Style Guide

In order to keep as much consistency as possible between articles written by a wide array of authors, please follow these simple style and formatting guidelines when creating a new article. As always, feel free to message the mods with any questions!

## Style Basics

To keep it simple, every article should have a layout similar to a written essay.

**The intro** goes above the first header. This should be a succinct lead-in to what the article will be about using normal text. Not every article will necessarily need an intro, but the more descriptive you can be, the better!

Each **body section**should begin with a header (like the one above) - this is achieved in one of the two following ways:

Using the regular editor, select the **HEADING** format.

Using the classic editor, selected the **HEADING 2** format.

It's not important which editor you use - whenever you select the correct heading, the wiki's CSS will automatically give it the correct format. If it doesn't look correct on your editing screen, select a different heading.

There is no prescribed format for articles as far as body sections are concerned. Play around with your information and see what structue makes the most sense for the information you are contributing.

**Tables of content** are automatically created when an article has four or more headings. It is not necessary that you strive for four body section in each article, but especially for longer article the tables of content aid in navigation.

## Required Headings for Content

Each main article should have a minimum of four headings:

1. About
2. How to Use
3. User-Submitted Guides
4. References

Individual pages may differ from this format (e.g. the Video page) where it makes sense to do so.

## Blockquotes

**Blockquotes**can be added in by entering the classic editor (found by clicking on the down arrow next to the "Edit" button). In the upper right section of the editing box, you'll see two tabs: "Visual" (which is automatically selected) and "Source".

Click on "Source", and enter the following code into the text box:

Which creates this:

> QUOTE TEXT GOES HERE.
> --  **AUTHOR NAME.**
>
>

Simply fill in the text and author and the HTML will do the rest.

In order to keep this site fun, feel free to include humorous or otherwise relevant quotes at the top of articles to which you contribute. The Neil Gaiman quote on our Twitter page is a perfect example of this mentality.

## References & Citations

Citations need not necessarily be in APA format. As per standard Wiki practices, the use of footnotes is acceptable.

To insert a footnote while creating a post, click on the "Insert" button in the editor, then select **reference.** This will give you a text edit box where you can place either a **link** or an **APA citation** if the source is not a website. This will automatically generate a footnote link in correct numerical order based on its location in the article.

To create a full reference list, simply create a heading titled "References" at the end of your page. Then, go back to the "Insert" drop-down button and select **references list.** This will auto-populate your footnotes based on previous inputs.

Remember that, according to APA style, **the Internet** is capitalized while individual **websites** are not.

## Using Images in Articles

We ask for your help in self-policing **copyright infrignements.** Make sure that images are either your own creation or free to use on websites like ours. Here is a good guide from the Help:Copyright page on the Wikia Community Central.

When uploading your images, keep two things in mind:

1. Image quality
2. File name

Both are important in maintaining the integrity of our site and helping users navigate!

If you would like to use **stock photos,** consider perusing this Medium.com article: Stock photos that don't suck . This will provide you with an extensive list of royalty free, high quality stock photos should you need them.

## Other Guidelines

Technology often overlaps. As such, we strongly encourage **linking articles** to each other. Here is an example of how we linked the words "Twitter page" to our article earlier on this page.

Click the chain link icon at the top of the editor.

The **Target page or URL** can either be a full web address (i.e. http://www.123.com) or simply the name of the target page, as seen above (the link for this page would be "Style\_Guide"). The lower portion, **Text to display**, is simply the text you want to make up the link on the page.

Make sure to place your post **in a category** while editing. Appropriate category tags include "Social Media," "Asessment," "Theory & Research", etc. Click here for a full list of categories already in use on the site. If it is a title on our navigation bar, it's a good cetegory!

For everything else, we recommend that you check out the Wikipedia:Manual of Style.

As a small and informal body of contributors and moderators, we are not looking for perfect grammar or by-the-book consistency in every article.

**Still, as a contributor we ask that you hold yourself and others to a high standard of accuracy and aesthetics.**The more uniform or wiki is, the more useful it will be to potential readers!