Help:Style guide: Difference between revisions

Latest revision as of 14:51, 3 January 2014

This an intermediate guide on writing readable, effective articles for Project: Redcap. It emphasizes layout and organization.

Before You Begin

This article assumes you know the basics of editing Project: Redcap pages. Please be sure you are familiar with the following:

There are Only Two Rules

There are only two firm rules on Project: Redcap:

Follow our copyright policy
Make the page better for one or both of the site's purposes.

Everything else is just a guideline, to be followed when it's helpful and disregarded when it's inconvenient.

Write an Informative Lead

Write a brief lead for the page that explains exactly what the page is about. This enables the reader to quickly determine if he has found what he's looking for.

Use Headings and Sub-Headings

Most users of Wikis are searching for specific information. Headings help users quickly find exactly what they are looking for, which makes the site more useful overall. They also break up long passages of text, making it more readable.

MediaWiki will automatically generate the "Contents" block at the top of the page, using your headings as the links.

Use Categories

Project: Redcap uses Categories to organize pages and make them discoverable. It would be a big help to us if you could include categories in your new article. The Wiki automatically maintains a list of categories on the Special:Categories page.

Please use only the existing categories. If you think we need to add a new category, please contact us or use your article's Talk page to discuss it. Although it might not be apparent, we've put quite a bit of thought into our categories and we want to think carefully before adding new ones.

Use References

Include references to Ars Magica books (or other authorities, such as history books or other Web sites) to show where important facts come from. References make a page credible and help the reader find important context related to the topic.

Please see Help:References for information on how to create references.

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
 [[Category:Help]]
-This is a brief guide on how to design articles for Project:Redcap, emphasizing layout and structure.
+This an intermediate guide on writing readable, effective articles for Project: Redcap. It emphasizes layout and organization.
 == Before You Begin ==
-Please read our article on [[Copyright]] and do not post copyrighted material to this Wiki. The moderators will remove unauthorized copyrighted material immediately.
+This article assumes you know the basics of editing Project: Redcap pages. Please be sure you are familiar with the following:
+* [[Project Redcap:Copyrights]]
+* [[Help:Editing]]
+* [[Help:Basic formatting]]
+* [[Project Redcap:Content guidelines]]
-== When to Create a New Article ==
+== There are Only Two Rules ==
-Before you create a new article, please check to see whether there is an existing page that covers the same or a similar topic. Use the search box, which appears in the upper-right corner of every page on Project: Redcap, to search for key words.
+There are only two firm rules on Project: Redcap:
-You can find a list of articles we'd like people to write on the [[Special:WantedPages]] page.
+# Follow our [[Project Redcap:Copyrights|copyright policy]]
+# Make the page better for one or both of the site's [[Project Redcap:Purpose|purpose]]s.
-== How to Create a New Article ==
+Everything else is just a guideline, to be followed when it's helpful and disregarded when it's inconvenient.
-The easiest way to create a new article is to click on an existing link, on any page, that links to a non-existent page. Such links appear red in most Web browsers (though this may vary according to the preferences you've set for Project:Redcap and/or your browser). You can find a list of such links on the [[Special:WantedPages]] page.
-Another way to create a new article is to search for it. If the article does not exist, the search results will include a link you can use to edit (create) it.
+== Write an Informative Lead ==
+Write a brief lead for the page that explains exactly what the page is about. This enables the reader to quickly determine if he has found what he's looking for.
+== Use Headings and Sub-Headings ==
+Most users of Wikis are searching for specific information. Headings help users quickly find exactly what they are looking for, which makes the site more useful overall. They also break up long passages of text, making it more readable.
+MediaWiki will automatically generate the "Contents" block at the top of the page, using your headings as the links.
 == Use Categories ==
@@ Line 19: / Line 29: @@
 Please use only the existing categories. If you think we need to add a new category, please [[Special:Contact | contact]] us or use your article's Talk page to discuss it. Although it might not be apparent, we've put quite a bit of thought into our categories and we want to think carefully before adding new ones.
+== Use References ==
+Include references to Ars Magica books (or other authorities, such as history books or other Web sites) to show where important facts come from. References make a page credible and help the reader find important context related to the topic.
+Please see [[Help:References]] for information on how to create references.