Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Anatomy/Article advice

message: Agree with most all of this. Additions / exceptions:
*The standard on Wikipedia seems to be to use US spelling and have the British ones redirecting. Occasionally I've seen something like "The esophagus (British English: oesophagus) is a..." It may not actually be the case with esophagus, but it's an option - otherwise I'd favour sticking to the US spelling for preference.
*I think it's appropriate to include mnemonics - this site is used as a learning tool, after all, and most of them are at least borderline acceptable. As you imply, they shouldn't be the focus of the article, but there's a place for them, IMHO.
Nmg20 12:24, 26 June 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: Don't get me wrong--I like mnemonics.  But they take away from the general encyclopedia/textbook feel and turn it into more of a study guide for those who are required to memorize things for class.  And my main concern with them is that there are about fifty different mnemonics for every anatomical thing worth remembering.  People see one, and go and add their own.  If there were a 'standard' mnemonic, I would not object.  But check out the quantity of terrible anatomy mnemonics out there on the internet today.  Having to choose only the good pnemonics might make some articles terribly subjective.  And most of the best mnemonics are quite dirty.  --Mauvila 13:28, 26 June 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: Well as an Australian user and user of British English I would say that the "standard" is not to use American English, rather it seems more Americans are editing the articles. Both are acceptable as long as it's not disrupting the article. It's a tricky situation though... up until a couple of years ago I didn't even know Americans spoke and wrote a dialect of English but now on Wikipedia it seems to be the majority. The language probably should be changed to Americanese though, haha, it's a bit of a misnomer to call it "English" -- Serephine ♠ talk - 04:11, 27 June 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: I propose American English to be the standard for the anatomy articles.  According to another wiki page, the U.S. has 67% of the world's native English speakers.  But that's not why I think it should be the standard here.  The American spellings are shorter, and British English often uses ligatures for imported terms, which are not fun to type multiple times. --Mauvila 05:25, 27 June 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: I have to admit, ligatures are irritating (hence why I don't use them), but I've always taken offense to some A.E. spellings and the way in which many Americans purport it to be the only English worthy of existing. A personal thing likely, but considering English has so many dialects and is spoken in so many countries I don't think Wikipedia, the world encylopedia, should have to conform to just the USA's way of spelling things -- Serephine ♠ talk - 08:48, 27 June 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: I suggest we go with the current form and use US english with British English noted where appropriate, as here from the start of the hematology article: "Hematology (BE: haematology) is the branch of internal medicine and pediatrics that..." And I see your point on the mnemonics, Mauvila. My gut feel is that they're going to get on here one way or another, however - perhaps a standard note along the lines of "There is one or more mnemonics associated with this topic. Please see --name of page we keep them on here--"? Nmg20 16:08, 27 June 2006 (UTC)
thread_title: Reply to guidelines

message: Should I put some of this in Wikipedia:Manual of Style (Medicine-related articles)?--Steven Fruitsmaak (Reply) 16:41, 29 August 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: Nah, this stuff is really just brainstorming.  Mauvila 20:49, 29 August 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Using this 

message: Does anyone object to the project endorsing a writing style that speaks of paired structures as an individual structure--this is essentially the anatomy textbook standard where one writes about a vagus nerve in the singular, even though there are two?  And along similar lines, how about we set a guideline that says: whether the structure is singular or plural depends upon how it is listed in Terminologia Anatomica...I think the TA decides by only looking at one half of the body...if there are more of a vein on a single side, then that structure is plural.  This is often seen when discussing veins...they list veins like the subclavian vein as singular, while veins that are venae comitantes are listed as plural (e.g. brachial veins). 
Also, when discussing paired structures in the singular, we should indicate that it is a paired structure.  For example, we should mention that the common iliac artery is a paired structure...it is present on both left and right sides, while the median sacral artery is not a paired structure. Mauvila 19:48, 10 October 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Paired structures