Wikizine/Style guide

From Meta, a Wikimedia project coordination wiki

Wikizine Style guide Sources Latest edition (en) Archived editions

Wikizine is a weekly newsletter that brings the most important news to the global Wikimedia community.

Contents 1 Guidelines 1.1 Inclusion and length 1.2 Writing style 1.3 Management

[edit] Guidelines

[edit] Inclusion and length

Stories in Wikizine should be:

• as short as possible (usually a brief summary with links to more information);
• relevant to the entire community, instead of a specific wiki or project (technical changes are usually the most important, since they affect all wikis).

[edit] Writing style

Stories in Wikizine should be:

• written in the simplest English possible, so that non-native readers can understand:
  • avoid contractions, like "we're" instead of "we are";
  • use common number names, like "one thousand million" instead of "one billion" or "one milliard";
  • use "sysop" instead of "administrator";
  • avoid vague words like "infamous", "empower", "disseminate", or "in perpetuity".
• accurate (if a mistake is published, the next edition should contain an erratum correction);
• written in plain text, with no formatting or wiki syntax, so that it can easily be distributed in any format.

Opinions and personal statements should be avoided, unless in an explicit "Editorial" section (which should be a rare exception). Dry humour and sarcasm make writing and reading more fun, but it should be relatively subtle (except in the quote section).

[edit] Management

• The editor-in-chief Walter decides what is published and in what form, but Wikizine tries to stay as neutral and professional as possible.
• Wikizine is not managed by the Wikimedia Foundation.
• Wikizine is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.