Wikipedia:Manual of Style

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This guideline is a part of the English Wikipedia's Manual of Style. Use common sense in applying it; it will have occasional exceptions. Please ensure that any edits to this page reflect consensus. Shortcuts:
WP:MOS
WP:STYLE
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A record of decisions related to this page can be found at Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Register, and each section and subsection of Wikipedia:Manual of Style with information there has a link to that page, R.

The Manual of Style (often abbreviated MoS or MOS) is a style guide for Wikipedia articles. This main page contains basic principles. Subpages that set out topics in greater detail are linked in the menu to the right.

Pages in the Wikipedia project namespace, including the pages that make up the Manual of Style, other guidelines, and policies, can be searched by typing "WP:" followed by a search term in any Wikipedia search box. There is an Editor's index to Wikipedia that includes MOS pages and other pages of interest to editors.

If the Manual of Style does not specify a preferred usage, discuss the issue on the talk page.

General principles

Internal consistency

An overriding principle is that style and formatting should be consistent within a Wikipedia article, though not necessarily throughout Wikipedia as a whole. Being consistent within an article promotes clarity and cohesion. Therefore, even where the Manual of Style permits alternative usages, be consistent within an article.

Stability of articles

The Arbitration Committee has ruled that editors should not change an article from one guideline-defined style to another without a substantial reason unrelated to mere choice of style, and that revert-warring over optional styles is unacceptable.[1] Where there is disagreement over which style to use in an article, defer to the style used by the first major contributor.

Follow the sources

Many points of usage, such as the treatment of proper names, can be decided by seeing what other writers do. Unless there is some clear reason to do otherwise, follow the usage of reliable secondary sources in English on the subject; the sources for the article itself should be reliable. If the sources can be shown to be unrepresentative of current English usage, follow current English usage instead—and consult more sources.

Clarity

Writing should be clear and concise. Articles are supposed to introduce readers to topics, or remind them of what they had half-forgotten: it is not their purpose to dazzle readers with editors' learning or vocabulary. Plain English works best: avoid jargon, vague phrases, and unnecessary complexity.

Article titles, headings, and sections

Article titles

This guidance applies to the titles of Wikipedia articles, not to the titles of external articles that are cited.

• Article titles should conform to Wikipedia's Article titles, including Use English.
• Titles should match the article contents, and should be neither too narrow nor too broad.
• Titles should be nouns or noun phrases (nominal groups): Effects of the wild, not About the effects of the wild.
• Titles should be short—preferably fewer than ten words.[2]
• The initial letter of a title is capitalized (except in very rare cases, such as eBay). Otherwise, capital letters are used only where they would be used in a normal sentence (Funding of UNESCO projects, not Funding of UNESCO Projects).
• Do not use a, an, or the as the first word (Economy of the Second Empire, not The economy of the Second Empire), unless by convention it is an inseparable part of a name (The Hague).
• Avoid special characters such as the slash (/), plus sign (+), braces ({ }), and square brackets ([ ]); use and instead of an ampersand (&), unless the ampersand is an accepted part of a name (Emerson, Lake & Palmer).
• The final visible character of a title should not be a punctuation mark, unless the punctuation is part of a name (Saint-Louis-du-Ha! Ha!), or an abbreviation is used (Inverness City F.C.), or a closing round bracket or quote mark is needed (John Palmer (schooner)).

This guidance also applies to Section headings, below.