League of Legends Wiki:Manual of Style

This Manual of Style outlines a standard of clean, consistent formatting for articles in League of Legends Wikia. The formatting described here is a guideline and can be overridden where circumstances warrant it. These guidelines will never be unerringly perfect for every situation. However, please try your best to keep to the advice outlined in this article so others may use your edits as an example when creating and editing their own articles.

These guidelines are a summary of the most important guidelines for the League of Legends Wikia, but a more expansive set of guidelines can be found on Wikipedia at Wikipedia Manual of Style.

Grammar and Punctuation
When writing articles it is important to follow these rules of the english language:
 * 1) Don't use netspeak or any similar slang. We are compiling a professional resource for League of Legends fans.
 * 2) Keep your writing around a 6th Grade reading level. You don't need to fill it with big words just to make it sound smarter, especially if you're not certain how the word should be used.
 * 3) Vary your words. When writing, try to vary the words you use and the length of your sentences. It makes things sound more interesting.
 * 4) Capitalize words when appropriate. (see below)
 * 5) Use correct punctuation. This includes commas, periods, quotation marks, and apostrophes. (see below)
 * 6) Know the difference between homophones: there, their, and they're; here and hear; it's and its; who's and whose.

Capitalization
For a full list visit Capital Community College's Guide to Grammar and Writing''
 * 1) Capitalize the first word of every sentence. (eg. Annie uses mainly her spells, instead of normal physical attacks.)
 * 2) Capitalize proper nouns. (eg. Steve Mescon)
 * 3) Capitalize the first, last, and important words in a title. (eg. "League of Minions")
 * 1) Capitalize all the words in the Champions' Article title (eg. "Twisted Fate The Card Master")

Punctuation
In addition to basic punctuation, it is important to know how to punctuate titles. Titles are always either in italics or inside quotation marks.

Italics
Italics are used for large works like games, movies, comics and books.
 * Examples:
 * League of Legends
 * League of Minions

To use italics on Wikia place two single quote marks before and after the title:
 * League of Legends

These are single quotes ('), not double quotes ("). Alternately, highlight the title you want to put in italics with your mouse and click the "I" button in the toolbar above the edit box (in between the B for bolding and AB for the Internal link).

Quotation Marks
Quotation marks are used to enclose things that are part of a larger work, such as items and champions.
 * Examples:
 * "B.F. Sword"
 * "Alistar The Minotaur"

A shortcut to add quotation marks around a title is to click on the set of quotation marks in the Edit Tools below the edit box. This will put a set of quotation marks into the edit box. You can also highlight a title and click the quotation marks to add them. This works with many of the other items in the Edit Tools box.

Links
To link to another article inside League of Legends Wikia, you must put around it. To link to an article in Wikipedia, use and put the article title inside. If an article does not exist by that name, the link will show up as dark red, like this. External links will show up as blue.

You only need to link to another page once in any given article. Most of the time this is the first time that article's title comes up, but there are some exceptions to this.


 * Examples:
 * Annie The Dark Child
 * the wikipedia entry for the game.

Champion Articles

 * In the Story section of a Champion article, link to an article the first time it appears even if it's been linked to previously.
 * In the Trivia section, only information which is relevant to the article, has a cited source or reference (such as a link to a wikipedia article), and is not common knowledge should be included.

Links to Champion Articles
When referencing a champion, a majority of the time they can be referred to by just their name leaving the title away, e.g., Twisted Fate instead of Twisted Fate The Card Master. To assist with creating links inside pages, redirects have been established for the characters with unique names (Master Yi, Nunu, Janna Windforce, etc.). This reduces the amount of typing without affecting the appearance of a link.


 * Examples:
 *  Twisted Fate  works just the same as  Twisted Fate The Card Master  and  Twisted Fate 

If it is necessary to have the link display something other than the title of the link, that information should be placed after the pipe (the vertical bar) inside the link:  first map .

Guides
The Guide namespace is the place for the Editors and strategists to disclose their Champion management and tactics. These special articles differ from normal articles in one special way, the articles are only subject to grammar and spelling but aside from that they are practically free from most policies. For more information visit the Guide project page.

Articles
The Articles on League of Legends Wiki that constitute a set of types (Champions, Items, Minions, etc.) have usually a preset "template" that are very useful in case you you don't know how to start.

Patch Notes
The following gives a breakdown on the formatting that should be followed on ALL the Patch Note pages for uniformity purposes.

Applies to all formatting:
 * When bulleted style is used: one space to always follow * symbol before the text flow.
 * ie: Not: * But: *.
 * Each change note to be finished with a period at the end of the line, unless otherwise needed.
 * Each bullet entry after the * symbol to start with capital letter, unless otherwise needed.
 * ie: Not: * symbol... But: * Symbol...
 * All decimal fractions to be preceded by zero (0) if they are less than 1. (0.5, NOT .5)
 * All changes involving percentages, the % symbol to be used after numbers not as a separate word.
 * ie: Slow reduced to 5% from 12% NOT: Slow % reduced to 5 from 12.

PVP.net (version)

 * changes listed in bulleted format.
 * Nesting only to be used if the nested item to have more than one entry, otherwise entry to be listed on one (1) line with the use of a colon.

Champions

 * New champions to be listed at the top of the list.
 * All further champions to be listed in alphabetical order with the use of.
 * No colon to be used after champion template, no extra formatting to be used besides the champion template.
 * Each Champion changes to be listed in bulleted style.
 * Ability changes to be documented using template when applicable.
 * If and only if ability had more than 1 change to it the changes are to be nested in bullet style under the ability.
 * The changes to be listed in format "  to X from Y."
 * The ability template is to be followed by a colon, unless the ability as a noun completes the full sentence of the change note and serves as the subject of that sentence.
 * Example:
 * : cooldown increased to X from Y.
 * Damage reduced to X from Y.
 * Cooldown reduced to X from Y.
 * Damage reduced to X from Y.
 * Cooldown reduced to X from Y.



Items

 * New/Removed/Reworked items to be listed at the top of the list.
 * All further items to be listed in alphabetical order with the use of.
 * If and only if an item had more than 1 change to it the changes are to be nested in bullet style under the item.
 * The changes to be listed in format "  to X from Y."
 * The item template is to be followed by a colon, unless the item as a noun completes the full sentence of the change note and serves as the subject of that sentence.
 * Example:
 * : recipe cost increased to 1000 from 900.
 * Added a max cap of 750 Bonus Mana.
 * Clarified the tooltip.
 * Clarified the tooltip.



Summoner Spells

 * New/Removed/Reworked spells/masteries to be listed at the top of the list.
 * All further spells/masteries to be listed in alphabetical order with the use of or.
 * If and only if an spell/mastery had more than 1 change to it the changes are to be nested in bullet style under the spell/mastery.
 * The changes to be listed in format "  to X from Y."
 * The spell/mastery template is to be followed by a colon, unless the item as a noun completes the full sentence of the change note and serves as the subject of that sentence.
 * Example:
 * REMAKE : now reveals a location on the map for 4 seconds.
 * : cooldown reduced to 300 from 330.
 * now increases duration for 2 secs and reduces cooldown by 5.
 * Base armor reduced to 15 from 25.
 * Made it dramatically easier to select.
 * Made it dramatically easier to select.



General
This section is loosely bound on content, since information put in here comes from a broad range. Never the less, following the general formatting is important.
 * All further changes to be listed in bulleted style.
 * Use wiki links where applicable to link content to wiki articles.
 * If and only if some change had more than 1 sub-change to it, the sub-changes are to be nested in bullet style under the change they belong to.
 * The changes to be listed in format "  to X from Y." where appropriate.

Undocumented Changes
This section lists the changes that weren't listed in the official patch notes released on the official forum or similar source. The changes here are to follow the same formatting as the main patch notes (see above).

Naming Articles
Note that Wikia handles capitalized words differently than lowercase words. Entering them into search will bring up two different articles.
 * Article names should be in singular form, not plural.
 * The titles of articles about individual characters should be the name by which the character is most commonly known in their corresponding series.
 * Unless the name of the article contains (or is) a proper noun, none of the words should be capitalized.
 * Topics should always use lower case letters after the initial capitalization unless the word is always capitalized, and:

Champions
There are a few simple rules to follow when naming a character article.


 * 1) Champions are named using first and last name if both are known, i.e. Shaco The Demon Jester.
 * 2) If a Champion's title is not known from a official source, then it is all right to use only a first name, i.e. Urf.
 * 3) If a Champion's name is not known from a official source, then it is all right to use only the title, i.e. The Plant King.

You may want to create redirects for common address of a character. For example:
 * Redirect Morgana to Morgana The Fallen Angel
 * Redirect Cardmaster to Twisted Fate The Card Master
 * Redirect Guinsoo to Steve Feak

Administrators may move articles without consultation if they do not conform to the Character Naming Policy.

Items
Item articles are named for the items precisely as they are presented in-game. Each item in the shop has the title and it must be titled exactly as written. This includes capitalization and punctuation, but does not include the quotation marks around the title.

Please note that it may be appropriate to create redirects from one or two common misspellings or mis-capitalizations of titles to make users' searches easier. Administrators may move articles without consultation when they don't conform to the Episode Naming Policy.

Images

 * Images are preferred to bet Right-alignment to left-alignment. Although this is allowed when other objects interfere or make it visually unappealing.
 * Any given article shouldn't have too much Images. If there are too many images in the article, consider making a gallery with a level two heading at the bottom of the article (After the Skin gallery if it is a Champion Article).
 * Use captions to explain the relevance of the image to the article.
 * Large images should be reduced to an appropriate size; preferably small so it doesn't overshadow the article, but not too small so the image loses their appeal.
 * Complete sentences in captions should always end in a period. If the caption is not a complete sentence, it generally should not have a period at the end. Captions should also not be italicized.

Uploading Images

 * Please name your files descriptively to avoid confusion. Uploading an image with the name "0239235jgjgkdgdf.jpg" will be deleted or moved according to the opinion of the administrator.
 * Do not upload images we already have. If you plan on uploading an image, look around the League of Legends Wiki first to see if it has already been uploaded by someone else.
 * Abilities, Items, Skins, Champion Squares and any other image should be in .jpg, .gif or .png format. This is in order for pages to load faster. Preferably like this:
 * Champion Squares in PNG
 * Items in GIF.
 * Skins And Abilities in JPG or JPEG
 * Abilities should have the 64x64px dimension, Squares (Infobox Portraits) should have the 120x120px.
 * Other images (renders, in-game screenshots, etc.) are allowed to be in other formats.

To change image extensions it may be used the preferred application, it is recommended the following:
 * CoolUtils.com Image Converter
 * Online-Utility Image Converter

Protected Images
To make edits or uploads to the following images you need to contact an Administrator first:

Point of View
Articles on the League of Legends Wikia are written from an in-universe point of view as if the person, object, or event actually existed or occurred.


 * Use tense the same way a standard encyclopedia would.
 * Real World information inside cannon articles should be indented and italicized or preferably located at the beginning "Background Information" section. This information is covered by the Real World point of view.

Real World Point of View
The real world point of view applies to articles that that are written about companies, Riot Games employees, events, or other game information which are not part of the core League of Legends universe. They should be written the same as a standard encyclopedia entry in present day. All of these articles are marked with a   tag.

For all articles where it is necessary to include a link to an external site for a real-world article, use italics for books, movies and songs. Use regular text for all other links. Examples:
 * Google — non-italicized link
 * Riot Games — italicized link to the company article

User Related Manual of Style
When it comes to the user's pages (talk, profile, sandboxes, etc.), the user can be creative, but there are a few restrictions.

Deletion
Reasons for deletion include, but are not limited to, the following (subject to the condition that improvement or deletion of an offending section, if practical, is preferable to deletion of an entire page):
 * Copyright violations and other material violating the non-free content criteria.
 * Vandalism, including inflammatory redirects, pages that exist only to disparage their subject, patent nonsense, or gibberish
 * Advertising or other spam without relevant content (but not an article about an advertising-related subject).
 * Articles for which thorough attempts to find reliable sources to verify them have failed.
 * Redundant or otherwise useless templates.
 * Categories representing overcategorization.
 * Files that are unused, obsolete, or violate the Non-free policy.
 * Any other use of the article, template, project, or user namespace that is contrary to the established separate policy for that namespace.
 * Any other content not suitable for an encyclopedia.