Scorepedia:Manual of Style

The Manual of Style (often abbreviated MoS or MOS) is a style guide for all Scorepedia articles. This is its main page, covering certain topics (such as punctuation and form) in full and presenting the key points of others. Subpages, listed at Scorepedia:Manual of Style/Contents, provide detailed guidance on particular topics or subject areas.

The Manual of Style documents Scorepedia's house style. It helps editors write articles with consistent, clear, and precise language, layout, and formatting. The goal is to make Scorepedia easier and more intuitive to use. Consistency in language, style, and formatting promotes clarity and cohesion. Writing should be clear and concise. Plain English works best; avoid ambiguity, jargon, and vague or unnecessarily complex wording.

Style and formatting choices should be consistent within an article, and these choices should be reflected in similar types of articles throughout Scorepedia as a whole. (For instance, all the Score articles should have similar formatting and style.) Where more than one style is acceptable, editors should not change an article from one of those styles to another without a substantial reason. Edit warring over optional styles is unacceptable. If discussion cannot determine which style to use in an article, defer to the style used by the first major contributor or those appearing in the Page templates section.

Article titles
A title should be recognizable (as a name or description of the topic), natural, sufficiently precise, concise, and consistent with the titles of related articles. If these criteria are in conflict, they need to be balanced against one another.

The following points are noteworthy:
 * Use "sentence case", not "title case"; that is, the initial letter of a title is capitalized (except in rare cases, such as eBay), but otherwise, capital letters are used only where they would be used in a normal sentence.
 * Do not use A, An, or The as the first word (National Philharmonic Orchestra, not The National Philharmonic Orchestra), unless by convention it is an inseparable part of a name (The Wachowski Brothers) or it is part of the title of a score or its related film (The Omen).
 * Titles should normally be nouns or noun phrases: Temp tracks, not Using temp tracks.
 * The final visible character should not be a punctuation mark unless it is part of a name or an abbreviation (E.T.), or a closing round bracket or quotation mark is required (Jaws (film)).

Since the central subject of this website is film scores, the title of any article referring to a specific work is by default a reference to a particular score—so there is no need to add "score" as a delineation in the title of an article (Raiders of the Lost Ark, not Raiders of the Lost Ark (score)). If an article is referencing a creative work other than a film score, its format should be contained in parentheses following the title (Jaws (film), To Kill a Mockingbird (novel)). For the most part, Scorepedia has little need to contain separate articles concerning the creative works supporting a film score, so this last formatting guideline should be used very sparingly and only when necessary.

The guidance contained elsewhere in the MoS, particularly in the section below on punctuation, applies to all parts of an article, including the title.

Section organization
An article should begin with an introductory lead section, which does not contain section headings. The remainder is divided into sections, each with a section heading (see below) that can be nested in a hierarchy. If there are at least four section headings in the article, a navigable table of contents is generated automatically and displayed between the lead and the first heading.

Optional appendix and footer sections containing the following lists may appear after the body of the article in the following order:
 * concert works, books, or other works created by the subject of the article (under a section heading "Concert works", "Publications", "Discography", etc. as appropriate);
 * internal links to related Scorepedia articles (section heading "See also");
 * notes and references (section heading "Notes" or "References", or a separate section for each);
 * relevant books, articles, or other publications that have not been used as sources (section heading "Further reading");
 * relevant websites that have not been used as sources and do not appear in the earlier appendices (added as part of "Further reading" or in a separate section headed "External links").
 * categories

Other article elements include infoboxes, such as those for the Score and Composer pages (usually placed before the lead section).

Section headings
Equal signs are used to mark the enclosed text as a section heading:  for a primary section;   for the next level (a subsection); and so on to the lowest-level subsection, with. (The highest heading level technically possible is ; but do not use it in articles, because it is reserved for the automatically generated top-level heading at the top of the page containing the title of the whole article.) Spaces between the equal signs and the heading text are optional, and will not affect the way the heading is displayed. The heading must be typed on a separate line. Include one blank line above the heading, and optionally one blank line below it, for readability in the edit window. (Only two or more consecutive blank lines will add more white space in the public appearance of the page.)

The provisions in Article titles (above) generally apply to section headings as well (for example, headings are in sentence case, not title case). The following points apply specifically to section headings:
 * Headings should not refer redundantly to the subject of the article, or to higher-level headings, unless doing so is shorter or clearer. (Early life is preferable to His early life when his refers to the subject of the article; headings can be assumed to be about the subject unless otherwise indicated.)
 * Headings should not normally contain links, especially where only part of a heading is linked.
 * Section and subsection headings should preferably be unique within a page; otherwise section links may lead to the wrong place, and automatic edit summaries can be ambiguous.
 * Citations should not be placed within or on the same line as section and subsection headings.
 * Headings should not contain images, including flag icons.
 * Headings should not contain questions.

Capital letters
Sentence case rather than title case is used in Scorepedia article titles and section headings; see Article titles and Section headings above. For capitalization of list items, see Bulleted and numbered lists. Other points concerning capitalization are summarized below.

Do not use capitals for emphasis
Do not use capital letters for emphasis; where wording alone cannot provide the emphasis, use italics.


 * Incorrect: It is not only a LITTLE (or Little) learning that is dangerous.
 * Correct: It is not only a little learning that is dangerous.

Capitalization of "The"
Generally do not capitalize the definite article in the middle of a sentence: the score was recorded in the United Kingdom (not in The United Kingdom). However, there are some conventional exceptions, including most titles of artistic works: Tolkien wrote The Lord of the Rings (but Homer wrote the Odyssey).

Titles of works
The English-language titles of compositions (books and other print works, songs and other audio works, films and other visual media works, paintings and other artworks, etc.) are given in title case, in which every word is given an initial capital except for certain less important words (see below). The first and last words in a title are always capitalized. Capitalization in foreign-language titles varies, even over time within the same language; generally, retain the style of the original.
 * Correct: The Unbearable Lightness of Being
 * Correct: Hymnus an den heiligen Geist

The words that are not capitalized (unless they are the first or last word of the title) are:
 * Articles (a, an, the)
 * Short coordinating conjunctions (and, but, or, nor; also for, yet, so when used as conjunctions)
 * Prepositions containing four letters or fewer (of, to, in, on, for, with, etc.; but see below for instances where these words are not used as prepositions)
 * The word to in infinitives.

The following words should be capitalized:
 * The first and last word of the title
 * Every adjective, adverb, noun, pronoun and subordinating conjunction (Me, It, His, If, etc.)
 * Every verb, including forms of to be (Be, Am, Is, Are, Was, Were, Been)
 * Prepositions that contain five letters or more (During, Through, About, Until, etc.)
 * Words that have the same form as prepositions, but are not being used specifically as prepositions
 * Particles of phrasal verbs (e.g. "Give Up the Ghost", "Walk On")
 * The first word in a compound preposition (e.g. "Time Out of Mind", "Get Off of My Cloud").

In hyphenated terms, capitalize each part according to the applicable rule (e.g. The Out-of-Towners). For titles with subtitles or parenthetical phrases, capitalize as if they were separate titles (e.g. (Don't Fear) The Reaper).

Calendar items

 * Months, days of the week, and holidays start with a capital letter (June, or Monday; the Fourth of July refers only to the US Independence Day—otherwise July 4 or 4 July).
 * Seasons are in lower case (her last summer; the winter solstice; spring fever), except in personifications or in proper names for periods or events (Old Man Winter; the team had great success on the Spring Circuit).

Institutions
Names of particular institutions are proper nouns and require capitals, but generic words for institutions (university, college, hospital, high school) do not. For example: The university offers programs in arts and sciences, but The University of Delhi offers... .

The word the at the start of a title is usually uncapitalized, but follow the institution's own usage (a degree from the University of Sydney; but researchers at The Ohio State University).

Similar considerations apply to political or geographical units, such as cities and islands: The city has a population of 55,000, but The City of Smithville... (an official name). (Note also the use of the City to refer to the City of London.)

Ligatures
Ligatures should be used in languages in which they are standard, hence The meaning of Moreau's last words, clin d'œil, is disputed is preferable to The meaning of Moreau's last words, clin d'oeil, is disputed. Ligatures should not be used in English outside of names, hence Æthelstan was a pre-mediaeval king, not Æthelstan was a pre-mediæval king.

Abbreviations
There are very few abbreviations inherent to either general cinema or the film scoring industry that are not commonly known. If, however, you are doubtful whether potential readers will know the meaning of an abbreviation, write out both the full version and the abbreviation at first occurrence.
 * When an abbreviation is to be used in an article, give the expression in full at first, followed immediately by the abbreviation in parentheses (round brackets). In the rest of the article the abbreviation can then be used by itself:
 * the New Democratic Party (NDP) won the 1990 Ontario election with a significant majority, at the first mention of the New Democratic Party; and
 * the NDP quickly became unpopular with the voters, at a subsequent mention.


 * Make an exception for very common abbreviations; in most articles they require no expansion (such as MGM and IMDb).


 * Do not apply initial capitals in a full version simply because capitals are used in the abbreviation.
 * {|style="background:transparent"


 * Correct (not a proper noun): || We used digital scanning (DS) technology
 * Incorrect: || We used Digital Scanning (DS) technology
 * Correct (a proper noun): || The film was produced by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC)
 * }
 * If the full version is already in round brackets, use a comma and or to indicate the abbreviation.
 * They first debated the issue in 1992 (at a convention of the New Democratic Party, or NDP)
 * }
 * If the full version is already in round brackets, use a comma and or to indicate the abbreviation.
 * They first debated the issue in 1992 (at a convention of the New Democratic Party, or NDP)


 * Plural and possessive forms
 * Acronyms, like other nouns, become plurals by adding -s or -es (they produced three CD-ROMs in the first year; the laptops were produced with three different BIOSes in 2006). As with other nouns, no apostrophe is used unless the form is a possessive.

Periods (full stops) and spaces
 * The letters in an acronym are generally not separated by periods (full stops) or blank spaces (NORAD, MGM). Periods and spaces that were traditionally required have now dropped out of usage (PhD is now preferred over Ph.D. and Ph. D.). Do not use periods in units of measurement. There are some traditional exceptions (i.e., e.g.; not ie, eg, i. e., e. g.); and see below for US and U.S.
 * Abbreviations formed by truncation (Hon. for Honorable), compression (cmte. for committee), or contraction (Dr. for Doctor) may or may not be closed with a period; a consistent style should be maintained within an article. A period is more usual in North American usage (Dr. Smith of 42 Drummond St.); no period is commonly preferred in British and other usage (Dr Smith of 42 Drummond St). Some British and other authorities prefer to drop the period from truncated and compressed abbreviations generally (XYZ Corp; ABC Ltd), a common practice in science writing. Regardless of punctuation, words that are abbreviated to more than one letter are spaced (op. cit.}} or op cit; not op.cit. or opcit). There are some exceptions: PhD (see above) for "Philosophiae Doctor"; BVetMed''' for "Bachelor of Veterinary Medicine".

US and U.S.
 * In American and Canadian English, U.S. (with periods) is the dominant abbreviation for United States. US (without periods) is more common in most other national forms of English. Some major American guides to style, such as The Chicago Manual of Style (16th ed.), now deprecate U.S. and prefer US. Use of periods for acronyms should be consistent within any given article, and congruent with the variety of English used by that article. In longer abbreviations incorporating the country's initials (USN, USAF), do not use periods. When the United States is mentioned with one or more other countries in the same sentence, U.S. or US may be too informal, especially at the first mention or as a noun instead of an adjective (France and the United States, not France and the U.S.). Do not use the spaced U. S., nor the archaic U.S. of A., except when quoting. Do not use U.S.A. or USA, except in a quotation or as part of a proper name (Team USA), as these abbreviations are also used for United States Army or other names.

Circa
 * To indicate approximately, the unitalicized abbreviation c. (followed by a space) is preferred over circa, ca., or approx.

Do not use unwarranted abbreviations
 * Avoid abbreviations when they might confuse the reader, interrupt the flow, or appear informal. For example, do not use approx. for approximate or approximately, except to reduce the width of an infobox or a table of data, or in a technical passage in which the term occurs many times.

Do not invent abbreviations or acronyms
 * Generally avoid making up new abbreviations, especially acronyms (World Union of Billiards is good as a translation of Union Mondiale de Billard, but neither it nor the reduction WUB is used by the organization; so use the original name and its official abbreviation, UMB). If it is necessary to abbreviate a heading in a wide table of data, use widely recognized acronyms.