User:Foomandoonian/sandbox

=My sandybox=

My Wikipedia playground, for playing with formatting stuff and collecting links to useful pages.

Message box tags

 * cleanup for poor writing
 * expert-subject for articles needing expert attention
 * notenglish for articles written in a foreign language
 * npov for bias
 * stub for a short article
 * refimprove for lack of verifiability
 * merge for a small article that could be merged into a larger one
 * Workpage for article-in-progress pages

All tags are listed here.

All Template messages


 * British English for the talk pages of [articles in British English].

Things to check regularly

 * Requested_pictures

Scratch
Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia that not just anyone can edit.

Images
Template for TV title cards: (Template:Non-free_use_rationale)

This is the title screen from the BBC Wales series High Hopes.

See: Manual_of_Style_(television)

Grammar and layout checklist

 * The lead needs to adequately summarize the content of the article.
 * There should not be anything in the lead not mentioned in the rest of the article.
 * Only make wikilinks that are relevant to the context. Common words do not need wikilinking.
 * A word only needs to be wikilinked once within each section.
 * It is not recommended to specify the size of images. The sizes should be what readers have specified in their user preferences.
 * Text should not be sandwiched between two adjacent images.
 * All fair-use images need a fair use rationale.
 * Image captions should not end with a full-stop if the caption does not form a complete sentence.
 * Book references need the author, publisher, publishing date and page number.
 * Web references need the author, publisher, publishing date, access date, language (if not English) and format (if a PDF file).
 * Blogs and personal websites are not reliable sources.
 * Inline citations belong immediately after punctuation marks.
 * Each "notable resident" needs a reference.
 * Portal links belong in the "see also" section.
 * "Further info" links belong at the top of sections.
 * Include lists only if they cannot be made into prose or their own article.
 * Lists within prose should be avoided.
 * Unspaced en dashes are used for ranges. Unspaced em dashes or spaced en dashes are used for punctuation. The same applies to dashes in the footnotes. See WP:MOS.
 * " " (non-breaking space) should be typed between numbers and units.
 * Imperial measurements should be accompanied by the metric equivalent in brackets, and vice versa. If possible, use a conversion template, eg. 5 mi.
 * Whole numbers under ten should be spelled out as words, except when in lists, tables or infoboxes.
 * Sentences should not start with a numeral. Either recast the sentence or spell the number out.
 * Usually, only the first word in a section heading needs a capital letter.
 * Short sections and paragraphs are discouraged.
 * The words "current", "recent" & "to date" should be avoided as they become outdated.
 * Ampersands should not be used, except when in a name, eg., Marks & Spencer.
 * Southeast is one word (and may or may not be hyphenated). This does not apply when it is the name of an area, eg. South East England.
 * In longer sentences, a comma may be needed before "and", "due to", "such as", "including", "as", "because" or "but".
 * "Past few years" has a different meaning to "last few years".
 * "Within" has a different meaning to "in".
 * Full-stops are needed after each initials in someone's name.
 * Hyphens should not be placed after words ending in ly, eg. widely-used phrase (except if the ly word could also describe the noun, eg. friendly-looking man)
 * Do not use contractions, such as "can't" and "they're".
 * "While" should only be used when emphasising that two events occur at the same time, or when emphasising contrast. It should not be used as an additive link.
 * Using "with" as an additive link can lead to wordy and awkward prose, eg. the town has ten councillors, with one being the district mayor → the town has ten councillors; one is the district mayor
 * Beginning a sentence with "there", when it does not stand for anything, leads to wordy prose, eg. There are ten houses in the village → The village has ten houses. The same applies to "it".
 * Avoid weasel words, such as "it is believed that", "is widely regarded as", "some have claimed".
 * Avoid peacock terms, such as "beautiful", "famous", "popular", "well-known", "significant", "important" and "obvious".
 * Avoid informal or words, such as "carry out" and "pub".
 * Avoid overly-formal or archaic words, such as "circa", "utilise", "whilst", "upon", "commence" and "prior".
 * Avoid wordy terms, such as "the majority of" and "a number of".
 * Avoid vague words, such as "various", "many", "several", "long" and "almost"
 * Avoid phrases with redundant words, such as "is located in", "the two are both", "they brought along", "they have plans to", "they were all part of", "the last ones to form", "both the towns", "outside of the town", "all of the towns", "received some donations", "still exists today", "it also includes others", "many different towns", "available records show" and "in the year 2007".

(via UKCOUNTIES)

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