time a starship's name is given, it should be both bolded and italicized, like so:

The USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-E) was a Federation Sovereign-class starship in service with Starfleet.

The ship's registry should be listed after its name if known.

Body and sections

Most articles will be long enough to include several sections of content in the main body. There is no required way to arrange them, but uniformity is desired above all else.

Section headings should be formatted like so in the editor:

== Primary heading ==
=== Secondary heading ===

The spaces are not required, but they are desired for clarity.

Most character pages will have anywhere from one to five main sections of content, starting with the subject's appearance and personality, a large section detailing the events of their life, and finally sections about their personal lives and friendships.

Example: Jhael Onika

Starship pages start with the history of the vessel, followed by general info about the ship's layout and stats, and ending with a list of the crew members.

Example: USS Leviathan

Most other articles will follow the same general guidelines as those mentioned above.

Chapter articles

Chapters pages begin with a brief synopsis of the story, then memorable quotes and references (a list of the characters, starships and locations appearing in the story)

Example: "The Price of Liberty"
Chapter titles

We use the AP style of capitalization, which, regardless of the rules below, words with four or more letters are automatically capitalized.

Rules
Capitalize the first and the last word.
Capitalize nouns, pronouns, adjectives, verbs, adverbs, and subordinate conjunctions.
Lowercase articles (a, an, the), coordinating conjunctions, and prepositions.
Lowercase the "to" in an infinitive (I want to play guitar).
Examples
"The Price of Liberty" (not: "The Price Of Liberty")
"Line in the Sand" (not: "Line In the Sand")
"War Is Good for Business" (not: "War Is Good For Business")

Appendices

The appendix is the end of the article. It typically includes up to five sub-sections, depending on what the article is about.

  • Background and trivia – this section is listed first, and gives any background information and trivia available on the discussed topic. (previously called "Background")
  • Appearances – this section includes all appearances of and references to the article's subject in fan fiction chapters on the wiki (not used for chapter articles).
  • Notes and references – contains a list of notes, citations, and references made throughout the article (different from the section on chapter articles). (previously called "References")
  • External links – links to external sources (usually Wikipedia or Memory Alpha).
  • Navigation – a section reserved for navboxes relating to the article's subject.

Images

All images should be in PNG or JPEG format. No GIFs. Image naming should conform to the following format:

<SUBJECT>, <DISAMBIGUATION> (<TIMELINE>)

To further elaborate:

  • Subject – required. The name or topic of what's pictured.
  • Disambiguation – optional. This is to distinguish between two images about the same subject.
  • Timeline – optional. Only use this if the subject appears in multiple timelines.

In addition, {{fairuse}} should be added to any image that is copyrighted.

Place the image in the appropriate category as well.

Dashes and hyphens

For number ranges, use a standard hyphen (-), separated by a space on either side.

Examples
2380 - 2385
23 February 1607 - 19 July 1886
Stardate 41153.7 - 55805.1

For splitting sentences, use a short dash (–), separated by a space on either side.

Examples
He pressed on – cold and alone.
War – the very thing – put a pit in his stomach.

For quote attribution, use a long dash (—), separated by a space following.

Examples
— Jean-Luc Picard
— Seven of Nine, 2382

Word misspellings

Below is a list of words that are commonly misspelled. Words to the right of the arrow are the correct spelling. Some of the words listed below are not misspellings at all, but simply not the preferred spelling on the wiki.

  • alot → a lot
  • armour → armor
  • c. → ca.
  • colour → color
  • gray → grey
  • I.K.S. → IKS
  • I.R.W. → IRW
  • R.R.W. → RRW
  • S.D. → SD
  • S.S. → SS
  • U.S.S. → USS
  • V.S. → VS

In closing

If you follow all of these guidelines, you will be well on your way to making a good article. Don't be discouraged, though, if you feel your article doesn't live up to the standard presented in this guide. After all, it is NOT an absolute authority on how an article should be designed. Hopefully this guide was helpful to you.

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