Wikipedia:WikiProject Television/24 task force/Manual of Style

The following are guidelines about article content established by consensus among Wikipedians and members of the WikiProject 24. This article contains basic principles. If the Manual of Style does not specify a preferred usage, discuss your issues on the talk page of this article.

Internal consistency

 * See also Consistency within articles

An overriding principle on Wikipedia is that style and formatting should be applied consistently within articles, though not necessarily throughout the encyclopedia as a whole. One way of presenting information may be as good as another is, but consistency within articles promotes clarity and cohesion.

Stability of articles
The Arbitration Committee has ruled that the Manual of Style is not binding, that editors should not change an article from one guideline-defined style to another without a substantial reason unrelated to mere choice of style, and that revert-warring over optional styles is unacceptable.

Organization
For Seasons:
 * Lead section: The name of the season and followed by the day in bold, go first. Followed by a brief summary of the season. Such as premiere date and finale day. Also, additional information that that is unique to the other seasons. Lastly, the hour in which the season started.
 * Infobox: The infobox should contain country of origin, network, original run, number of episodes, DVD release, and previous and next season.
 * Overview: an overview of the significant parts of the season. If necessary, the section should have subheadings for the story's setting, major plots, and a prequel section. In the major plot section, there should be summaries of the episodes.
 * Characters: should have 3 different categories including stars, recurring characters and special guest stars.
 * External links and references. Make sure to cite sources.

For Characters:
 * Lead section: The name of the character in bold, (depending on the character) whether the character is a protagonist or antagonist, information identifying the character and finally who portrays the character.
 * Infobox: Articles on a single character should have a character infobox.
 * Concept and creation: going over the process in which the character was created and designed.
 * Appearances: This should list any seasons that the character appeared in and briefly discuss their role in the season.
 * Other appearances: This should list any other appearances the character has appear in. Such as movies, games, comics, toys, or other shows.
 * Reception: Reactions by critics that may lead to negative or positive views.
 * External links and references. Make sure to cite sources.

Naming convention
This section is a complement to Wikipedia's naming conventions, not a replacement. Always consider Naming conventions when naming a page.

General

 * 1) Do not capitalize second and subsequent words unless the title is a proper noun (such as a name) or is otherwise almost always capitalized.
 * 2) In general, use page names with singular nouns (e.g., "Key item", not "Key items").
 * 3) Except for titles of works or official names, avoid the definite ("the") and indefinite ("a"/"an") articles at the beginning of a page name. This applies even if the subject of the page is usually preceded by the definite article "the" in speech or writing.
 * 4) Use standard English for titles, even if trademarks encourage otherwise.
 * 5) Consider creating redirects to the correct page from pages with names similar to the correct one and from pages with names which are discouraged per this convention. Also consider adding hatnotes linking between articles with similar names.

Lists

 * 1) A list article's title should accurately describe its content.
 * 2) Lists should be named "List of..." (e.g. "List of 24 characters").

Disambiguation

 * 1) Do not disambiguate unless a naming conflict exists.
 * 2) Never make a disambiguation tag longer than necessary.
 * 3) A disambiguating word or phrase can be added in parentheses.
 * 4) Rarely, an adjective describing the topic can be used, but it is usually better to rephrase such a title to avoid parentheses.