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| {{dablink|Multiple shortcuts redirect here; you may be looking for ], ], ], ], ], ], ], or ].}} | |||
| {{policy|WP:TITLE|WP:AT}} | |||
| {{Nutshell|Article titles should be recognizable to readers, unambiguous, and consistent with usage in reliable English-language sources.}} | |||
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| {{naming conventions|title=Specific-topic guidelines}} | |||
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| {{Content policy list}} | |||
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| This page sets out Misplaced Pages's policy on how to '''title articles'''. It is supplemented and explained by guidelines linked to this policy (see the box to the right), which should be interpreted in conjunction with other policies, particularly the three core content policies: ], ] and ]. | |||
| For information on the procedure for renaming an article, see ] and ]. | |||
| == Deciding an article title == | |||
| Every Misplaced Pages article must have a unique title.<ref>Some on-line encyclopedias use arbitrary numbers to distinguish pages, hence article titles do not need to be unique, but Misplaced Pages uses a system whereby no two pages can have identical titles. It is technically possible to make articles ''appear'' to have the same title, but this is never done, as it would be highly confusing to readers, and cause editors to make incorrect links.</ref> While not always possible, the ideal title is: | |||
| * '''Recognizable''' – Using names and terms most commonly used in reliable sources, and so most likely to be recognized, for the topic of the article. | |||
| * '''Easy to find''' – Using names and terms that readers are most likely to look for in order to find the article (and to which editors will most naturally link from other articles). | |||
| * '''Precise''' – Using names and terms that are ], but only as precise as is necessary to identify the topic of the article unambiguously. | |||
| * '''Concise''' – Using names and terms that are brief and to the point. (Even when disambiguation is necessary, keep ''that'' part brief.) | |||
| * '''Consistent''' – Using names and terms that follow the same pattern as those of other similar articles. | |||
| Most articles will have a simple and obvious title that satisfies most or all of these criteria. If so, use it, as a straightforward choice. ''However, it may be necessary to trade off two or more of the criteria against one another; in such situations, article titles are determined by consensus, usually guided by the usage in reliable sources''. Consensus on entitling articles in specific fields, or with respect to particular problems, is stated and explained on the guideline pages referenced. When no consensus exists, it is established through discussion, always with the above principles in mind. The choice of article titles should put the interests of readers before those of editors, and those of a general audience before those of specialists. | |||
| ] should be created to articles that may reasonably be searched for or linked to under two or more names (such as different spellings or former names). Conversely, a name that could refer to several different articles may require ]. | |||
| == Common names == | |||
| {{Policy shortcut|WP:UCN|WP:NCCN|WP:COMMONNAME}} | |||
| Articles are normally titled using the most common English-language name of the subject of the article. In determining what this name is, we follow the usage of ], such as those used as references for the article. | |||
| Article titles should be neither vulgar nor pedantic. Common usage in reliable sources is preferred to technically correct but rarer forms, whether the official name, the scientific name, the birth name, the original name or the trademarked name. | |||
| The following are examples of common names<ref>Where the term "common name" appears in this policy it means a ''commonly used name'', and not a ] as used in some disciplines in opposition to ].</ref> that Misplaced Pages uses as article titles instead of a more elaborate, formal or scientifically precise alternative: | |||
| *] (not "William Jefferson Clinton") | |||
| *] (not "Terry Gene Bollea") | |||
| *] (not "Aphrodite of Melos") | |||
| *] (not ''Cavia porcellus'') | |||
| *] (not ''Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei'') | |||
| ] testing sometimes helps decide which of alternative names is more common. When searching, restrict the results to pages written in English, and exclude the word "Misplaced Pages". It may also be useful to observe the usage of major international organizations, major English-language media outlets, quality encyclopedias, geographic name servers, major scientific bodies and scientific journals. For detailed advice, see ]. | |||
| ] We do not know what terms will be used in the future, but only what is and has been in use, and will therefore be familiar to our readers. However common sense can be applied – if an organization changes its name, it is reasonable to consider the usage since the change. | |||
| When there is no obvious common name for the topic, as used by a significant majority of reliable English language sources, editors should reach a consensus as to which title is best. | |||
| == Foreign names and anglicization {{anchor|Use English}}== | |||
| {{policy shortcut|WP:UE}} | |||
| {{See|Misplaced Pages:Naming conventions (use English)}} | |||
| The choice between anglicized and local spellings should follow English-language usage, e.g., ], ] and ], but ], ] and ]. | |||
| If there are too few English-language sources to constitute an established usage, follow the conventions of the language appropriate to the subject (German for German politicians, Portuguese for Brazilian towns, and so on). For ideas on how to deal with situations where there are several competing foreign terms, see "]" and "]" in the geographical naming guideline. | |||
| Names not originally in a ], such as Greek, Chinese or Russian names, must be ]. Established systematic transliterations, such as ], are preferred. However if there is a common English-language form of the name, then use it, even if it is unsystematic (as with ] and ]). For a list of transliteration conventions by language, see ]. | |||
| Misplaced Pages generally uses the characters '']'' and '']'' to represent Anglo-Saxon ligatures. For Latin or Greek-derived words, use ''e'' or ''ae''/''oe'', depending on modern usage and the ] used in the article. | |||
| In deciding whether and how to ] a foreign name into English, follow English-language usage. If there is no established English-language treatment for a name, translate it if this can be done without loss of accuracy and with greater understanding for the English-speaking reader. | |||
| == National varieties of English == | |||
| {{See|Misplaced Pages:Manual of Style#National varieties of English|l1=Misplaced Pages:Manual of Style, National varieties of English}} | |||
| All national varieties of English spelling are acceptable in article titles; Misplaced Pages does not prefer any national variety over any other. An article title on a topic that has strong ties to a particular English-speaking nation should use the variety of English appropriate for that nation (for example ]). ] spellings should not be respelled to ] standards, and vice versa; for example, both ] and ] are acceptable and both spellings are found in article titles (such as ] and ]). Occasionally a less common term is selected as an article title because it is appropriate to all national varieties; for example, ]. | |||
| == Standard English and trademarks == | |||
| {{See|Misplaced Pages:Manual of Style (trademarks)}} | |||
| Article titles follow standard English text formatting in the case of trademarks, unless the trademarked spelling is demonstrably the most common usage in sources independent of the owner of the trademark. Items in full or partial uppercase (such as ]) should have standard capitalization (]); however, if the name is ambiguous, and one meaning is usually capitalized, this is one possible method of disambiguation. | |||
| Exceptions include article titles with the first letter lowercase and the second letter uppercase, such as ] and ]. For these, see the ]. | |||
| == Precision and disambiguation == | |||
| {{policy shortcut|WP:PRECISION}} | |||
| Articles' titles usually merely indicate the name of the topic. When additional precision is necessary to distinguish an article from other uses of the topic name, over-precision should be avoided. Be precise but only as precise as is needed. For example, it would be inappropriate to title an article "United States Apollo program (1961–1975)" over ] or "Nirvana (Aberdeen, Washington rock band)" over ]. Remember that ''concise'' titles are generally preferred. | |||
| However, because pages cannot share the same title, it is not always possible to use the exact title that may be desired for an article, as that title may have another meaning. As a general rule: | |||
| *If the topic of the article is the ] (or only topic) for a desired title, then the article can take that title without modification. | |||
| *Otherwise that title cannot be used for the article without ]. This is most commonly done by adding a disambiguating tag in parentheses (or sometimes after a comma); however in certain cases it may be done by choosing a different form of the title in order to achieve uniqueness. <!--For example, two drummers called Roger Taylor have their articles titled ] and ].--> | |||
| The ] also contains advice on how to title ''disambiguation pages'' when they need to be created. | |||
| Sometimes titles of separate articles have different forms, but with only minor differences. | |||
| ''Examples'': | |||
| * ''Diacritics'': ] vs. ]; ] vs. ] | |||
| * ''Capitalization'': ] vs. ]; ] vs. ] | |||
| * ''With or without hyphen(s)'': ] vs. ] | |||
| In such cases, remember that a reader who enters one term might in fact be looking for the other, so use appropriate disambiguation techniques (such as ] or disambiguation pages) to ensure that readers can find all possible target articles. In case of very minor differences, a parenthethical tag should be added as if the title forms were identical, as in ] and ]. | |||
| ==Descriptive titles== | |||
| Where articles have ''descriptive titles'', they are ]. A descriptive article title should describe the subject without passing judgment, implicitly or explicitly, on the subject. Titles which are considered ''inaccurate'' descriptions of the article subject, as implied by reliable sources, are often avoided even though it may be more common. For example, ] is preferred over the more common, but less accurate ]. | |||
| For instance, a political controversy in the United States was nicknamed "Attorneygate" by critics of the government, but the article title is the more neutrally worded ]. Another example is that the term ''allegation'' should be avoided in a title unless the article concerns charges in a legal case or accusations of illegality under civil, criminal or international law which have not yet been proven in a court of law. See ] for further advice on potentially controversial terminology. | |||
| ==Explicit conventions== | |||
| Misplaced Pages has many naming conventions relating to specific subject domains (as listed in the box at the top of this page). Occasionally, these may recommend the use of titles that are not strictly the common name (as in the case of the conventions for ] and ]). This practice of using specialized names is often controversial, and should not be adopted unless it produces clear benefits outweighing the use of common names; when it is, the article titles adopted should follow a neutral and common convention specific to that subject domain, and otherwise adhere to the general principles for titling articles on Misplaced Pages. | |||
| == Considering title changes == | |||
| In discussing the appropriate title of an article, remember that the choice of title is not dependent on whether a name is "right" in a moral or political sense. Nor does the use of a name in the title of one article require that all related articles use the same name in their titles; there is often some reason, such as anachronism, for inconsistencies in common usage. For example, Misplaced Pages has articles on both ] and the ]. | |||
| Editing for the sole purpose of changing one controversial title to another is strongly discouraged. If an article title has been stable for a long time, and there is no good reason to change it, it should not be changed. If it has never been stable, or unstable for a long time, and no consensus can be reached on what the title should be, default to the title used by the first major contributor after the article ceased to be a ].<ref>This paragraph was adopted to stop move warring. It is an adaptation of the wording in the ] which is based on the Arbitration Committee's decision in the ].</ref> | |||
| Any potentially controversial proposal to change a title should be advertised at ], and consensus reached before any change is made. Debating controversial titles is often unproductive, and there are many other ways to help ]. | |||
| While titles for articles are subject to consensus, do not invent names as a means of compromising between opposing points of view. Misplaced Pages describes current usage but cannot prescribe a particular usage or invent new names. | |||
| ==Treatment of alternative names== | |||
| An article can only have one title. When this title is a name, significant alternative names for the topic should be mentioned in the article, usually in the first sentence or paragraph (see ]). These may include alternative spellings, longer or shorter forms, historical names, significant names in other languages, etc. There is also no reason why alternative names cannot be used in article text, in contexts where they are more appropriate than the name used as the title of the article. For example, the city now called ] is referred to as ] in historical contexts to which that name is more suited (e.g. when it was part of Germany or a Free City). | |||
| All significant alternative titles, names or forms of names that apply to a specific article should be made to ] to that article. If they are ambiguous, it should be ensured that the article can at least be reached from a disambiguation page for the alternative term. Note that the exact capitalization of the article's title does not affect Misplaced Pages ], so it is not necessary to create redirects from alternative capitalizations unless these are likely to be used in links; see ]. | |||
| ] are often used in article text to allow a subject with a lengthy article title to be referred to using a more concise term where this does not produce ambiguity. | |||
| == Article title format == | |||
| {{anchor|Name construction}} | |||
| {{policy shortcut|WP:ADJECTIVE|WP:LOWERCASE|WP:SINGULAR|WP:VERB}}<!-- there may be more pre-existing links to #Name construction, template takes up to 5 --> | |||
| {{further|see the naming guidelines on ], ], ], and definite and indefinite ].}} | |||
| * '''Use lower case, except for proper names:''' The initial letter of a title is almost always capitalized; subsequent words in a title are not, unless they are part of a proper name, and so would be capitalized in running text; when this is done, the title will be simple to link to in other articles: ''] offers more graduate work than a typical ].'' For initial lower case letters, as in ], see the ] page. See also the special rules on capitalization in ]. | |||
| * '''Use the singular form:''' Article titles are generally singular in form, e.g. ] not ]. Exceptions include nouns that are always in a plural form in English (e.g. ] or ]) and the names of ] of objects (e.g. ] or ]). | |||
| * '''Avoid abbreviations:''' Abbreviations and acronyms are generally avoided unless the subject is almost exclusively known by its abbreviation (e.g. ] and ]). The abbreviation ''UK'', for United Kingdom, is acceptable for use in disambiguation. | |||
| * '''Avoid definite and indefinite articles:''' Do not place definite or indefinite articles (''the'', ''a'' and ''an'') at the beginning of titles unless they are part of a proper name (e.g. '']'') or otherwise change the meaning (e.g. ]). | |||
| * '''Use nouns:''' Titles should be nouns or noun phrases. Adjective and verb forms (e.g. ], ]) should redirect to articles titled with the corresponding noun (], ]), although sometimes they will be disambiguation pages, as at ]. Sometimes the noun corresponding to a verb will be the ] (''-ing'' form), as in ]. | |||
| * '''Do not enclose titles in quotes:''' Article titles which are quotes (or song titles, etc.) are not enclosed in quotation marks (e.g. '']'' is the article while ] is a redirect to that article). | |||
| *{{anchor|Subsidiary articles}} '''Do not use titles suggesting that one article forms part of another.''' Even if an article is considered subsidiary to another (as where ] is used), it should be named independently. For example, an article on transportation in Azerbaijan should not be given a name like "Azerbaijan/Transport" or "Azerbaijan (transport)" – use ]. (This does not always apply in non-article ]: see ].) | |||
| ==Special characters and formatting== | |||
| {{See|Misplaced Pages:Naming conventions (technical restrictions)}} | |||
| There are technical restrictions on the use of certain characters in page titles. The characters <tt>#, <, >, , |, {, and }</tt> ] at all and there are certain restrictions on titles containing ], ] and some other characters. Technically all other Unicode characters can be used in page titles. However the following should be noted: | |||
| * '''Provide redirects to non-keyboard characters:''' If use of ]s (accent marks) is in accordance with the ], or other characters not present on standard keyboards are used, such as ], provide a redirect from the equivalent title using standard English-language keyboard characters. | |||
| * '''Avoid accent-/quote-like characters:''' Accent-like and/or quote-like characters (e.g. {{unicode|ʻ, ʾ, ʿ, ᾿, ῾, ‘, “, ’, ”}}, <sup>c</sup>, ] combined with a "space" character) should be avoided in page names. A common exception is the ] ' (e.g. ]), which should, however, be used sparingly (e.g. ] instead of ''Shi'a''). | |||
| * '''Do not use non-language characters:''' Non-language characters such as "♥", as sometimes found in advertisements or logos, should never be used in titles. | |||
| * '''Consider browser support:''' If there is a reasonable alternative, avoid symbols which are so rare that many browsers will not render them. For example, the article on ] carries that title rather than the symbol itself, which many readers would see as just a square box. | |||
| * '''Do not apply formatting:''' Formatting, such as italics or bolding, is technically achievable in page titles, but is used only in special cases. An example of such an exception is to produce italics for ] of genera and species. (See ].) | |||
| ==Titles containing "and"== | |||
| Sometimes two or more closely related or complementary concepts are most sensibly covered by a single article. Where possible, use a title covering all cases: for example, ] covers the concepts "big-endian" and "little-endian". Where no reasonable overarching title is available, construct an article title using "and", as in ]; ]; ]; and ]. (The individual terms – such as ] – should redirect to the combined page, or be linked there via a disambiguation page or hatnote if they have other meanings.) | |||
| If there is no obvious ordering, place the more commonly encountered concept first, or if that is not applicable, use alphabetical order. Alternative titles using reverse ordering (such as ]) should be redirects. | |||
| Avoid use of "and" in ways that appear biased. For example, use ], not "Islam and terrorism". | |||
| ==Proposed naming conventions and guidelines== | |||
| {{Main|Misplaced Pages:Policies and guidelines}} | |||
| Proposals for new naming conventions and guidelines should be advertised on ], at ], the ] and any related pages. If a strong ] has formed, the proposal is adopted and should be listed on this page. | |||
| New naming conventions for specific categories of articles often arise from ]s. For a list of current and former proposals, see ]. | |||
| ==See also== | |||
| *] (essay) | |||
| *] | |||
| *] | |||
| ==Notes== | |||
| {{reflist}} | |||
| {{Misplaced Pages policies and guidelines}} | |||
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Revision as of 13:57, 12 March 2010
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