Wikiversity:Manual of Style

You can help develop this proposal, share your thoughts, or discuss its adoption as a Wikiversity policy, guideline, or process. References or links should describe this page as a "proposal".

The Manual of Style is a set of guidelines for the formatting of articles on Wikiversity, currently based loosely on Wikipedia's manual of style.

Article names

• Article names should (generally) be in sentence case (e.g., Social psychology), although proper names may also be used e.g., John Dewey. Full capitalisation is appropriate e.g., for acronyms e.g., SPSS.
• Article names should not contain special characters like &, |, -, / and + unless necessary (there are exceptions, such as the C++ programming language, or when making subpages).
• Spaces should be used appropriately, and will be automatically converted to underscores in URLs. For example, Main Page and not MainPage or mainPage
• Individual Schools may come up with their own guidelines on article names.
• Where appropriate, the article name may be bolded if it occurs within the first paragraph.
• For more information, see Wikiversity:Naming conventions

Headings

Liberal use of headings is encouraged. Semicolons can be used but, as they cannot be linked to as sections of an article appropriately, using the equal sign method is preferred. Articles should, where at all possible, be split into subsections of reasonable length, separated by headings surrounded by two equals signs.

Syntax

Following is an example of the Mediawiki syntax for headings:

Introductory paragraph.

== Heading ==
Text.

== Heading ==
Text.

Subsections can be created by using three or four equals signs, with four being parsed as a lower heading level than three. For example

Introductory paragraph.

== Heading ==
Text.

=== Subheading ===
Text.

=== Subheading ===
Text.

==== Deeper subheading ====
Text.

== Heading ==
Text.

Conventions

• It is suggested that headings not contain special characters: when a heading is linked to, special characters are converted to a format suitable for URLs, which can confuse visitors.
• Surround your title with single equal signs only in special cases, where warranted. This is supported by the Mediawiki software, but the "first-level" heading thus created is unnecessarily large and obtrusive. It is normally better to use second-level headings (with double equal signs) for your main sections.
• Keep headings short: one or two words is often enough.
• Do not repeat titles or significant parts thereof (exceptions include numbering, e.g. appending integers or roman numerals to headings).

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Formatting

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Wikiversity is not Wikipedia

Wikiversity uses the same formatting capability as Wikipedia. Some Wikiversity instructors feel that using the basic outline of an encyclopedia is not conducive to creating attractive and appealing lessons. They want more than just paragraph after paragraph of unformatted text.

Therefore, some instructors use creative ways to enhance the appearance of their pages. By looking through all the possible formatting options in the help section, you will begin to find ways to make your pages more attractive. Even placing a simple colon at the beginning of long lines helps readability.

Developing standards

Currently, there are no standards at Wikiversity for page formatting. Therefore, each instructor develops with his or her own preference for the appearance of a lesson page, a table of contents, and a reference page, etc.

A simple example:

Here is a simple example:

Here is a title A subtitle Lots of wonderful text. Even more text. Great text is the best text but marvelous text is even better yet. Text text text text text. Another subtitle Lots of wonderful text. Even more text. Even more text. Even more text. Even more text. Even more text. Text text text text text. Text text text text text. Text text text text text. Here is another title A subtitle Lots of wonderful text. Even more text. Even more text. Even more text. Even more text. Even more text. Text text text text text.

Here is a title Here is a subtitle Lots of wonderful text. Even more text. Even more text. Even more text. Even more text. Even more text. Even more text. Text text text text text. Lots of wonderful text. Even more text. Even more text.

Better looking

As you can see, this is much more colorful and appealing than most of the pages at Wikiversity. But you will have to decide how much formatting will create the best learning environment for your students. Robert Elliott 03:42, 25 March 2007 (UTC)

See also

Official policies

Assume Good Faith - Be bold - Bots - Civility - Community Review - Exemption Doctrine Policy - Privacy Policy - Privacy Policy (Meta) - Reliable sources - Research guidelines - Rollback - Verifiability - What is Wikiversity

Proposed policies

Academic freedom - Blocking policy - Bureaucratship - Chat channel policy - CheckUser policy - Child protection policy - Cite sources - Course Titles and Numbers - Course protection policy - Deletions - Disclosures - External links - Make no assumptions - Manual of Style - Naming conventions - Network naming conventions - Original research - Page protection templates - Polls - Respect people - Productive Forking and Tailoring is Encouraged - Real world schools - Scholarly ethics - Subpages - Username - User page - Vandalism - What Wikiversity is not - Catalyst