Policy:Manual of Style

It was established by the staff and is considered a standard that everyone should follow. Please make use of talk pages to propose changes to this policy.

Here at the Legacy of Chaos wikia, we like things to be uniform and consistent across our articles. As such, this manual of style has been created, to hopefully make things easier for those creating or editing articles. For the most basic information regarding these styles, please observe Wikipedia's Manual of Style. We try to maintain this where possible, but below you will find notable differences and requirements geared more towards this wikia.

## Layout Guide

For each type of article, we've created an in depth layout that we expect an article's structure to contain. For the information required to create or edit such an article, please refer to the Category:Help and navigate to the article type in question. In addition, each of these article types have a policy on what we expect an article's quality to reflect. A list of all the policies we implement here can be found in the Category:Policies.

## Naming Articles

There are several rules regarding how an article should be named. For more specific details, please refer to the Policy:Naming Conventions. When using an articles name in the article's introductory paragraph, the name of the article should be **bolded** in its first usage, as should any alternate names mentioned in the intro. These **bolded** titles should not have links associated with them.

## Headings

Use the `==` (heading) markup for headings, not the `'''` (**bold**) markup. Example:

`===This is a heading===`
which produces:

**This is a heading**

If you mark headings this way, a table of contents is automatically generated from the headings in an article. Sections can be automatically numbered for users with that preference set and words within properly marked headings are given greater weight in searches. Headings also help readers by breaking up the text and outlining the article.

* Capitalize the first letter only of the first word and of any proper nouns in a heading, and leave all of the other letters in lower case.
* Avoid links within headings.
* Avoid overuse of sub-headings.

## Usage and Spelling

Though the readers and editors of the Legacy of Chaos wikia speak many varieties of English, we typically use standard American English spelling, grammar, punctuation, and word usage.

If a word has multiple acceptable spellings in English, such as *judgement* and *judgment* then the former is preferred. Additionally, there are further examples where other spellings are preferred. The most common occurrences of these words are a*rmour*, c*olour*, and words ending in *-ogue* such as *dialogue* and *catalogue*.

If an article for a page has two spellings, but the preferred usage has not been otherwise specified, utilize the American English spelling, with alternate spellings used as redirects (for example, Sabre redirects to Saber).

If a source's title is in a different form of English, it must not be converted into American English. Also, if a direct quotation from a source has a word spelled differently then our preferred usage, the original spelling must be preserved.

### Tense

All in-universe articles should be in past tense, as given example in the above quote. For more detailed information on the tense we use here and how to maintain it, please refer to the Policy:Past Tense article.

### Using Lower Case

Because of the wikia design, proper case usage is a bigger issue then you might think it deserves. Because of this, please have a look at Policy:Using Lower Case.

## Linking

An article should be linked once upon its first mention in an article's infobox, once upon its first mention in the article's introduction, and once upon its first mention in the articles main body. Any mention of an article should receive an initial link when mentioned in another article, excluding mention of general information articles (such as Swords).

## Units of Measurement

Unless otherwise specified by a specific canon measurement or quote, it is recommended that all articles use the metric system. Users should avoid making measurement conversions based on real-world conversion standards aside from those within the same measurement system.