The Manual of Style (MOS) is one of the core article policies on Wookieepedia. It regulates the style and formatting of Wookieepedia articles and covers rules specific to Star Wars and Wookieepedia. Basic writing rules of the English language are not covered by the Manual of Style.
For rules regarding the layout of Wookieepedia articles, refer to the Layout Guide.
Contents
Perspective
In-universe
If something is in-universe (IU), or is described as such, it belongs to the Star Wars universe exclusively and not to the real world. Characters, for example, are in-universe, but the actors who play them are out-of-universe. Another example is that the correspondent in-universe term for the English language is Galactic Basic, which is the common language in Star Wars. Pseudohistory is an integral part of in-universe treatment of canon material.
Articles about any in-universe topics, such as characters, vehicles, terminology, or species, should always be written from an in-universe perspective. In-universe articles should never refer to Star Wars by name, or any other real-life things such as publications, actors, or the like. The exception to this is the "Behind the scenes" section.
Tense
- "A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away.…"
- ―Star Wars films
All in-universe articles should be in past tense, per the quote above.
The reasons for this are twofold. Firstly, the articles on Wookieepedia are presented as historical recordings that have been pieced together from scraps of information left over from the Star Wars era. As such, all details pertaining to this history have not yet been uncovered, and more information may be added at a later date. Keeping articles written in past tense provides consistency and flavor. Secondly, the Star Wars universe takes place a long, long time ago, in the past (at least compared to the time the narrative is set in). Writing in-universe articles in past tense properly relates the timeline of that universe with our own perspective.
Despite this, do not include phrases like "his ultimate fate is unknown" or "what happened to the ship after that is a mystery," unless such claims refer to an in-universe lack of knowledge and can be directly sourced to official material. For example, Cane Adiss' Databank entry states "whether or not he was among the few that escaped [the destruction of the Khetanna] is unknown." Therefore, that information should be presented in the article.
Out-of-universe
Out-of-universe (OOU) is the perspective opposite of in-universe, i.e. something written from a real-life point of view. While articles about in-universe subjects should be written from an in-universe perspective, articles about books, movies, games, or other real-life Star Wars material should be written from an out-of-universe perspective.
Neutral point of view
All articles must be written from a neutral point of view (NPOV), representing views fairly and without bias.
Grammar and spelling
Language
Though the readers and editors of Wookieepedia speak many varieties of English, we mandate standard American English spelling, grammar, punctuation, and word usage. This is the variety of English used in the first printings of most primary sources.
- If a word has two acceptable variants in American English, the one that is considered "more American" is to be used. Such example is the spelling of judgement as judgment. The only exception of this rule is the spelling of words ending in -ogue: while dialog is an acceptable version of dialogue, the latter is preferred.
- If a direct quotation from a British source has a word which is spelled differently in American English, the original British spelling must be preserved. However, a [sic] sign may be put after the word to indicate the text was quoted verbatim.
Units of measurement
Many official Star Wars sources use the metric system of measurement, while others use American measurement units. It is recommended that in-universe articles use the metric system, but users should avoid making measurement conversions based on real-world conversion standards. Articles may state measurements based on whichever system is used in a particular canon source. (See also List of measurement units.)
Pronouns
- If a droid has gender-specific programming and is predominantly referred to using gendered pronouns in source material, refer to the droid by those pronouns rather than "it."
- Refer to individual starships and space stations by "it"/"its" pronouns rather than "she"/"her" (example: "The Executor fired its turbolasers.").
Apostrophes and possessives ending in "s"
While plural nouns ending in "s" should be made possessive by adding only an apostrophe, singular nouns ending in "s" can be made possessive by adding either an apostrophe followed by another "s" or simply an apostrophe, providing each article is consistent throughout. Users are encouraged, but not required, to use only an s' for possessive nouns ending in a Z-sound. For example, while discussing the armor of multiple Mandalorians, one would write "Mandalorians' armor"; but while discussing the armor of Darth Nihilus, one could write "Nihilus's armor" or "Nihilus' armor."
Definite articles
Refer to individual starships and space stations using the definite article (example: "The Devastator pursued the Tantive IV."), unless source material demonstrates a clear and consistent departure from this standard (example: "Home One served as Admiral Ackbar's flagship at the Battle of Endor.").
Capital letters
Headings
Capitalize the first letter only of the first word and of any proper nouns in a heading, and leave all of the other letters in lower case. Do not employ title case.
Galaxy, sector, and system
When the galaxy is linked to, it is not to be capitalized. Similarly, when naming and linking to systems and sectors, the words "system" and "sector" should remain in lower case, unless canon dictates otherwise (e.g. Corporate Sector).
Examples: Corellian sector and Corellian system
- → See Forum:CT:Capitalizing "galaxy" - arguments against, and request for revote
- → See Forum:CT:Capitalizing "sector"
Jedi and Sith
The words "Jedi" and "Sith" must always be capitalized. "Jedi" and "Sith" are metonymies that refer to "a member of the Jedi Order" and "a member of the Sith Order," respectively.
The Force
- While "the Force" is a proper noun and therefore must be capitalized, the light and dark sides of the Force are not capitalized in the vast majority of official sources. Therefore, they must not be capitalized on Wookieepedia. For example: "Anakin Skywalker fell to the dark side," not "...to the Dark Side."
- This does not apply if force refers to any other meanings of the word: A strike force of stormtroopers entered the system, not A strike Force...
Rebel and Imperial
- If the adjective "Imperial" is referring to the Galactic Empire, it should always be capitalized, e.g. "The Imperial base on Kejim was..." When "Rebel" is used independently, it should only be capitalized when referring to the Rebel Alliance of the Star Wars Legends continuity.
- However, note that if the referent of these forms are not either of these organizations, there is no reason to capitalize: "The galaxy was in turmoil by a series of rebellions and civil wars."
Human and other sentient species
- In all sections of Canon in-universe articles, the word "human" is not to be capitalized, even though other sentient species (Twi'lek, Rodian, Wookiee, etc.) are. Note, however, that Star Wars Legends in-universe articles do capitalize the words "Human" and "Near-Human." The word "humanoid" is not to be capitalized in any in-universe article.
- → See Forum:CT:Capitalization of Human, Forum:CT:Capitalizing "human" -- some more details, and Forum:CT:Canon Human
- Semi-sentient or nonsentient creature names must not be in capitals unless dictated otherwise by canon. Hence, writing "Rancor" instead of "rancor" is agrammatical.
Ranks and titles
- Ranks and titles are to be capitalized when they immediately precede an individual's name. Do not capitalize ranks or titles when used as a substitute for the name. "As an experienced leader, Admiral Ackbar served the Rebel Alliance. The admiral later served the New Republic."
- There are some ranks the name of which should always be capitalized, no matter the semantics. Such titles are Padawan, Vice Admiral, Flight Leader, and so on.
Punctuation
Period
- Only image captions and reference notes that constitute full sentences should receive a period (full stop).
- Example: "Luke Skywalker, Jedi Knight" does not receive a full stop, whereas "Luke Skywalker was a Jedi Knight." does.
- Do not add a period (full stop) in quote template attributions.
Serial comma
Articles shall use the serial comma as standard.
Hyphens and dashes
Three types of hyphens and dashes are used on Wookieepedia: standard hyphens (-), en dashes (–), and em dashes (—).
- Use the hyphen (-) for
- Standard hyphenation of words
- Example: "well-written" and "forty-two"
- Joining ≥two words that serve as a single adjective (compound adjectives) of a noun in subject (but not when in predicate)
- Example: "state-of-the-art design" and "they opened fire on the already-disabled Star Destroyer"
- Prefixes and suffixes when appropriate
- Example: "re-evaluate"
- Standard hyphenation of words
- Use the en dash (
–) for- Ranges of dates/numbers when both ends are known
- Hyphenating compound words, such as "open-source", or word combinations, such as "Galactic Empire"
- Example: "open-source–based web browser" and "Post–Galactic Empire Era"
- Use the em dash (
—) for- Ranges of dates/numbers when one end of the range is missing
- Colon-like use
- Example: "However, it was too late—he had already fallen to the dark side."
- Parenthesis-like use
- Example: "Star Wars is—as everyone knows—amazing."
- Replacing double hyphens (--), including in quotes
Formatting
Use wiki markup instead of HTML tags where available, unless otherwise specified. Examples include
==Section heading==instead of<h2>Section heading</h2>'''Bold text'''instead of<b>Bold text</b>.
Headings
Articles can be sectioned and sub-sectioned using headings. Adequate sectioning helps readers by breaking up the text and outlining the article, and words within headings are given greater weight in search results.
- Do not use level 1 headings (
= =) within articles. These are reserved for the page title. Level 2–6 headings are available for article sectioning. - Use proper heading wiki markup (
== ==), not bold markup (''' '''), to produce headings. A table of contents will then be automatically generated from the headings in an article.
Emphasis
Subject name
- The name of the article should be bolded in its first usage in an introduction, as should any alternate formal names and nicknames mentioned in the introduction.
- Example (from Ben Solo): "Ben Solo was a human male Force-sensitive who fell to the dark side of the Force as Kylo Ren, master of the Knights of Ren and eventual Supreme Leader of the First Order."
- Articles with conjectural titles may, but do not need to, bold the complete article title.
- Example (from Snoke's ring): "A gold ring was owned by Supreme Leader Snoke of the First Order, who wore it on the index finger of his left hand."
- Example (from First Supreme Chancellor): "Upon the foundation of the Galactic Republic in 25,053 BBY, a being served as its first Supreme Chancellor.
- Articles with obviously conjectural titles—particularly those that include "Unidentified" in the title—should not bold the complete article title.
- Example (from Unidentified admiral (Vallt's sector)): "An individual served as an admiral within the naval branch of the Galactic Republic during the Clone Wars between the Republic and the Confederacy of Independent Systems."
Individual starships and space stations
- Names of individual starships are capitalized and italicized (example: Millennium Falcon), unless source material explicitly differentiates (example: Ship, the Sith Meditation Sphere).
- Names of space stations are italicized or not, according to formatting in source material (examples: Death Star, Tarkin, the Wheel).
Starship and vehicle classes
In certain situations, Star Wars canon and Star Wars Legends follow different formatting standards for starship classes. Adhere to the following, noting any differences between Canon and Legends:
- When used as a compound adjective, the name of the ship class is italicized and hyphenated.
- Canon: "Several CR-ninety corvettes, two Carrack-class light cruisers, a couple of Victories, and a Venator-class destroyer–the Liberator." (Tarkin, pg. 149)
- Certain exceptions apply in accordance with source material formatting (example: qaz-class Star Destroyer).
- Legends: "Embodying Emperor Palpatine's power and ruthlessness, the Imperial-class Star Destroyer came to symbolize the Empire during the Galactic Civil War." (The Essential Guide to Warfare, pg. 117)
- Canon: "Several CR-ninety corvettes, two Carrack-class light cruisers, a couple of Victories, and a Venator-class destroyer–the Liberator." (Tarkin, pg. 149)
- When used as a compound noun, the name of the ship class is italicized. In Canon, the term is hyphenated; in Legends, it is not hyphenated.
- Canon: "The Resistance has limited intelligence of the First Order fleet, and many fear that the Resurgent-class is not the largest of the new Star Destroyer designs." (Star Wars: The Force Awakens: The Visual Dictionary, pg. 43)
- Legends: "...while a trio of six-hundred-meter cruisers—the Enforcer, Interdictor, and Vindicator classes—were common sights on the galaxy's star lanes." (The Essential Guide to Warfare, pg. 117)
- When used as a noun without the accompanying term "class," the name of the ship class is not italicized.
- Canon: "Are any of the Venators within range?" (Catalyst: A Rogue One Novel, pg. 287)
- Legends: "...including Imperial Star Destroyers, Venators, and a handful of Lucrehulks." (The Essential Guide to Warfare, pg. 119)
- Starfighter and vehicle classes shall adhere to the preceding rules as appropriate in accordance with source material formatting respective to each continuity (examples: Nantex-class territorial defense starfighter, Seraph-class urban landspeeder).
Comic books
Do not italicize the issue numbers of individual comic books (examples: Legacy 18, Marvel Comics 1000, Doctor Aphra 38, Star Wars Adventures 28).
Punctuation
- To easily distinguish between hyphens and dashes in the editing interface, create em dashes and en dashes by typing "
—" and "–", not—and–, respectively.
- Articles shall avoid "smart" (also known as "typographic" or "curly") quotation marks and apostrophes by converting them to ASCII (also known as "neutral" or "straight") quotation marks and apostrophes. In other words, quotation marks and apostrophes on Wookieepedia should look like '...' and "...", not ‘...’ and “...”.
- For ellipses, use "
…" rather than "...".
White space
No artificial white spaces are to be added to mainspace articles.
Citations
- Use citation templates where available. Wookieepedia has standardized the following practices for citation template usage:
- Citation templates designed for the purpose of citing multiple parameters in a single reference may not be used merely to adorn the name of a source
- Citation templates may not be used or created simply to adorn the name of a source with a logo
- Available citation templates must be used in Appearances, Sources, and Notes and references whenever applicable, with the exception of {{CSWECite}}, as noted below
- References to print works not covered by articles at Wookieepedia should be cited in Modern Language Association (MLA) citation format. Additionally, the designation "Print" in the citation itself is not to be used.
CSWECite
- {{CSWECite}}, including all parameters, must be used in individual citation references when applicable
- {{CSWECite}} may not be used in the Sources list to denote individual entries, volumes, or page numbers. The only exception is when a subject is referenced in an entry but does not have a specific entry of its own.
- Additionally, if a subject does not have an entry of its own and is referenced in more than 3 individual entries, the item will be formatted as such in the Sources list: *The Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia (Mentioned in multiple entries) — a new parameter has been added to {{CSWECite}} for this purpose: {{CSWECite|jang}}
Quotes
To supplement the article content, quotes may be added as part of the prose or using quote templates.
For rules regarding the placement of quote templates, refer to the Quotes section of the Layout Guide.
Allowable quotes
A quote used in a Wookieepedia article should only include:
- Text that is presented within actual quotation marks, or otherwise clearly marked as spoken dialogue.
- Text that is clearly presented within the confines of someone's memoirs, journal, or diary. This includes in-universe written works, such as catalogs, news reports, historical chronicles, government documents, personnel dossiers, and the like.
- A quote is NOT:
- Narrative prose that is not actual spoken dialogue or a character's personal memoirs, journal, or diary. This means that thoughts are not considered quotable material.
A quote used in the "Behind the scenes" section of an in-universe article (or anywhere, in an entirely out-of-universe article) may contain any properly cited and formatted text required to supplement the information presented in that section and is not subject to the preceding content restrictions. Such a quote may include any text content relevant to Wookieepedia's areas of interest and relevant to the article text it accompanies. Quotes including narrative text and thoughts, specifically, should be reserved strictly for illustrative purposes and not for general use. Quotes with this kind of otherwise prohibited content may not be used outside of an out-of-universe section or article.
Formatting
- Users should not correct the capitalization, spelling, grammar, or word usage within direct quotes taken from copyrighted sources as such modifications jeopardize our Fair use claim on that material. Quotes should be verbatim and any changes, edits, or exclusions should be explicitly noted by using square brackets ("[]"). Any errors made by the author may be noted by using "[sic]." This includes words such as Human, which is capitalized in Star Wars Legends, and the word galaxy, which is to be decapitalized in all other contexts. However, the below changes may be made without being noted:
- For emphasis, use italics instead of emphasized boldfaced wording. In quote templates, emphasis is achieved by removing italics.
- Per the Dash policy, replace double hyphens (
--) with emdashes (—)
- Per standards of American English, double quotation marks (" ") should be used and the period (full stop), comma, question and exclamation marks should be within the quotation marks.
- For quotes inside quotes, use single quotation marks (' '): "I never liked 'May the Force be with you.'"
- For quotes with one or two speakers, use {{Quote}}. For quotes with more than two speakers, use {{Dialogue}}.
- Quotes should be sourced using standard references.
- → See Forum:CT:Quotes and Wookieepedia:Mofferences/January 6, 2019
- → See Forum:CT:LG and MOS Quotes update
Examples
For formatting help, refer to the template documentation pages.
Within prose
From Dromund Kaas operation:
- The Emperor's pain and anger led him to issue crazed and conflicting commands to his children, such as "freeze the oceans of Manaan" and "set fire to Ord Mantell."
Single speaker template
From Onager-class Star Destroyer:
- "Should the Empire abandon theatrics, it could build a thousand small cannons for the cost of a single 'planet-killer.'"
- ―Haxen Delto, in a report to General Airen Cracken referencing the Onager-class Star Destroyer
Two speakers template
From Anakin Skywalker/Legends:
- "Obi-Wan never told you what happened to your father."
"He told me enough! He told me you killed him."
"No. I am your father." - ―Darth Vader and Luke Skywalker
Three speakers template
From Darth Zannah/Legends:
- Darovit: "Is something wrong? What is it?"
- Zannah: "We were followed."
- Bane: "Inside the fortress. The Jedi have found us."
- ―Darovit, Darth Zannah, and Darth Bane[3]
Linking
General rules
- A subject should be linked once upon its first mention in
- The article infobox
- The article introduction
- The article body
- Individual references
- Furthermore, subjects not linked elsewhere in the article (excluding references) may be linked in
- Quote template attributions
- Image captions
- However, do not include links in
- The bolded part of the introduction
- Section headings
- Dialogue in quote templates
- Articles within a specific continuity should only link to other articles within that continuity, with the only exception being the article's "Behind the scenes" section (example: [[Yoda]] should not link to [[Yoda's species/Legends]]).
- Articles should avoid redirecting links by correcting these links to point to an article's actual title (example: [[Alliance to Restore the Republic|Rebel Alliance]], not [[Rebel Alliance]]).
- Articles should avoid linking to disambiguation pages, with the exception of disambiguation and redirection templates.
- In-universe articles should not link to real-world Wikipedia articles, except in the "Behind the scenes" section.
Formatting
- Always capitalize pipelinks (example: [[Star system|system]], not [[star system|system]]).
- When pipelinking, always place all characters inside the link brackets. Examples:
- Italics: [[Subjugator (Imperial II-class)|''Subjugator'']], not ''[[Subjugator (Imperial II-class)|Subjugator]]''
- Possessives: [[Anakin Skywalker|Darth Vader's]], not [[Anakin Skywalker|Darth Vader]]'s
- Plurals: [[Galactic Empire|Imperials]], not [[Galactic Empire|Imperial]]s
- Prefixes and suffixes: [[Death|killing]], not [[Death|kill]]ing; [[Water|underwater]], not under[[water]]
- Do not place grammatical articles (such as a, an, and the) in pipelinks (example: the [[Battle of Endor|battle]], not [[Battle of Endor|the battle]]).
- Avoid unnecessary pipelinks that do not point to a different title from the term being linked (example: [[Luke Skywalker]]'s, not [[Luke Skywalker|Luke Skywalker's]]).
- Do not separate compound terms upon first linking instance (examples: [[Battle of Hoth]], not [[Battle of Hoth|Battle of]] [[Hoth]]; [[YT-1300 light freighter]], not [[YT-1300 light freighter|YT-1300]] [[light freighter]]).
- However, individual parts of compound terms may be linked upon subsequent mentions (example: YT-1300 [[light freighter]] is appropriate if [[YT-1300 light freighter]] has been linked previously).
- But do not link individual words within proper compound nouns (examples: [[Death]] [[Star]], [[Color|Azure]] [[Dianoga]] [[Cantina]], [[The galaxy|Galactic]] Empire, ''[[Bantha]]''-class assault shuttle)
- Multi-word terms or phrases within proper compound nouns may be linked if the term or phrase is not mentioned elsewhere in the article (example Imperial-class [[Star Destroyer]])
- However, individual parts of compound terms may be linked upon subsequent mentions (example: YT-1300 [[light freighter]] is appropriate if [[YT-1300 light freighter]] has been linked previously).
- When linking to Wikipedia articles or pages on other Fandom wikis, use the appropriate pipelinking parsers (examples: [[Wikipedia:Indiana Jones|Indiana Jones]], [[W:c:swg:Portable Deep Fryer|Portable Deep Fryer]]).
- Because the
#character is used by the software to link to HTML anchors (i.e. section headings), it cannot be used in article titles or in links. To account for this, pipelinks can be used: [[Star Wars Adventure Journal 4|''Star Wars Adventure Journal'' #4]].
- → See Forum:CT:Linking in articles, Forum:CT:MOS and LG updates, Wookieepedia:Mofferences/May 25, 2019, Wookieepedia:Mofferences/August 30, 2019, Wookieepedia:Mofferences/July 25, 2020
Specific rules
When linking to issues of comic book series that include the series' initial publication year as a parenthetical descriptor in the article title, the year parenthetical should be included in the pipelink, in the following format: Doctor Aphra (2020) 12. This applies even in reference notes and Appearances lists where a subject only appears in one of the series and not the other.