Help:WildWords Style Guide

In keeping with our descriptive and collective mission, entries can be added and edited by any Northwestern user with a WildWords account. To maintain uniformity and clarity of information, we ask that every entry follow both the WildWords Style Guide and the WildWords Entry Layout. As an Editorial Board, we reserve the right to reformat or remove any such entries that do not comply to these standards. These style guides and entry layout forms were adapted from the foundational success of documents of the same name at Wiktionary.com, a dictionary with a similar online format, but a particular international focus. We are indebted to their example of a crowd sourced online dictionary. Questions and concerns should be directed to nudictionary@mmlc.northwestern.edu. Enjoy WildWords!

The Basic Entry

Instructions and templates for Wikimarkup format for entries can be found on the WildWords Entry Layout for WildWords.

Part of Speech

This is usually the first information directly after the headword. This header most often shows the part of speech, but is not restricted to “parts of speech” in the traditional sense. Many other descriptors like “Proper noun”, “Idiom”, “Abbreviation”, “Symbol”, “Prefix”, etc. are also acceptable.

Pronunciation/Alternate Forms and Pronunciation

For words with only one form, the section title will simply be “Pronunciation”. Each entry should include a respelled version (following the WildWords Respelling Guide), placed in brackets, and should be followed by an audio file. For words with alternate or multiple forms (e.g. Weinberg vs. Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences), each of these should be included in a numbered list under the section title “Alternate Forms and Pronunciations." The respelling of each alternate form will be placed in brackets following the term, and there should be an audio sample following each form. Please refer to the WildWords Entry Layout page for an example of this Alternate Forms section.

WikiMarkup code for how to include audio files can also be found on the WildWords Entry Layout page.

Descriptions

The descriptions are the most fundamental piece of an encyclopedic dictionary. They should be concise but thorough, consisting of around four sentences. The goal is to provide readers with the necessary cultural information and context to be able to understand and use the word, without excess information or trivia. The description may consist of sentence fragments and complete sentences, with a preference for complete sentences.

Numbering

An entry with a single description should not have a numeral. If the entry has multiple descriptions, then they should be added one after another in a numeric list. When the entry has multiple descriptions, they should be ordered from the most common usage to the least.

Words in Descriptions

The use of technical and obscure words in descriptions should be kept to an absolute minimum. When it is necessary or useful to use less common words, they should link to the corresponding WildWords page or Wikitionary page.

Usage

Each entry should include a description of the speech community that uses it and in what contexts it is used. For example, this may include whether it is used by the greater Northwestern community or a specific organization, if it is used in formal or informal contexts, or if it is used in spoken word or written text. If the entry is used by the greater Northwestern community, the sentence “This term is used by the Northwestern community at large” would suffice. When there are multiple forms, the usage of each form should be specified, either in a numbered list that corresponds to the previously listed alternate forms or in a short paragraph that describes the usage of each form.

Example sentences

Generally, every description should be accompanied by an example sentence. Example sentences should:

• be grammatically complete sentences.
• be as brief as possible while still clarifying the sense of the term (In rare cases, examples consisting of two brief sentences may work best).
• be in a numeral list, if there are multiple descriptions, with the numerals the same as the corresponding descriptions. If there is only one description, there should be only one example sentence, and no numeral.
• not contain wikilinks or words that cannot be understood without additional lookup.
• not contain special formatting, like bold, italics, or quotation marks

Usage Polls

Usage polls should be placed on the right hand side of every page, using the wikimarkup found on the WildWords Entry Layout page.

Optional Headings

Etymologies

An etymology of each term is encouraged if it is relevant to the understanding of the term, and if any information on the history and coinage of the word is available.

Related Terms

Entries that include related WildWords terms should list the wikilink to the WildWords page for that page. This heading is meant for words that are either already entered in WildWords or could be entered in the future. The terms should be entered in a bulleted list.

External Links

Any other websites that are connected to the word should be linked under the heading External Links, below the related terms.

References

References are are required when the information is sourced from another website, magazine, or other source. If no outside source was consulted, then it is not necessary.

General considerations

Capitalization of Entry and Section Titles

Following The Chicago Manual of Style, titles of pages and of sections should conform to the following guidelines:

• Capitalize the first and last words in the title.
• Capitalize nouns, pronouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, and some conjunctions.
• Lowercase the, a, and an.
• Lowercase all prepositions, regardless of length (except when used adverbially or adjectivally, as in Look Up or Come To).
• Lowercase the conjunctions and, but, for, or, and nor.

Punctuation

Quotation marks

WIldWords favors the use of double quotation marks (" " or “ ”) rather than single ones (' ' or ‘ ’). Single quotes are normally used only when one quotation is enclosed within another. WildWords usage places any terminal punctuation outside of the quotation marks, unless it is actually part of the quote.

Commas

Include the serial (or Oxford) comma, the final comma before the last element in a list. Eg. ... red, white, and blue.

Research Results

Results of fieldwork (including surveys and interviews), should not be included in the entry pages.

Placement of Content

Most content elements should be in the main (center) section of the page. Accepted items that may appear on the right-hand side:

• Images
• Video Examples
• Usage Polls

When possible the width of right-hand side elements should be uniform so as to provide a "virtual" right-hand side column. Example wikimarkup can be found on the WildWords Entry Layout page.