Evangelion Wiki:Manual of Style

The Manual of Style is a set of rigorous standards that should be followed when editing articles, adding images, and manipulating content.

Headers
All headers should be in lowercase, except for the first letter and the first letters of pronouns. For example, All about Evangelions would be acceptable, whereas All About The Characters would not.

Content
When possible, use terms which apply to the Evangelion universe. For example, Tokyo-3 instead of Tokyo 3 or the third Tokyo.

Genders and capitalization
All characters are considered to have a gender (Shinji is a he, Misato is a she). However, all Angels should be referred to neutrally (it, they</tt>), with the exception of Tabris (Kaworu Nagisa) who should be referred to as he</tt>. Evangelions should be referred to the same way; when referring to either the Evangelion or its soul, it should be referred to only as it</tt>.

Evangelions
When referring to any Evangelion unit in the longhand, it should be referred to as Evangelion Unit-XX</tt>, with a few exceptions:
 * Evangelion Provisional Unit-05</tt>.
 * Evangelion Mark.06</tt>.
 * Evangelion Mark.09</tt>.
 * Evangelion 13</tt>.
 * Mass Production Evangelion(s)</tt>.
 * Evangelion Unit-α</tt>.
 * Evangelion Type β</tt>.

In shorthand, most Evangelion names can be written as Unit-XX</tt>. Additionally, the word "Evangelion" can be shortened to "Eva" in some cases. For the respective units above, their shorthand notations would be:
 * Unit-05</tt>.
 * Mark.06</tt>.
 * Mark.09</tt>.
 * Evangelion 13</tt> or <tt class='fancy good'>Eva 13</tt>.
 * <tt class='fancy good'>MP Evangelion(s)</tt> or <tt class='fancy good'>MP Eva(s)</tt>.
 * <tt class='fancy good'>Unit Alpha</tt> or <tt class='fancy good'>Unit-α</tt>.
 * <tt class='fancy good'>Unit Beta</tt> or <tt class='fancy good'>Type β</tt>.

The shorthand forms <tt class='fancy bad'>Unit XX</tt> and <tt class='fancy bad'>Eva-XX</tt> should be used only when they are found this way in translations of official material.

Companies and corporations
Some companies, by convention, must be capitalized. It should be noted, however, that some of these are *not* acronyms. The correct and incorrect spelling are listed below:
 * <tt class='fancy good'>NERV</tt>, not <tt class='fancy bad'>Nerv</tt>.
 * <tt class='fancy good'>SEELE</tt>, not <tt class='fancy bad'>Seele</tt>.
 * <tt class='fancy good'>WILLE</tt>, not <tt class='fancy bad'>Wille</tt>.
 * <tt class='fancy good'>Gehirn</tt>, not <tt class='fancy bad'>GEHIRN</tt>.
 * <tt class='fancy good'>UN</tt> or <tt class='fancy good'>United Nations</tt> (both are common).
 * <tt class='fancy good'>IPEA</tt>.
 * <tt class='fancy good'>JSSDF</tt>.

Templates
Pages should always have their templates in this order:
 * icon (icon template) first, if applicable.
 * Maintenance templates, such as suite, next.
 * Infobox templates (one or more from the infobox category), next.
 * q (quote template) next, if applicable.
 * Page content should follow.
 * If the page is a stub, stub should be next.
 * Lastly, any navigation templates, such as Evangelion List, should be last, but before categories.

Any sec-stub templates should be at the foot of their section.

Punctuation
Quotes should contain all text that pertains to them, including punctuation. However, if a quote does not include that punctuation, it should remain outside of the quotations. Additionally, quotation marks should only be the character <tt class='fancy good highlight'>"</tt>, not <tt class='fancy bad highlight'>'</tt> (unless within other quotes), or any stylized quotation marks.
 * Acceptable: <tt class='fancy good'>Someone once said: "I love potato chips . "</tt>
 * Acceptable: <tt class='fancy good'>The last word he heard was "hello" . </tt>
 * Unacceptable: <tt class='fancy bad'>Someone once said: "I love potato chips" . </tt>
 * Unacceptable: <tt class='fancy bad'>The last word he heard was "hello . "</tt>

In lists containing more than two items, the final "and" should be preceded a comma, as in <tt class='fancy good'>Potato chips, broccoli, and fries</tt>.

The em dash <tt class='fancy good highlight'>—</tt> should be used for splitting statements, as in <tt class='fancy good'>There were seven houses—but none was unlocked</tt>. The use of hyphens (even double hyphens) or en dashes in this context is not permitted. Additionally, it should not be surrounded by spaces.

In image thumbnails and galleries, captions should not end with a period (<tt class='fancy bad'>.</tt>).

Titles
Episode names should be wrapped in quotes, such as <tt class='fancy good'>Episode 10, "Magma Diver", is ...</tt>. This also applies to song names.

Any names of series, albums, or movies should be italicized, such as <tt class='fancy good'>The Rebuild of Evangelion series starts with Evangelion 1.0: You Are (Not) Alone</tt>.

Markup
Formatting that applies to a link should always be outside of it, unless the formatting applies only to a part of it. For example, <tt class='good'> Neon Genesis Evangelion </tt> and <tt class='good'> Neon Genesis Evangelion franchise </tt>, but not <tt class='bad'> Neon Genesis Evangelion </tt>.

Numbers
Dates should be formatted as <tt class='fancy good'>Month Day, Year</tt>, such as <tt class='fancy good'>September 08, 2005</tt>. Using abbreviated months, such as <tt class='fancy good'>Sep</tt> or <tt class='fancy good'>Sept</tt>, is often preferred.

Currencies can be presented in yen or USD. However, providing both currencies (at the relevant conversion rate) is ideal.

Citation
Citations should be from reputable sources; fansites often contain incorrect or false information, and cannot be relied upon. Translations of sources which are not available in English are allowed if they are accurate and direct translations of the original source. The original, official or reputable source must also be cited in the reference tags.

Websites do not have to be cited if the information is general knowledge among those who follow the series (e.g., we do not need to cite "Ireul is an angel"). Any specific citations for episodes, however, need not be included, as they are mostly considered common knowledge. In the unlikely event that an episode, movie, or chapter should need to be included, simply a reference with a link to that page will suffice (such as <tt class='good'> </tt>).

Other notes on citing sources can be found.

Categories
Categories should be provided for all pages and images. If a page is a category's base (such as Rebuild of Evangelion in Category:Rebuild of Evangelion), <tt class='good highlight'>| </tt> should be added to the category, such as <tt class='good'>   </tt>.

Categories should all be categories, but pages and categories should never fall within a category which is a subset of it. For example, Category:Technology is within Category:Science, not the other way around.

Common categories for pages

 * Category:Neon Genesis Evangelion - For content which appears in the Neon Genesis Evangelion anime series.
 * Category:Rebuild of Evangelion - For content which appears in the Rebuild of Evangelion movie series.
 * Category:Manga - For content which is from any manga series.
 * Category:Characters - For any character in the series.
 * Category:Evangelion pilots - For any character who is a pilot or has piloted an Evangelion unit.
 * Category:Evangelions - For any Evangelion, even those which are also in other categories.
 * Category:Angels - For any Angel, even those which are also in other categories.

Common categories for images

 * Category:Album covers, Category:Manga covers, Category:Game covers - For cover images from albums, manga, and games.
 * Category:Artwork - For images which are considered artwork; that is, not screenshots, manga scans, or covers.
 * Category:Screenshots - For images which are screenshots or snaps directly from episodes or other media.
 * Category:Neon Genesis Evangelion - For screenshots from, or content exclusive to, the Neon Genesis Evangelion anime series.
 * Category:Rebuild of Evangelion - For screenshots from, or content exclusive to, the Rebuild of Evangelion movie series.
 * Category:Manga - For scans or promotional images from any manga series.
 * Category:Characters - For images which feature or represent a character. Covers are exempt from this.
 * Category:Evangelion pilots - For images which feature or represent a character's specific pilot qualities. (Plug suits, sitting within an Eva, etc.) Covers are exempt from this.
 * Category:Evangelions - For images which feature or represent an Evangelion unit. Covers are exempt from this.
 * Category:Angels - For images which feature or represent an Angel. Covers are exempt from this. (Note that Bardiel and Tabris fall within this category as well as others.)

Other categories
A list of all categories is available; for usage examples, click each one to find its contents. Some categories, such as Category:Article with section stubs‏‎, should never be inserted into an article, as the stub template will add it automatically.