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{{policy}}This is the official OrthodoxWiki '''Style GuideManual'''. Refer to it when writing new articlesor editing existing ones. It is currently officially in '''tentativein effect''' and therefore but still under development. Articles and links should conform to the following standards. The purpose of this '''Style Manual''' is to maintain consistency throughout '''OrthodoxWiki'''. Please don't be intimidated by these guidelines. Your contributions are welcome even if they do not perfectly conform to what's below. These guidelines are meant to channel—not impede—your efforts! If what you contribute doesn't conform precisely to these guidelines, no doubt it will be honed by other members of the community. '''OrthodoxWiki''' is, after all, always a work in progress. ==Introduction==This '''Style Manual''' constitutes the official style protocols for '''OrthodoxWiki'''. When editing articles or creating new ones, this document should be used as a reference point and guidelines for all content. It is strongly recommended that you [{{SERVER}}{{localurl:{{NAMESPACE}}:{{PAGENAME}}|action=watch}} '''add it to your watchlist'''] so that you can track whenever it's updated and incorporate the changes into your editing, helping to keep the whole site in conformity. The Style Manual is "enforced" primarily by the users of the site but also by the administrators. Enforcement comes in the form of composing articles according to the manual the first time they're created and also by continual editing to conform to the Style Manual. That means that '''we rely on ''you'' to help us keep things in order by using the Style Manual.''' '''Note:''' All the following rules about articles and their names '''also apply to internal links''', because clicking on an as-yet-to-be-written article linked in an existing article will give the new article that name by default. Thus, when making links to articles, those links must conform to the naming practices defined here. ==Tone==Though there are certainly exceptions, the atmosphere being developed for most '''OrthodoxWiki''' articles is generally '''encyclopedic''', i.e., the style of writing one would expect from an encyclopedia. That doesn't mean that articles have to conform to academic writing characteristic of secular scholarship, but it does mean that a certain level of professionalism and consistency is desired.  At the same time, our approach is '''hagiographical'''—that is, attempting to write with reverence and humility regarding the awesome subjects which we're addressing. As such, try to develop your writing here in that manner. We're trying accurately and humbly to convey the truth of the Orthodox Christian faith in an easy-to-use, thorough and readable resource, an accessible compendium of Orthodox Christianity. Always keep that in mind when contributing. ==Importing Articles from Wikipedia==See: '''[[OrthodoxWiki:Style Manual (Importing)]]''' ==Copyrighted Material==Copyrighted material may be incorporated into '''OrthodoxWiki''' ''only if you have the copyright holder's permission''. Remember that just because you found something on the web doesn't mean that it isn't copyrighted. In fact, most things are copyrighted by default. If the copyright holder is willing to release his material under one of the open licenses common to Wikis (such as the [[Wikipedia:Text_of_the_GNU_Free_Documentation_License|Gnu Free Documentation Licence]] or the [http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/ Creative Commons License]), then including it as a regular, editable article is no problem. If, however, the creator doesn't want his creation edited mercilessly (as is the norm for '''OrthodoxWiki'''), then a copyright note should be included at the bottom of the material, looking something like this: '''Copyright © 2005 by John Johnson. All Rights Reserved.''' Once you've done that, ask an [[Special:Listadmins|administrator]] to '''protect''' it for you so that it can't be edited.  By default, all newly submitted content on '''OrthodoxWiki''' is released under a dual GNU Free Documentation license and [http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5/ Creative Commons License]. ===Image Permissions===Please be sure to use to appropriate [[OrthodoxWiki:Templates|template]] to credit images taken with permission from other websites. See [[Help:Image licenses]] for detals. Special notes apply to the following:* [[Help:Image_licenses#OCA.org]] - an important note on using images from [http://OCA.org OCA.org]* [[Help:Image_licenses#Holy_Transfiguration_Monastery]] - using icons from Holy Transfiguration Monastery (Boscobel, WI USA) ==Types of Articles==What kind of articles is '''OrthodoxWiki''' looking for? Ostensibly, anything directly to do with the Orthodox Christian faith and life is appropriate. In addition, however, articles especially on historical subjects and persons related to Church life are also appropriate. So, while there are articles on saints and bishops, there are also articles on emperors and heretics. Therefore, while creating articles and making links within them, consider what might be generally appropriate for '''OrthodoxWiki'''.  For examples, browse around existing articles, click on the links already within them, and if you have information on subjects already being linked to, feel free to contribute to existing articles or create new ones. And, as always, don't worry about breaking '''OrthodoxWiki''' or messing things up, because your work will become part of the community effort and thereby be honed and improved, ever bringing us closer to achieving our goal of being a nearly endless compendium of information access and exchange regarding Orthodox Christianity. ===Articles not appropriate for OrthodoxWiki===Obviously, anything which has no direct connection to the Orthodox faith is not appropriate. Further, some things which are characteristic of Wikipedia articles but don't make sense on '''OrthodoxWiki''' also should be left out, including the following: year articles (e.g., '''1054'''), places whose significance goes far beyond its exclusively religious meaning (e.g., '''Constantinople'''), or major historical personages who had nothing directly to do with the Orthodox Church (e.g., '''Ronald Reagan'''). Certainly, all of these items may have something to do with the Orthodox Church, but their connections can be noted in articles about the events related in other articles which more directly bear on the Orthodox faith. ===Controversial Subjects and Original Research===Articles on controversial topics are welcome on OrthodoxWiki as long as they cite reputable, third-party publications (e.g., historians, news articles, etc.). Original research and unsourced articles are generally permitted for non-controversial material. ==Neutrality and the OrthodoxWiki Bias==See: '''[[OrthodoxWiki:Style Manual (Point of View)]]''' ==Technical Terminology==A number of technical and theological terms in Orthodoxy differ according to the languages of the cultures in which they're used. Thus, the preference for '''OrthodoxWiki''' will be to use Greek terms where no standard English word is predominant among Anglophonic Orthodox writers. The main issue is with article names, so use '''[[epigonation]]''' instead of '''palitsa''', or use '''[[exorasson]]''' instead of '''riassa''' or '''jibbee'''. Where appropriate, make note of other languages' terminology in the body of the article. The reason for preferring Greek terms is that Greek is the predominant "source language" for our Church's culture and terminology and is thus universal. [[Western Rite]] articles will likewise probably prefer Latin, though given the longer history of the Western Rite in England, there is already a more developed native English vocabulary for Western Rite liturgical and theological terms. ==Standard English Usage and Spelling==Use standard English spelling and usage for article names and in the bodies of articles. Thus, use ''icon'' instead of ''ikon''. What constitutes standard spelling will vary according to what variety of English (e.g., British, American, Canadian, Australian, etc.) a contributor uses, but try to make articles consistent throughout (e.g., every instance of ''center'' in an article should be spelled '''either''' ''centre'' or ''center'', not both).  ===English names===Use the form of the names of people and places most commonly used by English-speaking Orthodox Christians. So, instead of '''Vartholomaios I (Archontonis) of Constantinople''', use '''[[Bartholomew I (Archontonis) of Constantinople]]'''. Some ambiguity will of course exist here, especially with names that are not commonly used in English-speaking countries. Biblical names should conform to the varieties most common in English-language Bibles; for instance, use '''[[Elijah]]''' instead of '''Elias''' and '''[[Joshua]]''' for the prophet instead of '''Jesus'''. Some places will be exceptional, such as '''[[Hagia Sophia (Constantinople)|Hagia Sophia]]''', which is the most common way of referring to that ancient church, rather than '''St. Sophia''' or '''Holy Wisdom'''. Thus, the rule is to use the form most commonly used in English, not necessarily an Anglicized or translated form. ==Church Calendar==See: '''[[OrthodoxWiki:Style Manual (Church Calendar)]]'''

===Autocephalous and Autonomous Churches===Refer to [[autocephaly|autocephalous]] and [[autonomy|autonomous]] churches by the form when creating new articles and linksSee: '''Church of Place'''. Referring with the adjectival form of the place [[OrthodoxWiki:Style Manual (e.g., '''Smogarian Orthodox Church'''Churches) is not only essentially incorrect but furthers the ethnic stereotyping of the Church. Thus, instead of '''Smogarian Orthodox Church''', you would use '''Church of Smogaria]]'''.

The only current exception to this rule is ==Monasteries, Parishes, and Theological Schools==Because there are so many communities with the same names, articles about monasteries, parishes, and theological schools should be named in the following fashion: '''Name of Community (Location)'''. For example, '''[[St. Tikhon's Orthodox Monastery (South Canaan, Pennsylvania)]]''', '''[[Hagia Sophia (Constantinople)]]''', '''[[Holy Cross Greek Orthodox Church in AmericaSchool of Theology (Brookline, Massachusetts)]]''', or '''[[St. Paul's Monastery (Athos)]]'''. In article titles for places, use '''St.''' (i.e., a capital ''S'', followed by a lower-case ''t'', followed by a period) rather than '''Saint''', '''St''', whose autocephaly is still in debateor '''S.'''. To call it the For plurals, use '''Ss.''' (i.e., a capital ''S'', followed by a lower-case 'Church of America's'' would be to lend it , followed by a status not currently agreed uponperiod).

===Non-Chalcedonian, Roman Catholic (and other) Churches=Books of the Bible==Many Non-Chalcedonian Articles and Roman Catholic churches have parallel sees links to those among Chalcedonian Orthodox, so distinction needs books of the Bible should conform to be made. Refer to these parallel sees with this convention: the '''Church of Place (Common Identifier)links'''. So, in the Coptic church centered in Egypt would be '''canonical lists found at [[Church of Alexandria (Coptic)Holy Scripture]]—note that the names shown there do not always match the '''links''' to which they lead! For instance, or the Syrian Catholic Church would be the you might see '''[[Church Book of Antioch (Catholic)Nehemiah|Nehemiah]]''', which takes you to [[Book of Nehemiah]], not to [[Nehemiah]] (which is an article about the prophet by that name).

In other places, there are no parallel sees, so you would simply use the '''Church of Place''' convention, e.g., the '''Articles about Biblical books should be included in [[Church of Armenia:Category:Scripture]] and [[:Category:Texts]]'''.

==People=Dioceses= See: '''[[OrthodoxWiki:Style Manual (People)]]''' ==List articles==With the exception of [[:Category:Links|Links]] articles, Archdiocesesarticles that consist of a list of something (e.g., Metropolises[[List of Patriarchs]], etc[[List of autocephalous and autonomous Churches]]) should be named '''List of [subject]'''. ==Western Rite==Articles For most topics regarding the [[Western Rite]] where there are also Byzantine Rite equivalents, add a section to the single article for the Western Rite distinctives. For instance, instead of having a separate article on component parts Western Rite vestments, to [[vestments]] one would add a section titled "Western Rite" or the like. For topics extensive enough to require a separate article for the Western Rite which might otherwise have the same name as a Byzantine Rite article, put "Western Rite" in parentheses, e.g., '''[[Vespers (Western Rite)]]'''. ==Language Mechanics==The following refer to the various mechanics of autocephalous writing for '''OrthodoxWiki''' articles. ===Capitalization===The following items should be capitalized in OrthodoxWiki articles (some may seem obvious, but usage on these actually does vary):* ''God'' and autonomous ''Trinity''* ''Church'' when referencing the Church catholic or a proper name; not when used as a generic reference for a local church**Capitalized examples: ''the Orthodox Church'', ''the Church of Bulgaria'', ''the Albanian Orthodox Church'', ''the Church of the Nativity''**Uncapitalized examples: ''the Russian church'', ''the Orthodox churches '', ''the church building''* ''Tradition'' should be named capitalized when referring to the mainstream beliefs and practices held by their official selfOrthodox churches to be binding on Orthodox Christians (i.e., "Big ''T''" tradition); it is not capitalized when referring to local traditions which are not binding in character (i.e., "little ''T''" tradition)* ''Scripture'' should be capitalized when referring to the Bible, though not when referring to the scriptures of other religions* ''Orthodox''* ''Christian''* ''East[ern]'' and ''West[ern]'' when referring to them as geo-naming conventioncultural divisions (e.g., "the Church in East" or "Western theology"), but not as merely geographical references (e.g., "the western provinces" or "the apostles moved east")* Titles: ''Lord'', ''Lady'', ''Theotokos'', ''Christ''. Examples* Titles with names: ''Saint'' John, ''Apostle'' Peter, ''Bishop'' Basil, etc., '''but not''' ''saint'', ''apostle'', ''bishop'', etc., as regular nouns* Proper names: ''Father'', ''Son'', ''Holy Spirit'', ''Jesus'', ''James'', ''John'', ''St. Paul's Church'', ''Dormition Monastery'', ''Church of Romania'', etc.* Feast days: ''Pascha'', ''Annunciation'', ''Theophany'', ''Transfiguration'', etc. ('''Note''': Within texts for a particular feast, it is not the title which is being referenced, but the event, so capitalization is unnecessary: "Your birth..." or "Thy nativity...," '''[[Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese not''' "Your Birth..." or "Thy Nativity...")* O (as in ''O Lord'', or ''O Lady Theotokos''), i.e., the vocative Other terms (including personal pronouns for God) leave uncapitalized, so use ''him'' in the middle of a sentence referring to God, not ''Him''. === Italics ===Use the <code><nowiki>''</nowiki></code> (italic) markup. Example: :<code><nowiki>''This is italic.''</nowiki></code> which produces :''This is italic.'' ===Quotations===Quotations should be enclosed between quotation marks (e.g., "quotation"), or, if long enough, with indentation (produced by putting a colon (:) at the beginning of a line). Quotations should not be italicized unless they conform to the rules below for titles and words as words. ====Titles====''Italics'' should be used for titles of the following: * books* films* long poems* musical albums* newspapers* periodicals (journals and magazines)* plays* TV series* works of visual art Italics are generally used for titles of longer works. Titles of shorter works, such as the following, should be enclosed in quotation marks (""): * articles, essays, or papers * chapters of a longer work * episodes of a television series* short poems* short stories * songs There are a few cases in which the title should be neither italicized nor placed in quotation marks: * the Bible* legal documents (examples: the Constitution, the Declaration of North America]]Independence) ====Words as Words====Use italics when writing about words as words or when referring to letters. For example: *The term ''panning'' is derived from ''panorama'', a word originally coined in 1787. *The letter ''E'' is the most common letter in English. ===Dates===Links to dates within articles should include the full name of the month followed by the Arabic numeral of the day. Use '''[[Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of AmericaJanuary 1]]''', not '''Jan. 1''' or '''1 January'''. This standardization is to assure that the [[Orthodox Metropolitanate of Hong Kong and Southeast AsiaChurch Calendar]]page works correctly. Years should be left unlinked, because at this point we aren'''t including articles dedicated to particular years. ==Wiki Mechanics==

All Many articles may fit into multiple categories. Therefore, when listing the category entries at the bottom of the article, list the categories on church bodies should be included in separate lines. For instance, a category list for St. [[Raphael of Brooklyn]] might look like this: :<b><nowiki>[[Category:American Saints]]</nowiki></b>:<b><nowiki>[[Category:Bishops]]</nowiki></b>:<b><nowiki>[[Category:Missionaries]]</nowiki></b>:<b><nowiki>[[Category:JurisdictionsSaints]]</nowiki></b> ===Stubs===A '''stub''' is an article or section which needs additional material in order to be complete. If you create or see an article or section which needs more information in order to be complete, please include the <nowiki>{{stub}}</nowiki> tag in the appropriate place in the body of the article. Also try to avoid creating empty articles that consist only of a stub notice unless you intend to expand them soon.

== Bishops =====Basic Style===When creating articles about [[:Category:Bishops|bishops]], name the article with you include the following style: '''Firstname I (Surname) of See'''<nowiki>{{stub}}</nowiki> tag, so if there is a bishop named Moses Jones who is the fifth bishop named Moses of the Patriarchate of Springfield, the name of this message will be seen in the article would be: '''Moses V (Jones) of Springfield'''. In cases where no surname is known, it is of course omitted, which will especially be the case with ancient bishops, e.g., '''[[John I of Antioch]]'''. {{stub}}

Additionally==Miscellaneous style considerations==Generally speaking, most sees will not usually have need of the ordinal (the I, II, III, etc.), so if the bishop is of a more minor see (as most are), the ordinal would be omitted, e.g., best way to learn '''[[Anthony (Bloom) of Sourozh]]OrthodoxWiki'''. It's typically used only to refer style is to the primate of an autocephalous churchlook at existing, ewell-developed articles.g., '''[[Alexei II (Ridiger) Here follows a list of Moscow]]'''.various conventions that are in place:

===Sainted bishops===Exceptions would be saints who are generally known by other names*Begin articles with the '''subject in bold print''' as part of an introductory paragraph about the subject. For instance, instead The introductory paragraph should give a brief summary of the content of having an the article named . *When creating '''John I (Chrysostom) of Constantinoplewiki-links'''within an article, we simply have '''[[John Chrysostom]]''it's only necessary to link a given term once in the introductory section or when the term is first introduced in the article. Or instead In longer articles, it is acceptable to link a given term again at the beginning of later major sections.*When using a title of a person for the first time, spell it out completely (e.g., '''Cyril I of AlexandriaMetropolitan'''), but abbreviate it afterward (e.g., we have '''[[Cyril of Alexandria]]Metr.'''). Some ambiguity will exist for recently glorified bishops, e*Try to vary the manner in which persons are referred to&mdash;it is not necessary to include '''St.g., '''[[Raphael in front of a saint's name in each instance nor the title and surname of Brooklyn]]a bishop each time you name him.*List ''' rather than See also'''Raphael (Hawaweenyfor internal links on related articles) of Brooklynand '''External link[s]''', because sections as the former is currently the more commonly used formlast items in an article.

===English names=See also==Additionally, use the most commonly used English form of the name of the bishop. So, instead of *'''[[Help:How to write a great article|How to write a great article]]'''*'''Vartholomaios I (Archontonis) of Constantinople[[Help:Editing]]''', use *'''[[Bartholomew I (Archontonis) of ConstantinopleHelp:Contents]]'''. Some ambiguity will of course exist here, especially with names that are not commonly used in English-speaking countries.

===Categories=External links==Also be sure to include the bishop in * [[w:CategoryWikipedia:BishopsManual of Style|Wikipedia:Manual of Style]], and if he is the bishop includes many useful bits regarding style for encyclopedia writing for a wiki. * [http://www.bartleby.com/141/ The Elements of an important seeStyle], include him in the category of that see's bishopsby William Strunk, e.gJr., [[:Category:Patriarchs of Constantinople]]is the classic manual on English usage.