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This Manual of Style has the simple purpose of making things look alike — it is a style guide. The following rules do not claim to be the last word. One way is often as good as another, but if everyone does it the same way, the Misplaced Pages will be easier to read and easier to use, not to mention easier to write and easier to edit.

New contributors are reminded that clear, informative and unbiased writing is always more important than presentation and formatting. Writers are not expected or required to follow all or any these rules: the joy of wiki editing is that perfection is not required.

Dates and times

Years, decades, centuries

A page title that is just a number is always a year. Pages also exist for days of the year, decades, centuries and even millennia. The formats for references to years are:

• 474
  • ]
• 474 BC (note no periods) or 474 BCE
  • ] or ]
• 18th century (Note century is not capitalized. Note also that "1700s" is not a century, but a decade as illustrated below.)
  • ]
• 10th century BC or 10th century BCE
  • ] or ]
• 1830s (note no apostrophe)
  • ]
• December 1983 (note that December is not linked)
  • December ]
• 320s BC or 320s BCE
  • ] or ]

Articles for the year 500 BC and earlier should be redirected to the relevant decade. Articles for the year 1700 BC and earlier should be redirected to the relevant century. Articles for the year 4000 BC and earlier should be redirected to the relevant millennium.

Note that the 1st century BC was from 100 BC–1 BC (there was no year 0) so 1700 BC would be the first year of the 17th century BC, 1800 BC would be the first year of the 18th century BC, etc. Similarly, 4000 BC was the first year of the 4th millennium BC, not the last year of the 5th millennium BC.

When only an approximate date is available the abbrieviation "c." (circa) may be used; see the example at Rameses III below. When a date is uncertain because of unreliable sources that should also be noted, ideally with a reference to the source. For example, "according to Livy, the Roman Republic was founded in 509 BC", or "The Mahabharata is traditionally said to have been composed in 1316 BCE".

Eras

Both the BCE/CE era names and the BC/AD era names are acceptable, but be consistent within an article. Normally you should use plain numbers for years in the Common Era, but when events span the start of the Common Era, use AD or CE for the date at the end of the range (note that AD precedes the date and CE follows it). For example, ]–] or ]–].

In articles about prehistory, use BP (before present) or MYA (million years ago).

Dates

Dates should be wikified so that each reader sees the dates formatted according to their own preference. You should use one of the following formats:

Importantly, if a date is to be recognised by the software, it must be "wikified", as shown above. An unlinked date such as "February 11, 1958" will not be converted. To create a date which is linked but not converted, use a link with alternate text, for example "]".

Note that using the date formatting feature in section headers complicates section linking, see date formatting.

In article titles dates will not be converted. It is generally preferable to use the format used by local English speakers at the location of the event. For events within Europe and Oceania, that is usually 11 February 2004 (no comma). For the United States it is usually February 11, 2004 (with comma). Redirects for the other common forms should always be created.

Incorrect date formats

What not to do:

• Do not use numbers to express a month, except in full ISO 8601 format, which always includes the year. Always express a month as a whole word (for example, "February") to avoid ambiguity. Please note that in the ISO 8601 format, a leading zero is always added to single-digit months and days.
• Do not link two digits to express a year unless discussing the years from AD 10 to AD 99. Misplaced Pages deals with all of history, not just the last hundred years, so always use four digits for years and decades after AD 999. Using the less formal two-digit form for a decade within an article is acceptable when it does not create an ambiguity. For example, when referring to the decade of the 20th century known as the eighties, use ] or ], not just ].
• Do not use ordinal suffixes:
  • Incorrect: February 14th
  • Correct: Februrary 14
  • Incorrect: 14th February
  • Correct: 14 February
• In general, avoid using multiple date formats in the same article.
• Do not put a comma or the word of between a month and year:
  • Incorrect: December, 1945
  • Incorrect: December of 1945
  • Correct: December 1945

Note, however, that the content of a direct quotation — i.e., the word-for-word reproduction of a written or oral utterance — should not be altered to conform to the Misplaced Pages "Manual of Style". In other words, a paragraph like the (fictional) one below is fine:

• Tony Blair, responding to critics within his party, said "The world has totally changed since the 11th of September." He was echoing earlier sentiments by Lord Ronald McDonald, who said that "nine-eleven was the day that the American public woke up to the reality of terrorism."

Dates of birth and death

• Charles Darwin (12 February 1809 – 19 April 1882)
• Socrates (470–399 BC)
  • When only the years are known.
• Serena Williams (born September 26, 1981)
  • For a person still living at the time the article was written.
  • Notice that the form is NOT "(September 26, 1981–)"
• Offa (died 26 July 796)
  • When the date of birth is unknown.
• Genghis Khan (c. 1162–August 18, 1227)
  • When the date of birth is known approximately.
• Dionysius Exiguus (c. 470–c. 540)
  • When dates of birth and death are known approximately.
• Rameses III (reigned c. 1180–c. 1150 BC)
  • When only the dates of the reign are known and only approximately.

Note the use of "c." rather than "circa", "ca." or a question mark.

Ranges of dates are given with a spaced or unspaced hyphen or en-dash (–). See Misplaced Pages:Manual of Style (dashes).

Calendars

You can give dates in any appropriate calendar, as long as you also give the date in either the Julian or Gregorian calendar, as described below. For example, an article on the early history of Islam may give dates in both the Islamic calendar and the Julian calendar.

• Current events should be given in the Gregorian calendar.
• Dates before the adoption of the Gregorian calendar on 1582-10-15 must be given in the Julian calendar and not converted.
• Dates of events in countries using the Gregorian calendar should be given in the Gregorian calendar. This includes much of Europe from 1582, the British Empire from 1752-09-14, Russia from 1918-02-14, and so on (see the Gregorian calendar article).

Other dates are ambiguous. Your options for this period are:

• Give the dates in the Julian calendar only. This means that the dates will match the dates in the primary sources for that period. If you do this you should indicate that the dates are in the Julian calendar.
• Convert the dates to the Gregorian calendar. This means that events in different countries can be correlated.
• Give dates in both calendars, for example, William Shakespeare died on 1616-04-23 (Old Style)/1616-05-03 (New Style).

At some places and times, dates other than 1 January were used as the start of the year. The most commonly encountered convention is the Annunication Style used in Britain and its colonies in which the year started on 25 March. See the New Year article for a list of other styles. You should always convert dates so that they correspond with years starting on 1 January. If it is important to preserve consistency with primary sources, you may give the date in the original style, but then you must also give the date in the modern style. For example, Elizabeth I of England died on 1602-03-24 (Old Style)/1603-04-03 (New Style).

Times

Times should be written in the 24-hour clock (HH:MM or HH:MM:SS). The 12-hour clock has a number of problems: it isn't used throughout the world; it often makes it harder to convert between different time zones; and "12:00 am" and "12:00 pm" are ambiguous.

Time zones

When writing a date, first consider where the event happened and use the time zone there. For example, the date of the Attack on Pearl Harbor should be December 7, 1941 (Hawaii time/date). If it is difficult to judge where, consider what is significant. For example, if some cracker in Japan hacked the Pentagon, use the time zone for the Pentagon.

If you know it, include the UTC date and time of the event in the article, indicating that it's UTC.

Style for numbers, weights, and measures

Very large numbers, such as pinball scores, should be divided up by commas every three places. (Note that this is different from SI notation where a thin space is used every three places.) In scientific contexts, scientific notation is preferred: see below.

A period "." should be used as the decimal point, separating the integer part from the fractional part.

The issue of whether all units should be metric (SI), Imperial, or American units is being debated at Misplaced Pages:Measurements Debate.

• In scientific contexts, such as physics and chemistry, use SI units. Unless there is an important historical or other reason to use one style over another, editors may choose whether to use Imperial or metric units. It may be helpful to readers to offer the Imperial and metric equivalents, but this should not be done if it reduces the flow of a sentence or otherwise interferes with the quality of the writing.
• If equivalents are given, these should be to the same level of precision as the original measurement, for example, "the moon is 250,000 miles (400,000 km) from Earth", not "402,336 km".
• If the quantity is always given in one form, you need not perform any conversion at all. For example, atmospheric ozone concentration is measured in Dobson units; there is no need to give a metric equivalent, but do link to the article on the unit once.

In text written out units are preferred ("two metres/meters" instead of "2 m"), otherwise use standard abbreviations or symbols for metric units without an added s in the plural — m for metre, kg for kilogram, etc. (see SI for the list) — and two-letter abbreviations for inch-pound units — in for inch (not "), ft for foot (not '), yd for yard (not yds), mi for mile, lb for pound (not lbs), gal for gallon, pt for pint, qt for quart, and so forth. Where possible, use the symbols with unit combinations, for example use ft/s rather than fps. The terms fluid ounce, pint, quart, gallon, barrel, and ton are ambiguous units, so they must be specified more precisely. You may assume that ounces and pounds are Avoirdupois unless otherwise indicated.

Measurements (both number and unit together) of dimensions with existing orders of magnitude pages should be linked to the appropriate page.

Speed should be given in m/s by default, but in km/h, mi/h, or mph when this is conventional (speed limits, etc.).

Areas of land should be given in km², which can be entered as km&sup2;. This form is preferable to km², which adds extra leading in some browsers. Smaller areas in m² etc. Volumes in m³, cm³ etc. Note that the compact superscript style works only for 1, 2 and 3 (unless you use numeric Unicode codes &8304; for superscript zero and &8308; to &8313; for superscript 4 to 9). This means that the <sup> style has to be used when general superscripts are required, as in the examples below.

When describing areas of agriculture, forests, parks, wilderness, etc., hectares are an acceptable (not mandatory) alternative to square kilometres.

The reader should see a space between the value and the unit symbol: "25 kg" and not "25kg". To ensure that the value and the unit symbol are displayed on the same line, editors should use a non-breaking space character rather than a standard space: type 25&nbsp;kg rather than 25 kg.

Examples

• The highest score recorded for the Deuces High pinball game was 11,933,750.
• The hippopotamus stands 1.5 m (5 ft) at the shoulders and weighs between 2,700 and 4,500 kg (425–710 st or 6,000–9,900 lb).
  • The ] stands ] (5&nbsp;ft) at the shoulders and weighs between ] (425&ndash;710&nbsp;st or 6,000&ndash;9,900&nbsp;lb).
• The first sub-four-minute mile was run by Roger Bannister.
• The 155 mm diameter projectile offers a wide range of options for battlefield usage.
• 10² = 100
  • 10&sup2; = 100
• A large number such as 156,234,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 can be concisely recorded as 1.56234×10, and a small number such as 0.0000000000234 can be written as 2.34×10.
  • A large number such as 156,234,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 can be concisely recorded as 1.56234&times;10²⁹, and a small number such as 0.0000000000234 can be written as 2.34&times;10^-11.

See orders of magnitude and the talk page there for ongoing, possibly resolved debate on which style of exponent notation to use for large numbers.

Number names

In a non-technical context, and with the exception of displaying tabulated data, per cent or percent should be written out in full rather than using the % symbol.

Numbers may be written as words or numerals. Editors should use a consistent guideline throughout an article. A number should not appear in both forms in the body (excluding tables and figures) of the same article.

Fractions standing alone should be spelled out unless in a percentage. If fractions are mixed with whole numbers, use numerals.

In different English dialects, billion may be 10, as in the U.S., or 10, as is traditional in Britain. Try to avoid these names altogether and instead use scientific notation, or at the very least explain your usage at its first occurrence in an article. The same problem arises with other numbers in the -illion family beyond the millions. See detailed discussion in English-language numerals, long scale, and short scale.

Natural number

Natural number has two meanings:

• positive integer
• non-negative integer (i.e. including zero)

Except where it does not matter which is chosen, explicitly use one of the above instead of natural numbers.

In Misplaced Pages, "natural number" unequivocally means "non-negative integer", as the natural number article explains. So if you link to the natural number article, it's clear what you mean.

Ranges

Sometimes numbers and dates are expressed in ranges, such as "4–7" for the numbers 4 through 7. Use an en dash for these when possible. See Misplaced Pages:Manual of Style (dashes) for more information.

Geographical coordinates

Geographical coordinates on Earth should be entered using a template. This standardizes the format. It also provides a link to a page with several links to maps of the coordinates, and is part of new way to handle geographic information in Misplaced Pages.

Depending on the accuracy of the coordinates, the template format is one of the following:

{{coor d|DD|N/S|DD|E/W|}}

{{coor dm|DD|MM|N/S|DD|MM|E/W|}}

{{coor dms|DD|MM|SS|N/S|DD|MM|SS|E/W|}}

Where:

• modes d, dm, or dms indicate just degrees, degrees/minutes, or degrees/minutes/seconds
• DD, MM, SS are the degrees, minutes, seconds listed one by one
• N/S is either N or S, depending on which hemisphere
• E/W is either E or W, depending on which hemisphere

Examples

For the city of Oslo, located at 59° 55′ N 10° 44′ E, enter:

{{coor dm|59|55|N|10|44|E|}}

which becomes 59°55′N 10°44′E / 59.917°N 10.733°E / 59.917; 10.733

For a country like Botswana, the d mode is more appropriate:

{{coor d|22|S|24|E|}}

Which becomes 22°S 24°E / 22°S 24°E / -22; 24

For higher accuracy, use the dms mode:

{{coor dms|33|56|24|N|118|24|00|W|}}

Which becomes 33°56′24″N 118°24′00″W / 33.94000°N 118.40000°W / 33.94000; -118.40000

Examples of articles using geographical coordinates:

• Airports: London Heathrow Airport
• Cities: Amsterdam
• Islands: Jan Mayen
• Mountains: Mount Baker

Decimal degrees, minutes, or seconds

• degrees can be specified with decimals, in d mode
• minutes can be specified with decimals, in dm mode
• seconds can be specified with decimals, in dms mode

An example:

{{coor d|12.0433|S|77.0283|W|}}

Which becomes 12°02′36″S 77°01′42″W / 12.0433°S 77.0283°W / -12.0433; -77.0283

Note that due to future enhancements in the functionality in this area, the above is subject to change. But as long as the above templates are adhered to, any necessary changes will be performed automatically.

For more information, see the geographical coordinates WikiProject.

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