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This article describes one of A Fifth Dimension's guidelines and policies. Please read and familiarize yourself with our common practices and rules. If you have any questions, suggestions, or complaints, please post them on the talk page. |
This Manual of Style gives a guideline for styles to use in writing articles. This will apply to all articles across the board, however, some articles' layout will vary. (see the corresponding section below)
Introductions[]
The introductory sentence of an article should include the title word or phrase that the article is about, and this title should be boldfaced. This makes it easy for the casual reader to identify the topic. It is only necessary to highlight the first use of the word or phrase. As this clearly establishes the purpose of the article to the reader, highlighting every single use of the word or phrase is unnecessary.
- Example
- Sam Conrad was an astronaut that found himself stranded on an alien planet, far from his home on Earth.
Remember to also use italicized text when necessary. See Italicization section below for further information.
- The Lady Anne was the ship taken by Eileen and Allan Ransome for their two-week cruise to England.
If the subject of the article has more than one name, each new form of the name should be in bold on its first appearance.
- The Devil, also known as Cadwallader or Pip or The Howling Man...
In most cases, it is useful to establish context in the first line or two of the article.
- In black magic, a grimoire was a book of spells used for various nefarious purposes, such as placing living beings in a state of suspended animation. (TZ1: "Still Valley")
The introduction should avoid self-referencing, and never make the title of the article a link or for that matter self-reference itself at any point.
- Example
- '''A Fifth Dimension:Avoid self referencing''' is the name of this article.
- What not to do
- '''[[A Fifth Dimension:Avoid self referencing]]''' is the name of this article.
Alternate worlds and timelines[]
Sometimes, The Twilight Zone stories take place in alternate timelines. If this is the case, it may be helpful to include a line stating so immediately following the introduction. This can easily be done using the {{altworld}} template.
- Example: This story occurs in an alternate timeline.
- Example: This story occurs in an alternate timeline.
Although The Twilight Zone episodes usually occupy their own "space" without relation to other episodes, the majority can be considered compatible within the same timeline. This is to say that one story does not totally eliminate the possibility of most other stories from occurring before or after itself.
However, certain stories, like "The Midnight Sun" or "Time Enough to Last", are clear deviations from the timelines of "The Long Morrow" or "Number 12 Looks Just Like You" as the former depict worlds that appear to end during the 1960's, while the latter episodes clearly occur beyond that time. Thus, these contradictory stories can be said to be of alternate timelines.
Headlines and sections[]
To create a new section in an article, surround the text with two or more == (equal signs).
Two equal signs will establish the basic heading line, including a horizontal bar underneath to separate the sections, and each additional pair of equal signs will result in a smaller font size for subsequent headings. When you have the header, there is no blank line needed beneath the header to separate the lines by spacing.
The wiki engine will automatically create a table of contents based on the headers in an article. (for alternatives, see: Category:TOC Templates and Wikipedia:Help Section)
With regard to headers, capitalization rules differ slightly. In all cases, you should capitalize the first word and all proper nouns of the header, and leave all other words lowercase. The only time that this does not apply is in episode and movie articles. These pages have their own peculiar format with all of the words capitalized.
In addition, all words should be spelled out and not use numerals (such as "Two" rather than "II" or "2") except when a proper title (such as "The Odyssey of Flight 33").
Avoid using links in headers. Depending on the browser's default settings, some users may not be able to see the links properly. It is much more useful to place the appropriate link in the first sentence after the header.
Background sections[]
Aside from the main summary of the article's subject, there may be additional details that should be included. This can include—even in "in-universe" articles like character pages— things like technical information, commentaries, trivia, and unusual or contested points of information. These topics should be contained in a separate section, named:
- ==Background information==
In some articles, however, the content of the "Background information" section has been divided up into separate specific sections. See: Guide to Layout.
"See also" sections[]
Informational references to related articles that have not been linked to from free links in the article itself are best handled by a "see also" link.
- See also: Cliffordville, Willoughby
It might be better for organization's sake, though, if you can use a "See also" section header to list the links in a more explicit fashion as a section of the article:
- ==See also==
- Anne Marie Henderson
- Millicent Barnes
If an article consists of several sections and a "see also" refers to the entire article, making it a separate section helps emphasize that the links refer to the entire article, rather than simply the last section alone.