Library:Style guide
Articles on Oddworld Library follow a particular written style that should be adhered to. This guide addresses some of the most common situations that may arise, but may be updated at any time. Advice in this guide can also be disussed using this article’s talk page.
Typography
Apostrophes should use the Unicode character U+2019 Right Single Quotation Mark, unless they are part of a quotation or filename. This includes apostrophes that occur at the front of an abbreviation, such as ’97 for the year 1997, and the game New ’n’ Tasty.
The above also applies to article titles and slugs (the text entered or appearing after /wiki/ in the URI of each page). Redirects should be made for each article so that users typing the URI with a keyboard will reach the correct page. Links within the wiki should link directly to the canonical article slug.
Quotations use the UK style of marks, with single quotation marks usually enclosing the quoted text or title, and double quotation marks reserved for quotations embedded within the top-level quotation. The appropriate opening and closing quotation marks should be used, and not the apostrophe or quote mark that can be easily typed with the keyboard.
Markup
Titles of creative works that are typically rendered in italics should be marked up with the cite element, and not with wiki markup for italic text.
Article keywords (such as the subject of the article) should be rendered in bold using either wiki markup (enclosed in double apostrophes) or HTML (the b element). Wiki markup is preferred, but HTML may be more readable when apostrophes or quotation marks are either included in or immediately enclosing the keywords. The same markup is required of the credited name and date in the reference list; the brackets enclosing the date should be bold, but not the full stop that occurs immediately afterwards.
Inline quotations should be enclosed with the q element, with single quotation marks enclosing the q element.
Titles
Abbreviations
The first mention of each title in an article should be written in full, including the ‘Oddworld:’ prefix. Thereafter, mentions in prose can be abbreviated to exclude the ‘Oddworld:’ prefix only. When the title has not mentioned for a significant period, the full title should be used.
When the title is mentioned in isolation in a table or list item, it should always be in full. When it is used in prose in the table or article, it may be abbreviated per the above rule.
Abbreviations such as Stranger HD for Stranger’s Wrath HD or AO for Abe’s Oddysee should not be used, though when they appear in quotes they should still be marked up with the cite element, and if appropriate, the abbr element for clarity.
Where a title includes a subtitle, such as The Art of Oddworld Inhabitants: The First Ten Years 1994–2004, the full title is appropriate in keywords and references, but not in prose or tables, where The Art of Oddworld Inhabitants will suffice.
Arthrousness
Most arthrous Oddworld titles are softly arthrous, meaning they take the article ‘the’ when mentioned, but the ‘the’ is not capitalized unless it appears at the start of a sentence or list item (or unless it is being quoted in that way, including in store listings).
Wherever the ‘the’ is capitalized, including in quoted text, it should be included in the cite element and, if appropriate, linked text.
If these titles are used as an adjectival phrase (as in, ‘Is this game an Oddworld Quintology story?’), the ‘the’ should be excluded. However, it is preferable to avoid this sentence construction entirely.
Arthrous Oddworld titles include
- The OddBoxx
- The AbeBoxx
- The StrangerBoxx
- The Oddworld Quintology
- The Movies of Oddworld
- The Music of Oddworld Stranger’s Wrath
- The Art of Oddworld Inhabitants
- The Hand of Odd
CamelCase
The OddBoxx, the AbeBoxx, the StrangerBoxx and SligStorm are UpperCamelCase unless being quoted. Oddworld Soulstorm has no CamelCase, unlike the proposed title for Abe’s Oddysee, SoulStorm, as well as unlike the in-universe product, SoulStorm Brew.
Italics vs quotation marks
Italics (marked up using the cite element) are used for
- book titles
- game titles
- film titles
- album titles
- names of television series and serials
- names of media franchises and series
- names of newspapers and journals
Quotation marks are used for
- article and chapter titles
- video titles
- song titles
Dates and times
Dates should be written in the following format
Date of the month with no leading zeroes U+0020 Space full and capitalized name of the month U+0020 Space four-digit year
Times should be written in the following format
Hour 00 to 23 with leading zero U+002E Full Stop minute 00 to 59 with leading zero
Where a timezone is known, it should be added after the time in the following format
U+0020 Space UTC + or - where appropriate offset in hours with no leading zeroes and U+00B7 Middle Dot used as a decimal separator, where appropriate
Where the day of the week is relevant, it should be placed immediately before the date with U+0020 Space as a separator. Where the date and time appear together, they should be separated by U+0020 Space. A full example would appear thusly.
Monday 8 July 2019 19.18 UTC+1·5
12-hour
If for any reason it is necessary to write the time in 12-hour style, use the following format
Hour 1 to 12 with no leading zero U+002E Full Stop minute 00 to 59 with leading zero U+0020 Space a.m. or p.m., including both uses of U+002E Full Stop even in prose
If the time is exactly on the hour, it is appropriate to exclude the minutes and their separator, as in
Hour 1 to 12 with no leading zero U+0020 Space a.m. or p.m., including both uses of U+002E Full Stop even in prose