35,844
edits
Changes
Imported revision from memcached. (text_id:"4310824")
Proper English is always used unless it contradicts anything in this guide. Different forms of English have different styles. This guide highlights which ones are favored on this site.
The following apply applies to the content part of the site. When editing User, Talk or Forum pages, users may use whatever styles they prefer.
==Spelling==
==Capitalization==
Words considered to be proper nouns, proper adjectives etc. have their first letters capitalized, while common nouns, common adjectives etc. don't do not unless used at the start of the sentence.
Some card game terminology is capitalized , different than normal English. The capitalizations capitalization used in gameplay terminology should be used on this site.
Gameplay terms which use all capital letters, include:
* Attributes: [[LIGHT]], [[DARK]], [[FIRE]], [[WATER]], [[EARTH]], [[WIND]] and [[DIVINE]]
* [[ATK]] and [[DEF]]
* FLIP (only when used at the beginning of [[Flip Effect Monstermonster]]s' lores)* [[DRAW]] (the game result)
Gameplay terms which begin in capital letters include:
* Phases and Steps e.g. [[End Phase]], [[Damage Step]]
* Decks: Main Deck, Extra Deck, Fusion Deck, Side Deck
* Locations on the playing field. e.g. Graveyard, Monster Card Zone
* Effect types: [[Quick Effect]], [[Flip Effect]]
* [[Spell Speed]]s
* Other words which are capitalized include:
** [[Attribute]]
** [[Tribute]]
** [[Type]]
The term "[[battle damage]]" used to be capitalized but is no longer written that way on official card texts. Gameplay terms which do not start with a capital letter, but are sometimes mistaken for starting with them one include:* [[Archetypearchetype]]* [[Banishbanish]]* Battle (when used by itself)* Card (when used by itself)* [[Damagebattle]] * card (when used by itself)* [[Damage calculationdamage]]* [[Draw draw a card|Drawdraw]] (The the action, not the game resultas in drawing a card)* [[Playing Field|Fieldfield]]* [[Handhand]]* Monster monster (when used by itself or after secondary monster typesabilities, such as Gemini or Tuner)* [[Piercingpiercing]]* [[Seriesseries]]
== Italics ==
* Series
The titles of shorter works such as episodes, chapters , and musical compositions use [[#Quotation marks|quotation marks]] instead. Traditional games like [[chess]] and religious works or scriptures like the [[Book of the Dead]] are not written in italics or quotation marks.
Other instances where italics are to be used include:
If the last word in a sentence is within quotation marks, the period is only placed inside the quotation marks if it is part of the material being quoted. If the period is not part of the quoted material it is left outside. The same applies for other commas, question marks and exclamation marks. This practice is known as '''logical punctuation'''. In the United States and Canada, it is more common to leave periods and commas inside the quotation marks irrespective of whether it is part of the material being quoted. This practice is known as '''traditional punctuation'''.
'''Examples''':
===Commas===
Commas are mainly used to separate parts of a sentence such as clauses, and lists of three or more things.
'''Examples'''
* ''Correct'': <span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; color: #006F00;">"Elemental HERO", "Destiny HERO" , or "Evil HERO".</span>* ''Incorrect'': <span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; color: #B20000;">"Elemental HERO," "Destiny HERO," or "Evil HERO."</span>
A serial comma is a comma to be used before in a conjunction in a list with three or more items. However this practice is not to be used here.
'''Examples'''
* ''Correct'': <span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; color: #006F00;">"Elemental HEROGreen Gadget", "Destiny HERORed Gadget" or , and "Evil HEROYellow Gadget".</span>* ''Incorrect'': <span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; color: #B20000;">"Elemental HEROGreen Gadget", "Destiny HERORed Gadget", or and "Evil HEROYellow Gadget".</span>
===Apostrophes===
==Date formats==
Official sources usually use American date formats. e.g. January 5, 2000 or 1/5/2000. Sometimes 2000-101-5 05 is used.
January 5, 2000 is favored over 1/5/2000, as some readers may read the latter as 1 May 2000.
* ''Incorrect'': <span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; color: #B20000;">5th of January 2000</span>
* ''Incorrect'': <span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; color: #B20000;">5/1/2000</span>
* ''Incorrect'': <span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; color: #B20000;">1/5/2000</span>
* ''Incorrect'': <span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; color: #B20000;">2000-1-5</span>
* ''Correct'': <span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; color: #006F00;">2000-01-05</span> (Rarely used in prose. Acceptable in table cells. "January 5, 2000" can be added as hover text.)
When giving years, B.C. and A.D. (Before Christ and Anno Domini) are favored over B.C.E. and C.E. (Before Common Era and Common Era). Although the A.D. is omitted when giving years in its range.
* [[Project:Image policy]]: Manual of style of image names when uploading images.
[[Category:Policy|{{PAGENAME}}]]
