User:Jguk/policy proposal

Quotation marks

1. With quotation marks, though not a rigid rule, we use the "double quotes" for most quotations – they are easier to read on the screen – and use 'single quotes' for "quotations 'within' quotations".

2. Note: if a word or phrase appears in an article with single quotes, such as 'abcd', the Wikipedia:Searching facility considers the single quotes to be part of the word and will find that word or phrase only if the search string is also within single quotes. (When trying this out with the example mentioned, remember that this article is in the Wikipedia namespace.) Avoiding this complication is an additional reason to use double quotes, for which the difficulty does not arise. It may even be a reason to use double quotes for quotations within quotations.

3. Longer quotations may be better rendered in an indented style by starting the first line with a colon. In a quotation of multiple paragraphs not using indented style, double quotation marks belong at the beginning of each paragraph, but only at the end of the last paragraph.

4. Since quotations are already marked by quotation marks or indentations, they need not be put into italics.

Use straight quotation marks and apostrophes

5. For uniformity and to avoid complications use straight quotation marks and apostrophes ( ' " ) not curved (smart) ones, grave accents or backticks ( ‘ ’ “ ” ` ).

6. If you are pasting text from Microsoft Word, remember to turn off the smart quotes feature by unmarking this feature in AutoEdit and "AutoEdit during typing"! Many other modern word processors have a smart quotes setting—please read the appropriate documentation for your editor.

7. Characters identical in appearance to left single quotation mark or right single quotation mark are used as letters in some Latin-letter transliteration systems and in some languages, for example to display the ‘okina character in Hawaiian. The characters may also be used in discussions about the quotation marks themselves. If using a left or right quotation mark for such a purpose, to assure proper display on all browsers, do not type or paste such a quotation mark directly into the Wikipedia editor. Instead, use the HTML entities ‘ or ’ or the corresponding numeric forms: ‘ and &#8217 or ‘ and ’. If necessary to represent such characters as letters in article titles, the normal straight apostrophe ( ' ) should usually be used in place of the right quotation mark and the grave accent ( ` ) in place of the left quotation mark.

English usage

Policy

8. Articles should be written in a standard form of the English language. Examples of this include American English, British English, Canadian English, Indian English and New Zealand English. Whichever form of standard English is chosen, the article should use that form consistently.

9. Where an article is about a topic that is exclusively related to a particular part of the English-speaking world, use a standard form of English that is used there.

10. Do not change the form of standard English that an article is written in to another form of standard English without good reason.

11. Try to pick words that will be understood internationally. This does not mean to avoid all words and phrases particular to one region of the world. But be sensible. People who use the word "biscuit" rather than "cookie" are likely to know what the American word "cookie" means. But non-Americans may not know what "7th grade" is, in the same way as Americans may not know what "fifth form" is.

12. Where you need to use a word that won't be generally understood, explain it. For instance, an article on "Eton College" will refer to it being a "public school"; it also explains that this means "an independent, fee-paying secondary school" in the UK. If a Wikipedian from another part of the world says they do not understand a term, take it at face value and either change that term or explain it.

13. Proper names should always retain their original spellings. Examples: United States Department of Defense; Australian Defence Force.

14. If different standard forms of English refer to a topic by different names, or use different spellings for words used in the article title, make a redirect page to accommodate the other variant. It is especially preferable, if possible and reasonable, to use a neutral word. Examples: aircraft (rather than aeroplane or airplane); Trade union (rather than labor union or labour union).

15. Try to avoid words, phrases, punctuation styles, grammar or syntax that may be regarded as so incorrect by users of another standard form of English as to be confusing. For example, "other meaning" should be used instead of "alternate meaning" or "alternative meaning"; not all English speakers regard "alternate" and "alternative" as meaning the same. Alternative commonly suggests "non-traditional" or "out-of-the-mainstream" to an American-English speaker. Some traditional usage experts consider alternative to be appropriate only when there are exactly two alternatives.

Other guidance

16. Consult Wikipedia articles such as English plural and American and British English differences.

17. Insert an additional comma before the final "and" (or "or") if needed for clarification: sugar, beef and veal, and milk products. See Oxford comma.

18. There are no guidelines on whether to use one or two spaces after the end of a sentence. This is not of particular important as the difference only shows up in the edit box. See Wikipedia talk:Manual of Style archive (spaces after the end of a sentence) for a discussion on this.

19. Outside America, when quoting, punctuation marks are included within quotation marks only if the sense of the mark of punctuation is part of the quotation. For example, "Stop!" has the punctuation inside the quotation marks, because the word "stop" is said with emphasis. The comma goes outside when using scare quotes.

20. Other examples:

Arthur said the situation was "deplorable".

Arthur said that the situation is "deplorable", "regrettable" and "should not be repeated".

The majority of Americans put the punctuation marks inside the quotation marks. For example:

Arthur said the situation was "deplorable."

Arthur said that the situation is "deplorable," "regrettable," and "should not be repeated."

But: Arthur said the situation was "deplorable"?

But: Arthur said the situation was "deplorable"!