Editing GoArch:Style guide (section)

==Grammar==
===Style===
Consistent with the original developer's country of origin, American English is the preferred style of the Guild of Archivists. However, British English is also acceptable, so it should only be corrected when editing someone else to correct inconsistencies in style within an article.

===Capitalization===
In general, written text conforms to English capitalization rules. Page titles and section headers should be written in normal sentence case, capitalizing only the first word, proper nouns, and other formal identifiers.

Races, whose names are often synonymous with their Age of origin (such as the [[Pento]]), are capitalized. Species (such as the [[bahro]]) are not. Capitalization of group names is dependent upon the source material ([[Judges of Yahvo]], [[Moiety]], [[explorers]]). In cases where the source material is inconsistent, leave the word uncapitalized.

Guilds are always capitalized when referred to by name ("[[Guild of Archivists]]"). When the specific guild's name is omitted, the word "guild" is not capitalized.

For D'ni proper names with apostrophes in them, only the first letter is capitalized. e.g. ''Ae'gura'' and ''A'gaeris'' instead of ''Ae'Gura'' and ''A'Gaeris''.

====Formal identifiers====
A formal identifier can be one of two things:
* a proper noun used to label a specific person, place, or thing, or
* a common noun whose meaning is substantially altered in the context of its use when describing a foreign artifact.

For example, [[Atrus]], [[Riven]], and [[Ferry Terminal]] are all proper nouns. For objects such as [[Nexus terminal]], the name of the Age is capitalized, but the object itself is not. The word "book" is not capitalized when referring to a regular book, but a ''D'ni'' Book ''is'' (specifically, [[Book]], [[Linking Book]], [[Descriptive Book]]). Similar examples include [[Art]], [[Age]], [[Tablet]], and [[Slate]]. 

Like guilds, the words "journey" and "quest" should only be capitalized when a specific instance is being described. e.g. ''Yeesha's first [[Journey]] is one of several journeys which explorers are asked to undertake''.

===Punctuation===
====Hyphens and dashes====
* A hyphen links an adjective to a word it modifies, e.g. ''Ae'gura was the capital of the once-great D'ni empire''.
* An [[w:Dash#Em dash|em-dash]] (— or <code>&amp;mdash;</code>) separates a phrase from the main sentence, e.g. ''Atrus—not to be confused with his grandfather of the same name—is…''.
* An [[w:Dash#En dash|en-dash]] (– or <code>&amp;ndash;</code>) to specify ranges, e.g. ''10–20''.

Note that when using a dash, the spaces between it and the surrounding words are omitted.

====Parentheses====
Parenthetical statements should be avoided where possible. If an aside is needed in the middle of a sentence, separate it using an em-dash (—) as outlined above.

====Periods and quotation marks====
When a quotation ends in the middle of a sentence, it should terminate in a comma. e.g. ''Therefore, "the ending has not yet been written," as Atrus once said.''

If a quotation ends a sentence, the period should be within the quotation marks. e.g. "As Atrus once said, "the ending has not yet been written."

If a word or phrase is wrapped in quotation marks at the end of a sentence, the period should be outside the quotation marks. e.g. ''This is what the D'ni called a "Linking Book".

Quotation marks should ''never'' be used for emphasis. Use ''italic'' or '''bold''' text for this purpose.

=====Block quotes=====
Quotations in <code><nowiki><blockquote></nowiki></code> do not need to be surrounded by quotation marks.

===Numbers===
Numbers less than or equal to ten should generally be spelled out (i.e. "four" instead of "4") when used as part of a sentence. Larger numbers may be written numerically (525,600), and numbers that are part of a data set such as KI coordinates or a date should always be written so.