Project:Style guide

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Style guide

This style guide seeks to outline The Languages of David J. Peterson's stylistic conventions. It is not a formal policy, nor is it trying to become one. Please see Project:Entry layout for the official policy governing entry layout. Note that like all pages on a wiki, this style guide is very much a work in progress. Please feel free to expand and revise it.

Flexibility

The style guide presents widely supported standards, but it is not a set of rigid rules. You may experiment with deviations, but other editors may find those deviations unacceptable, and revert those changes. They have just as much right to do that as you have to make them. Be ready to discuss those changes; if you want your way accepted, you have to make the case for that. Unless there is a good reason for deviating, the existing practice should be presumed correct.

Related policies and style guidelines

• Entry structure is defined in Project:Entry layout.
• Guidance for formatting entries for words in specific languages can be found in Category:The Languages of David J. Peterson language considerations.
• Guidance on formatting and style for specific parts of an entry:
  • Project:Quotations
  • Project:Etymology
  • Project:Pronunciation

General considerations

In general, The Languages of David J. Peterson favors a minimalistic approach. Entries should not be more complex than necessary. Content should not be added unless it adds value for some identifiable group of users. Avoiding unnecessary clutter and complication aids in the portability of our data, and helps to ensure that our entries will be usable to as wide a community of users as possible.

For the same reasons, it is expected that entries will maintain as high a level of consistency as is possible to do while still respecting the complexity of the lexicon.

Varieties of English

Preferred English spelling and usage varies widely from one country to another. As an international dictionary, The Languages of David J. Peterson does not privilege one variety over another. However, it is expected that an entry should be internally consistent – generally favoring either Australian, British, Canadian, US, or some other standard usage – and that entries should not be edited for the sole purpose of changing from one language variant to another.

Punctuation

Quotation marks

• The Languages of David J. Peterson favors the use of double quotation marks (" " or “ ”) rather than single ones (' ' or ‘ ’). Single quotes are normally used only when one quotation is enclosed within another.

• There is currently no consensus regarding whether to use plumb quotes (" ", ' ') and apostrophes (') or typographical quotes (“ ”, ‘ ’) and apostrophes (’).
• The Languages of David J. Peterson usage places any terminal punctuation outside the quotation marks, unless it is actually part of the quote.

Parentheses

Parentheses should be used in definitions only for the purpose of identifying the selectional restrictions of the headword in the current sense:

1. To lead (a group)

   Jones here will head the team.

Any other direct uses of parentheses should be avoided. The only parentheses used outside of definitions should be those generated by special-purpose templates such as {{m}}/{{mention}}, {{lb}}/{{label}}, and {{q}}/{{qualifier}} (see below).

Commas

Authorities and preferences differ over the appropriateness of the serial comma. Use {{,}} in place of a literal comma before the last element in a list to allow users to decide whether to show or hide this punctuation.

→ red, white, and blue

En dashes

A discussion exclusively regarding whether entries with en dashes (–) in titles should be created has yet to occur, but there seems to be no consensus. Entries have been created by multiple users, some as alternative forms of entries using hyphens (e.g., Wade–Giles).

Italics

Adding italics to the headword if that is the only form used seems to be supported (e.g., “Palko test”). If there is more than one form (e.g., “Zelda-like” or “Zelda-like”), there is no consensus regarding whether the form with the italics should be included.