Manual of Style (MOS)

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This Manual of Style, often abbreviated MoS or MOS, is a Style guide for Culture.si articles. This main page contains basic principles.

If the Manual of Style does not specify a preferred usage, please discuss the issue on the talk page. In addition, have a look at other questions that have been raised, in case someone has already brought up the same question.

If your question is urgent, you can also post a note on Jana's discussion page.

General principles

Follow the sources

Many points of usage, such as the treatment of proper names, can be decided by seeing what other writers do about the problem. Unless there is some clear reason to do otherwise, it is generally a good idea to follow the usage of reliable secondary sources in English on the subject; the sources for the article itself should be reliable. If the sources for the article can be shown to be unrepresentative of current English usage as a whole, follow current English usage instead — and discuss it on the talk page. Check here for various English sources.

British English spelling

Culture.si uses British English spelling. Be sure to install the British (UK) English dictionary in your web-browser and correct spelling errors as you go.

Here is a short list of the most common differences between British and American spelling.

British English	American English
-ise, -ising, -isation (organise, organising, organisation)	-ize, -izing, -ization (organize, organizing, organization)
-our (colour, flavour, neighbour, honour)	-or (color, flavor, neighbor, honor)
-lled (travelled, modelled)	-led (traveled, modeled)
-re (centre, theatre)	-er (center, theater)
-se (devise, advise, practise)	-ce (device, advice, practice)

A thorough discussion can be found in Wikipedia's article on American and British English spelling differences.

Article titles, headings, and sections

These rules apply to the titles of Culture.si articles, not to the titles of external articles that are cited.

Article titles

• In general, article titles should be the English name of the organisation under discussion. The following article titles are the exceptions to this rule and will most likely be a combination of English and Slovenian:
  • Names of the following organisations:

1. Mladinsko Theatre
2. Pekarna Cultural Centre
3. Cankarjev dom Culture and Congress Centre

• • Names of the following types of articles:

1. magazines
2. festivals (especially in cases where they are more widely known abroad by their Slovenian name)

• • Names of magazines, exhibitions, festivals should be titled as: Ampak Magazine, HAIP Festival
  • Articles which are meant as introductions to the field or historical overviews of the field in Slovenia.
• Article titles should conform to Culture.si’s Naming conventions.
• For venues use a comma like this: Cankarjev dom, Kosovel Hall
• This wiki is case sensitive: KIBLA / Kibla, ŠKUC / Škuc ... please, check the official case! Some organisations are particular about the use of ALL CAPS or all lowercase.
• The initial letter of a title is capitalised (except in very rare cases, such as eBay). Otherwise, use Sentence case, that is, use capital letters only where they would be used in a normal sentence Funding of UNESCO projects, not Funding of UNESCO Projects). --> Actually, not sure. Maybe regular Title Case would be better, not Sentence case.
• A, an, and the are normally avoided as the first word (Economy of the Second Empire, not The economy of the Second Empire), unless part of a proper noun (The Hague).
• Titles are generally nouns or noun phrases (Effects of the wild, not About the effects of the wild).
• Special characters—such as the slash (/), plus sign (+), braces ({ }), and square brackets ([ ])— are avoided; the ampersand (&) is replaced by and, unless it is part of a formal name (Emerson, Lake & Palmer).
• The final visible character of a title should not be a punctuation mark, unless the punctuation is part of a proper name, an abbreviation or acronym is used with punctuation or a closing parenthesis or quote is needed (Architects' Bulletin (ab)).

This guidance also applies to Section headings, below.

Body

General usage issues

• Use numbers to describe decades, write the 1960s and 1970s, not the sixties and seventies. It is possible to use the format the 60s and 70s only in the same paragraph after it has been written once in the long format. Preferred usage is with the century throughout: the 1960s. The article the should be used before.

Use of Slovenian words in the text

• When the article title uses Slovenian or a combination of Slovenian and English, it is necessary to provide a simple translation of the Slovenian words. Unless a longer explanation is necessary, it is sufficient to provide the English in parentheses immediately after the Slovenian word. For example:
  • Pekarna ("Bakery") Cultural Centre is the largest alternative cultural centre in north east Slovenia.
• Depending on the text, the English form does not always have to come first: sometimes the Slovenian word is better as the main text, with the English in parentheses, and sometimes not. For example, see Gledga Magazine.
• Italics are preferred for phrases in other languages and for isolated foreign words that do not yet have everyday use in non-specialised English. In most cases, Slovenian words should be written in italics unless they are the title of the article and not the name of a magazine, publication, performance, exhibition, etc.
• Spell Slovenian words with diacritics (č, š, ž).
• Non-English words should be used as titles for entries only as a last resort. Again, see naming conventions.
• Use foreign words sparingly.

Language usage

Residencies

One participates in an artist-in-residence programme. One receives a grant for a residency or artist residency. ArtsLink Awards provide residencies and exchanges.

Punctuation

Quotation marks

The term quotation in the material below also includes other uses of quotation marks such as those for titles of songs, chapters, episodes.

Double or single

Quotations are enclosed within double quotes (e.g., Bob said: "Jim ate the apple."). Quotations within quotations are enclosed within single quotes (e.g., Bob said: "Did Jim say 'I ate the apple' after he left?"). Search engines may not find quotations within single quotes, like 'I ate the apple'.

Inside or outside

Place all punctuation marks inside the quotation marks if they are part of the quoted material and outside if they are not. This practice is referred to as logical quotation. This method is less prone to misquotation, ambiguity, and the introduction of errors in subsequent editing and follows the concept of minimal change.

(The period is not part of the quoted text.) (The question mark belongs inside because the quoted text itself was a question.) (The very quote is being questioned, so the question mark belongs outside; any punctuation at the end of the original quote is omitted.)

Correct:	Arthur said, "The situation is deplorable and unacceptable."
	(The period is part of the quoted text.)
Correct:	Arthur said that the situation was "deplorable".
	Correct:	Martha asked, "Are you coming?"
Correct:		Did Martha say, "Come with me"?

When quoting a sentence fragment that ends in a period, some judgment is required: if the fragment communicates a complete sentence, the period can be placed inside. The period should be omitted if the quotation is in the middle of a sentence.

Correct: Martha said, "Come with me", and they did.

If the sequence of juxtaposed punctuation marks seems distracting or untidy, try to avoid it.

Correct: Martha said, "Come with me" (and they did).

Article openings

When the title of an article appearing in the lead paragraph requires quotation marks (for example, the title of a song or poem), the quotation marks should not be in boldface, as they are not part of the title:

Correct: "Jabberwocky" is a nonsense poem by Lewis Carroll.

Block quotes

Use either quotation marks or block quotes (not both) to distinguish long quotations from other text. Multiparagraph quotations are always block-quoted. The quotations must be precise and exactly as in the source. The source should be cited clearly and precisely to enable readers to find the text that supports the article content in question.

Quotation characters

The following types of quoting should not be used:

• Grave and acute accents or backticks (`text´) are neither quotation marks nor apostrophes, and must not be used in their place.

There have traditionally been two styles concerning the look of the quotation marks (that is, the glyph):

• Typewriter or straight style: "text", 'text'. Recommended.
• Typographic or curly style: “text”, ‘text’. Not recommended.

(Emphasis added to better distinguish between the glyphs.)

The exclusive use of straight quotes and apostrophes is recommended. They are easier to type in reliably, and to edit. Mixed use interferes with some searches, such as those using the browser's search facility (a search for Alzheimer's disease could fail to find Alzheimer’s disease and vice versa). Furthermore, html elements (such as ) may not always work if curly quotes are used.

Whenever quotation marks or apostrophes appear in article titles, make a redirect from the same title but using the alternative glyphs.

Other matters

• A quotation is not italicised simply because it is a quotation.
• If an entire sentence is quoted in such a way that it becomes a grammatical part of the larger sentence, the first letter loses its capitalisation: It turned out to be true that "a penny saved is a penny earned".
• If a word or phrase appears in an article in single quotes, such as 'abcd', Wiki's search facility will find that word or phrase only if the search string is also within single quotes. This difficulty does not arise for double quotes, and this is one of the reasons the latter are recommended.

Commas

• To avoid ambiguity, use the serial, or Oxford, comma after the word and or or in a list of items or names. There are times when a comma before the final and or or is not desired, that is, when its use would cause ambiguity. In such cases, leave it out or re-write the sentence to be certain that there is no ambiguity.

Consider the sentence: They went to Ljubljana with Ivan, a writer and a director.

Without a serial comma it is not clear if 1 or 3 people went along to Ljubljana.

With a serial comma, it is clearer that 3 people went along: They went to Ljubljana with Ivan, a writer, and a director.

The serial comma can be avoided by using one of these forms (among others) to remove the ambiguity:

   * They went to Ljubljana with Ivan, a writer and a director. (One person)
   * They went to Ljubljana with Ivan, who is a writer and a director. (One person)
   * They went to Ljubljana with Ivan, both a writer and a director. (One person)
   * They went to Ljubljana with Ivan (a writer) and a director. (Two people)
   * They went to Ljubljana with Ivan, a writer, and with a director. (Two people)
   * They went to Ljubljana with Ivan – a writer – and a director. (Two people)
   * They went to Ljubljana with the writer Ivan and a director. (Two people)
   * They went to Ljubljana with a director and Ivan, a writer. (Two people)
   * They went to Ljubljana with a director and a writer, Ivan. (Two people)
   * They went to Ljubljana with Ivan and a writer and a director. (Three people)
   * They went to Ljubljana with Ivan, one writer and a director. (Three people)
   * They went to Ljubljana with a writer, a director, and Ivan. (Three people)
   * They went to Ljubljana with a writer, a director and Ivan. (Three people)
   * They went to Ljubljana with Ivan and took a writer and a director along. (Three people)

Formatting

Italics

Emphasis

Italics are used sparingly to emphasise words in sentences (and boldface is normally not used for this purpose). Generally, the more highlighting in an article, the less its effectiveness.

Italics may also be used where a term is being introduced or distinguished in meaning: ‘‘‘The enamel organ is composed of the outer enamel epithelium, inner enamel epithelium, stellate reticulum and stratum intermedium.’‘‘

Titles

Italics are used for the titles of works of literature and art, such as books, paintings, films (feature-length), television series, and musical albums. The titles of articles, chapters, songs, television episodes, short films, and other short works are not italicised, but are enclosed in double quotation marks.

Italics are not used for major revered religious works (for example the Bible, the Qur'an, and the Talmud).

Words as words

Italics are used when mentioning a word or letter or a string of words up to a full sentence: The term panning is derived from panorama, a word coined in 1787; The most commonly used letter in English is e. For a whole sentence, quotation marks may be used instead: (1) The preposition in She sat on the chair is on, or (2) The preposition in "She sat on the chair" is "on". Mentioning (to discuss such features as grammar, wording and punctuation) is different from quoting (in which something is usually expressed on behalf of a quoted source).

Foreign words

Culture.si prefers italics for phrases in other languages and for isolated foreign words that are not commonly used in everyday English. Proper names (such as place names) in other languages, however, are not usually italicised.

Quotations in italics

For quotations, use only quotation marks (for short quotations) or block quoting (for long ones), not italics. (See Quotations below.) This means that (1) a quotation is not italicised inside quotation marks or a block quote just because it is a quotation, and (2) italicisation is not used as a substitute for proper quotation formatting.

Italics within quotations

Italics are used within quotations if they are already in the source material, or are added by Wikipedia to give emphasis to some words. If the latter, an editorial note [emphasis added] should appear at the end of the quotation.

"Now cracks a noble heart. Good night sweet prince: And flights of angels sing thee to thy rest" [emphasis added].

If the source uses italics for emphasis, and it is desirable to stress that Culture.si has not added the italics, the editorial note [emphasis in original] should appear after the quote.

Effect on nearby punctuation

Italicisation is restricted to what should properly be affected by italics, and not the punctuation that is part of the surrounding sentence.

Incorrect:	What are we to make of that?
Correct:	What are we to make of that?
		(Note the difference between ? and ?. The question mark applies to the whole sentence, not just to the emphasised that.)
Correct:	Ivan Cankars's most famous works are Hlapci, Pohujšanje v dolini Šentflorijanski and Na klancu.
		(The 'and', commas, and period, are not italicised.)

Italicised links

The italics markup must be outside the link markup, or the link will not work; however, internal italicisation can be used in links.

Incorrect:	The film [[''Chicory 'n' Coffee'']] is his best.
Correct:	The film ''[[Chicory 'n' Coffee]]'' is his best.
Correct:	The [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Adder_%28SS-3%29|USS ''Adder'' (SS-3)] was a submarine.

Bold

The name of the organisation should be in bold the first time that it is used in the article. Otherwise bold is reserved for the fields in the Exhibition space or Venue descriptions.

Capitalisation

Dates and calendar items

• Months, days of the week, and holidays start with a capital letter: June, Monday, the Fourth of July (when referring to the U.S. Independence Day, otherwise 4 July).
• Seasons, in almost all instances, are lowercase: This summer was very hot; The winter solstice occurs about 22 December; I have spring fever. When personified, season names may function as proper nouns, and they should then be capitalized: I think Spring is showing her colors; Old Man Winter.
• When mentioning a specific date write it as 1 January 2009, not as 1st January, January 1, or January the 1st.

Directions and regions

• Directions such as north are not proper nouns and do not take capitals. The same is true for their related forms: someone might call a road that leads north a northern road, compared with the Great North Road. Composite directions should be hyphenated in British English: South-East Asia and north-west.
• Regions that are proper nouns, including widely known expressions such as Eastern Europe, start with a capital letter. Similarly, a person from the Southern United States is a Southerner. If uncertain whether to capitalise, do not.

Institutions

• Names of institutions (the University of Ljubljana, GEA College) are proper nouns and require capitals. The at the start of a title is not normally capitalised (a degree from the University of Ljubljana).
• Generic words for institutions (university, college, hospital, high school) do not need capitals:

Incorrect	(generic):	The University offers programs in arts and sciences.
Correct	(generic):	The university offers ...
Correct	(title):	The University of Primorska offers ...

• Bodies of government, such as cities, towns and countries, follow the same rules: the names of specific cities, towns, countries, etc., are proper nouns and require capitals but generic words for types of government bodies do not take capitals. Sometimes, the full official name of a body is not needed.

Incorrect	(generic):	The City has a population of 55,967.
Correct	(generic):	The city has ...
Correct	(title):	The City of Kranj has ...
Correct	(skip type):	Kranj has ...