User:Dank/Usage


 * An appositive follows and is the same part of speech as another element: "my cousin Edna", "later, that same day"


 * chronology: Write your storyline or narrative in chronological order within one section or subsection.


 * clarity: If you can't avoid using terms in your article that many of your readers won't know, at least link the terms to a Wikipedia page or section (or rarely, to Wiktionary). If the sentence won't make sense to readers who don't click on the link, give at least a hint to the meaning in the text in addition to the link.


 * consistency: Usually, use the same word or phrase throughout an article for the same thing. Use consistent units, presentation and formats when possible.


 * conciseness: Look for ways to trim long sentences and phrases, and try not to say the same thing twice, using the same or different words, but don't worry too much about how to say something in the fewest possible words.


 * dangling words: An element (especially a pronoun) "dangles" if you can't tell which other element it's referring to. It's not clear whether the pronoun which refers to the order or the abrupt exit here: He left abruptly after delivering the order, which was misinterpreted by the sergeant.


 * An element is a word or string of words that functions as a grammatical unit; so, an adverbial element is a word or string of words that acts as an adverb: "in the dark of night".


 * emphasis: Politicians, advertisers and con artists make their points emphatically and use fancier words than they need. If you don't want to sound like them, don't do the same.


 * endash: See WP:ENDASH.


 * hyphen: See WP:HYPHEN.


 * part of speech: a noun, pronoun, adjective, article, verb, adverb, conjunction, preposition or interjection, or sometimes, an element that acts as one of these.


 * repetition: If possible,Avoid New here: New carriers under development.


 * second comma: If a comma comes before a parenthetical word or phrase, then a comma is needed after that word or phrase unless there's already some punctuation there (according to most American style guides, at least). Try visualizing a parenthesis in place of the first comma, then try to figure out where the end parenthesis would go; that's where you need a second comma. This includes dates and places: on July 4, 1776, ... in Raleigh, North Carolina, .... Especially for longer parenthetical phrases that begin with a comma, readers are expecting a second comma to tell them where the end of the phrase is.  The comma after Korea is necessary here: UN troops, mainly from the US, UK and Republic of Korea, enjoyed overwhelming air and sea superiority.


 * series: The elements in a series ("X, Y and Z") should be parallel. Avoid her in: The ship's AA guns, aircraft crane and her fuel tanks. ("her aircraft crane and her fuel tanks" would be parallel, but "her" is redundant to "The ship's".) If one element is more complex than the others, that element should usually go last in the series.


 * since: Give some thought to whether since, because, caused by, as a result, due to, thus, therefore, and other cause-and-effect words are the words you want in a narrative (storyline). Use after instead of because in: they retreated because the enemy broke through their lines, since the readers can figure out that one led to the other. Avoid therefore in: The ship stayed in port two days loading low-grade coal, and therefore never caught up to the fleeing destroyer. (Therefore ... because the ship stayed in port two days, because it loaded coal, or because the coal was low-grade? It's better not to raise the question if the answer isn't clear.) Even when there's some degree of causation (Unrest caused by government repression), it's often better to find a less emphatic word (Unrest spurred by government repression, government repression led to unrest); motivations are usually complex, and misrepresenting complex questions as simple may be considered non-neutral. And of course, don't say or imply that one thing caused another if your sources don't back that up.


 * thoughts: Don't speculate about what people were thinking unless the sources say it was important.