TRMN:Guide to layout

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Template:Guidenav

The following Guide is adapted from the document written and executed by Memory Alpha.

The TRMN Wiki Guide to Layout is an in-depth description about how to lay out an article. It is not a guide for wiki markup or a Manual of Style; it is simply a summary of how to write a clean, simple, and well-organized article.

Introductory material

Start your article by strongly emphasizing the subject of your text. This serves to highlight what your article is about, making the subject as clear as possible for the reader's benefit.

If the article is several paragraphs long (or more), it's best to keep the first paragraph as short and succinct as possible, with a clear explanation of what the article is about. However, do not title your introductory text with an "Introduction" or similarly-titled header. Leave the opening paragraph(s) without a header, so that the table of contents is generated after the introductory text.

Structure

Keep your paragraphs relatively short; break up longer ones so that the reader's eye doesn't start to drift and gloss over the article. (Avoid extremely long sentences for the same reason.) By the same token, articles as a whole should also be as short as possible while still covering all relevant information adequately. (This balance is often difficult to achieve!)

Headers are a useful way to divide the content of an article into appropriate parts (see Section). However, do not use an excessive number of headers, because the article will start to look cluttered, the more headers there are. Try to avoid creating one-paragraph sections, for example. (In these cases, perhaps bullet point lists would be more appropriate.)

Appendices

Any or all of the following four sections may be added to the end of an article as a means to provide the reader with resources at which to find further information. To separate this meta-information from the main content, create a section Appendices and add all necessary subsections there.

Note: It is not necessary to italicize the content of these sections!

TRMN-Specific information

If and when information may be different or elucidating about a subject with its relationship to TRMN, you should denote this information in its own section for easier reading. An example might be in the case of an Award that has been issued within the context of the Honorverse would obviously have a different set of criteria for eligbility within TRMN. In that instance, noting the canonical usage versus the fan organization's usage is most helpful to those wishing to find out how a member might earn such an award.

References

When referencing an external or internal source of information to highlight its presence on the Wiki, utilize the in-text reference system. You will also wish to add a References header section and the Reflist template to organize that information for easy access.

Related topics (See Also)

This section is for articles that are related to the current one (see Manual of Style). These may be listed as "See Also."

External links

If you know of any external websites that you believe are useful to the reader who is interested in more information on the subject, include them here in list form. Describe external links when possible.

  • Guide to layout - The Honorverse Wiki has a lot of information with respect to in-universe/canonical terms.

Exceptions

Exceptions to this basic article structure include pages for the episode, novel, comic, and game guides. For these types of articles, copy the style of an existing article and use that.