Bully Wiki:Manual of Style

Bully Wiki's **Manual of Style** is a guideline on how to properly write and format articles on Bully Wiki. It is not an absolute law, but it should not be deviated from without a valid rationale.

## General principles

Articles must be written in an encyclopedic tone with proper grammar and spelling. Personal opinions and commentary should not be included in the articles.

### Links

Characters should have their article linked the first time their name appears in the article. If they appear in the infobox, their name should be linked there *in addition to* the first time it appears in the text of the article.

### Tone

Articles should be written in an informative, encyclopedic tone. Personal opinions and excessively flowery language are inappropriate for article content (and try to avoid writing in parenthesis).

### "You"

When writing about missions, using 'you' should be avoided. For example, if a mission involves climbing a ladder, it should be written as "Jimmy must climb the ladder" rather than "you have to climb the ladder".

"You" is used to refer specifically to the person playing the game and *not* Jimmy Hopkins.

## Naming conventions

### Character articles

There is a hierarchy as to which criteria are used in determining an article's location.

1. The Game - If the game and any other sources contradict each other, the game itself is correct. Since Ted was given the last name of Thompson in the game and Sinclair on the website, his article is located at Ted Thompson rather than at Ted Sinclair.
2. The Credits - If a character is known by multiple names, then his article should be located under the name he was credited as. For example, Pete is often called Petey and his full name is Peter, but since he's credited as Pete Kowalski that is what his article is named.
3. Bully Peripherals - This includes all the pages on the official Bully website, the instruction manual, and the fold-out map that came with legitimate copies of the game. There are numerous contradictions between the peripherals and the game, and the game is always considered correct, however, if there are no outright contradictions the peripherals are acceptable sources.
4. Game data files - The game data files have numerous large errors, such as calling the Townies the Dropouts, and naming Miss Danvers as "Miss Winston". The files can be used to name characters who were otherwise uncredited, but are the least authoritative of the available sources.
5. "Fanon" - Fanon, short for fan canon, should *never* be used. This includes information on unofficial websites and message boards.

### Mission articles

Mission articles should be titled exactly as the mission appears in the game, regardless of grammatical errors.

### Minigame articles

Minigame articles should be named as close to the name of the minigame as possible. If the article is about a single game (i.e. Nut Shots), the proper title is fine. If it is a composite article about multiple games, it should be named as the base. For example, Lawn Mowing covers all the various lawn mowing minigames, and Future Street Racer covers both FSR 3D and FSR 2165.

### Clint (aka Henry)'s name

The character Clint (aka Henry) should be referred to as Henry unless specifically referring to *Scholarship Edition*-exclusive content, in which case Clint should be used. This is because "Clint" isn't actually used in *Bully*, but is almost exclusively used in *Scholarship Edition*.

## Character Article layout

The following sections describe the subsections of a character article and what should be contained in them.

All character articles should start with the character's name and identify what clique or group of townsfolk he or she is a member of.

Fighting style descriptions should not be added, since these can be read in the article Fighting.

### Character Description

This section describes the character's physical appearance, including but not limited to size, build, hair and skin color, and attire in both winter and summer. Characters with black skin are to be described as black rather than with any geopolitical title.

### Characteristics

This should describe the character's personality and behavior. It should also describe a character's relations with other students that aren't a part of the actual storyline. The etymology/ethnic origins of characters' last names generally should not be noted.

### Role in game

This section consists of the character's actions primarily during the missions in the game. Things that are extremely notable, such as Damon West's tendency to attack the player as soon as he's within sight of the gymnasium, should also be noted here.

### Trivia

Any interesting points that don't fit in well in any other section. For example, Christy Martin sharing a name with a female boxer is a trivia note.

## Mission articles layout

Mission articles should start by identifying what Chapter a mission becomes available in and whether it is part of the main storyline or not.

### Intro

Describe the opening cutscene(s). Do not insert scripts, scripts are not permitted on Bully Wiki per the Fair Use laws on text.

### Walkthrough

Describe the actions Jimmy must take to complete the mission, and any important actions that take place in the background. If there are mid-mission cutscenes, they should be described in this section as well.

### Afterwards

If there is a cutscene of any sort that takes place after the mission is completed, it should be placed in this section. If there is none, this section should not be included.

### Glitches

Any known glitches during the mission, whether they are game-breaking or just incidental. Glitches that cannot be activated without a cheat should *not* be listed, as cheats aren't part of standard gameplay and glitches are an inherent risk when using cheats.

### Trivia

Any interesting information that does not fit into one of the other sections should be listed here. Remember, although Wikipedia discourages trivia, Bully Wiki permits it. However, some trivia may be too incidental or insignificant to warrant listing. Trivia notes will be decided on a case by case basis.

## Categories

Categories should be set so that they sort by a character's last name. For example, Jimmy Hopkins is [[Category:Main Characters|Hopkins, Jimmy]], and Dr. Slawter is at [[Category:Teachers|Slawter, Dr.]]. Obviously if a character has only one name, this isn't necessary.