Editing Yugipedia:Manual of style

The following styles are used in the content part of this site to ensure consistency within articles and formatting.

In most cases writing styles follow the ones used by Konami on cards in the ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh! Trading Card Game]]'' or other official ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh!]]'' media.

If something being quoted does not follow the styles outlined here, use the styles being quoted.

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 applies to the content part of the site. When editing User, Talk or Forum pages, users may use whatever styles they prefer.

==Spelling==
American English spellings are used.

Common differences between American and British English spellings include:

{| class="wikitable" style="width: 100%; margin: auto;"
! style="width: 10%" | British&nbsp;English
! style="width: 10%" | American&nbsp;English
! style="width: 20%" | British&nbsp;English&nbsp;examples
! style="width: 20%" | American&nbsp;English&nbsp;examples
! style="width: 40%" | Notes
|-
| colspan="5" style="text-align: center" | '''Word endings'''
|-
| -''ise''<br />-''isation''<br />-''yse'' || -''ize''<br />-''ization''<br />-''yze'' || organise, polymerisation, paralyse || organize, polymerization, paralyze || 
|-
| -''our'' || -''or'' || armour, colour || armor, color || 
|-
| -''re'' || -''er'' || centre, sabre || center, saber || "[[Lightsworn Sabre]]" uses the British spelling.
|-
| -''gue'' || ''g'' || catalogue, dialogue || catalog, dialog || 
|-
| -''ce'' || -''se'' || defence, offence || defense, offense || 
|-
| colspan="5" style="text-align: center" | '''Double consonants'''
|-
| -''ll''- || -''l''- || duellist, traveller || duelist, traveler || This applies to verbs ending in a vowel followed by "l". The "l" is doubled in British English, but not American English.
|-
| colspan="5" style="text-align: center" | '''Silent letters'''
|-
| ''e'' || || judgement || judgment || In some cases, "judgement" is also used. e.g. "[[The Judgement Hand]]", but in most cases "judgment" is used. e.g. "[[Judgment Dragon]]".
|}

==Capitalization==
Words considered to be proper nouns, proper adjectives etc. have their first letters capitalized, while common nouns, common adjectives etc. do not unless used at the start of the sentence.

Some card game terminology is capitalized, different than normal English. The 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 monster]]s' lores)
* [[DRAW]] (the game result)

Gameplay terms which begin in capital letters include:
* Types e.g. [[Aqua]], [[Beast-Warrior]]
* Battle positions: [[Attack Position]] and [[Defense Position]]
* Types of cards e.g. [[Trap Card]], [[Normal Monster]], [[Continuous Spell Card]]
** Secondary monster types such as [[Gemini monster|Gemini]] and [[Tuner monster|Tuner]] do not capitalize the "m" in monster.
* Types of Summons and Sets e.g. [[Normal Summon]], [[Synchro Summon]], [[Set]]
* 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 Zone
* Effect types: [[Quick Effect]], [[Flip Effect]]
* [[Spell Speed]]s
* Types of games e.g. [[Duel]], [[Match]], [[Turbo Duel]]
* 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 one include:
* [[archetype]]
* [[banish]]
* [[battle]]
* card (when used by itself)
* [[damage]]
* [[draw a card|draw]] (the action, as in drawing a card)
* [[field]]
* [[hand]]
* monster (when used by itself or after abilities, such as Gemini or Tuner)
* [[piercing]]
* [[series]]

== Italics ==
:''Wikipedia has best practices and guidelines related to italic face that may be followed, at [[wikipedia:MOS:ITALIC]].''

Italics should generally be used when writing the titles of longer or more standalone works. Some of these include:

* Books
* Games
* Films
* Musical albums
* Series
* Card sets

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:
* Foreign words written in the Latin alphabet. This includes romanized Japanese text (''rōmaji'').
* Card lores for [[Normal Monster]]s.

== Punctuation ==
=== Quotation marks ===
:''Wikipedia has best practices and guidelines related to quotation marks that may be followed, at [[wikipedia:MOS:QUOTE#Quotation marks]].''

In prose, terms which should be written in quotation marks include:
* Card names
** Portions of a card name that refer to a group of cards, e.g. "[[Elemental HERO]]".
* Chapters of longer works 
* Episodes of TV series
* Musical compositions
* Duel Puzzles

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'''.

Cards use logical punctuation, so the same is usually used on this site.

'''Examples''':
* ''Correct'': <span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; color: #006F00;">This card's name is treated as "Harpie Lady".</span>
* ''Incorrect'': <span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; color: #B20000;">This card's name is treated as "Harpie Lady."</span>
::(The period is not part of the source)

* ''Correct'': <span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; color: #006F00;">Chazz said "Cards are merely weapons."</span>
::(The period is part of the source)
* ''Correct'': <span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; color: #006F00;">Chazz said that cards are "weapons".</span>
* ''Incorrect'': <span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; color: #B20000;">Chazz said that cards are "weapons."</span>
::(The period's presence in the source is uncertain and its usage within the quotation marks is unnecessary)

It is best to avoid adding a possessive apostrophe s ('s) that is not part of the source to a name in quotation marks.

'''Examples'''
* ''Correct'': <span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; color: #006F00;">The effect of "Rescue Cat".</span>
* ''Incorrect'': <span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; color: #B20000;">"Rescue Cat"'s effect.</span>
* ''Incorrect'': <span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; color: #B20000;">"Rescue Cat's" effect.</span>

===Commas===
Commas are mainly used to separate parts of a sentence such as clauses and lists of three or more things.

Logical punctuation is used when there is a comma at the end of a quotation. i.e. the comma is only included inside the quotation marks if it is part of the source material.

'''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 to be used in a conjunction in a list with three or more items.

'''Examples'''
* ''Correct'': <span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; color: #006F00;">"Green Gadget", "Red Gadget", and "Yellow Gadget"</span>
* ''Incorrect'': <span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; color: #B20000;">"Green Gadget", "Red Gadget" and "Yellow Gadget"</span>

===Apostrophes===
Generally when forming possessives of words ending with the letter s, just add an apostrophe to the end, rather than an apostrophe and another letter s. More accurately speaking, if the word ends with an /s/ or /z/ sound, just append an apostrophe. If it does not end in an /s/ or /z/ sound, add an apostrophe and the letter s.

'''Examples'''
* ''Correct'': <span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; color: #006F00;">Horus' Servant</span>
* ''Incorrect'': <span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; color: #B20000;">Horus's Servant</span>
* ''Correct'': <span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; color: #006F00;">Debris's effect</span> ("debris" is pronounced /ˈdɛbɹiː/, /ˈdeɪbɹiː/ or /dəˈbɹiː/; [[commons:File:En-us-debris.ogg]])
* ''Incorrect'': <span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; color: #B20000;">Debris' effect</span>

If a word ends in a double s, such as goddess, an apostrophe and an s are appended. However an abstract noun followed by sake, does not use the extra s.

'''Examples'''
* ''Correct'': <span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; color: #006F00;">Goddess's Punishment</span>
* ''Incorrect'': <span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; color: #B20000;">Goddess' Punishment</span>
* ''Correct'': <span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; color: #006F00;">For goodness' sake</span>
* ''Incorrect'': <span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; color: #B20000;">For goodness's sake</span>

As covered in the [[#Quotation marks|quotation marks]] section, when forming the possessive of a term in quotation marks, the sentence should be reformatted to avoid the apostrophe.

'''Examples'''
* ''Correct'': <span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; color: #006F00;">The effect of "Rescue Cat".</span>
* ''Incorrect'': <span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; color: #B20000;">"Rescue Cat"'s effect.</span>
* ''Incorrect'': <span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; color: #B20000;">"Rescue Cat's" effect.</span>

==Date formats==
Official sources usually use American date formats. e.g. January 5, 2000 or 1/5/2000. Sometimes 2000-01-05 is used.

January 5, 2000 is favored over 1/5/2000, as some readers may read the latter as 1 May 2000. 

The format January 5, 2000 should be used in articles. Any dates inserted by the system will appear in whatever format the user has specified in [[Special:Preferences]].

Shortened month names like "Jan" should be avoided unless used in tables where there is little room.

'''Examples'''
* ''Correct'': <span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; color: #006F00;">January 5, 2000</span>
* ''Incorrect'': <span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; color: #B20000;">January 5 2000</span>
* ''Incorrect'': <span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; color: #B20000;">January 5th, 2000</span>
* ''Incorrect'': <span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; color: #B20000;">5 January 2000</span>
* ''Incorrect'': <span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; color: #B20000;">5th January 2000</span>
* ''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.

'''Examples'''
* ''Correct'': <span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; color: #006F00;">2000</span>
* ''Incorrect'': <span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; color: #B20000;">2000 A.D.</span>
* ''Incorrect'': <span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; color: #B20000;">2000 AD</span>
* ''Incorrect'': <span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; color: #B20000;">2000 C.E.</span>
* ''Incorrect'': <span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; color: #B20000;">2000 CE</span>

* ''Correct'': <span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; color: #006F00;">2000 B.C.</span>
* ''Incorrect'': <span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; color: #B20000;">2000 BC</span>
* ''Incorrect'': <span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; color: #B20000;">2000 B.C.E.</span>
* ''Incorrect'': <span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; color: #B20000;">2000 BCE</span>

==See also==
* [[Project:Card Rulings]]: Manual of style of rulings pages.
* [[Project:Character articles]]: Manual of style for character articles.
* [[Project:Image policy]]: Manual of style of image names when uploading images.

[[Category:Policy]]