WikiQueer:Basic copyediting

The discovery of pages in need of editing may surprise new visitors to WikiQueer. This is the "encyclopedia that anyone can edit", and they do! This challenge is addressed via the ongoing process of proofreading, copyediting, fact checking, and rewriting by the community of WikiQueer users. Here are some quick and easy ways to improve WikiQueer pages:

Common edits

 * Words defined, described, or referenced as words should be italicized. Example: The term style also refers to the layout of an article.
 * Headings should generally be noun phrases (History of...), and not prepositional phrases (About the history of ...).
 * Correct WikiQueer headings begin with a single capital letter, i.e. they use sentence case. The only other capital letters in headings are in proper nouns and acronyms: Differences in defining art, Critical response, Landscape architecture and urban planning in the United Kingdom, UNESCO.
 * Titles of works of art, literature, etc., should be italicized rather than in quotation marks, e.g., Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. Notable exceptions are song titles or brief poems, e.g., "Can't Buy Me Love" or "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening". Italics are required, though, for a song cycle such as Winterreise or the title of a longer poem such as Four Quartets. Individual episode titles of television series need quotation marks, while the series name itself is italicized: "Welcome to the Hellmouth" is the premiere episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
 * Confusing its and it's is a common mistake. It's, a contraction of it is or it has, should not be used unless it occurs in a quotation, as with other contracted forms (see the previous rule). Its, the possessive form of the pronoun it, should be used in the same way as the possessive pronouns my, his, her, our, etc.
 * There are no exceptions to this distinction—it's must never be used to denote possession. For example, "The dog wagged it's tail" is incorrect; the correct usage is "... its tail".
 * Likewise, confusing there, their, and they're is a common mistake. There is an adverb, interjection, noun, adjective, and nominative/accusative pronoun denoting place or situation. Their is a possessive pronoun, just like its above. They're is the contracted form of they are.
 * Except at the end of a sentence, location constructions such as Vilnius, Lithuania, call for a comma after the second element. (Example: He was born in Vilnius, Lithuania, after the country had gained independence.) Similarly, the month day, year, style of writing dates punctuates after the year, which is parenthetical; unless some other punctuation is warranted (as a period at the end of the sentence), use a comma. (Example: On September 15, 1947, she began her first year at Harvard.)
 * External links generally belong at the end of an article, under the heading External links or Further reading. References are an exception and should match the link in the reference section; these are then handled automatically.
 * With a few exceptions, terms regarded as excessively formal should be eliminated. Words and phrases such as due to the fact that and utilize are unnecessary in an encyclopedia; instead, use because and use, respectively. Exceptions arise primarily from geographically based  usage variations.  If you are unsure about an incidence of a word in question, just leave it, as someone will undoubtedly come along and fix it if it is incorrect.
 * Vague terms of size, such as a number of and a vast majority of, are usually redundant; consider several and most as alternatives, or request/insert specific numbers.
 * Check articles for unnecessary words and redundant phrases. Vigorous, effective writing is clear and concise. See Plain English.
 * Decade names should not include an apostrophe before the s: She was born in the 1980s. An apostrophe denotes possessive form: 1980's commencement address was exceptional (Better: The commencement address of 1980 was exceptional). If referring to a decade without its century, add an apostrophe in its place: She was born some time in the '80s.
 * See also notices should be in a section titled "See also" if relevant to most of the article. For notices specific to a particular section, use one of  these hatnotes.
 * The wording, spelling, and punctuation of literal quotations should not be changed. However, obvious errors in the original can be marked with "[sic]". Legitimate insertions and omissions are acceptable if marked by square brackets and ellipses, respectively. See WQ:MOSQUOTE for details.
 * Items in a list should have no blank lines between the bullet points: blank lines force the MediaWiki software to treat each new bullet point as a separate list. Instead, new list items should be on the very next line, with no gap.

Edit summaries
When you make a copy edit, leave a note in the Edit summary field detailing your changes. Summary notes for copy edits should be concise, and ought to mention whether the edit is a correction or an enhancement. Spelling and grammar corrections generally count as minor edits, which you can denote by checking the box labeled "This is a minor edit"; stylistic corrections are generally major and call for written summaries.

Some examples of acceptable edit summaries:


 * copy edit: Fact-checked names of ships
 * copy edit: Reworded introductory paragraph for clarity
 * copy edit: Reworked history section for encyclopedic style

Generally speaking, detailed information in edit summaries is not necessary. If they are curious, users can always consult an article's history (see the history tab at the top of the article) and compare all of the differences between edits since the article first appeared.

Always avoid uncivil edit summaries; it is not helpful or necessary to comment on the previous editor's language skills. If you are doing a follow-up copy edit, it is usually best to stay silent about previous copy edits; instead, you may want to refer to your work as follow-up edits or additional improvements.

Copy edit is sometimes abbreviated in edit summaries as: copyedit, cpyed, ced, c/e or ce.

For other common edit summary abbreviations, see WikiQueer:Edit summary legend.

Spelling
Please correct spelling mistakes and typos; correcting them contributes greatly to the quality of WikiQueer. You are free to use spell-checking software; however, please remember that no spell-checker is completely accurate. Also, be extremely careful when editing pages written in languages in which you are not fluent.

When there is no strong national or regional relationship to a topic, WikiQueer has no preference for American, British, or any other variety of English. Generally, an article about a certain English-speaking region or place should be written in the form of English used there. It is important, however, for usage to remain consistent within an article. See WikiQueer:Manual of Style for guidelines. Make sure to review the entire article before deciding that an author has mistakenly written flavour, colour, centre or defence (or flavor, color, center, or defense). Again, check for consistency within an article. As always, when in doubt, look it up!

Also, please check the talk page. Some talk pages may have banners that indicate which spelling is used throughout the article. If not, please consider putting one of the four main spelling banners at the header of the talk page:
 * American English
 * Australian English
 * British English
 * Canadian English

Technical and stylistic questions
If you have a question about English grammar, punctuation, or style, you may wish to seek advice at WikiQueer:Reference desk/Language or WikiQueer talk:WikiProject Grammar.

Related templates

 * copyedit
 * copyedit-section
 * inappropriate tone

More advice

 * WikiQueer:Article development
 * WikiQueer:Manual of Style
 * WikiQueer:Policies and guidelines
 * WikiQueer:Writing better articles
 * WikiQueer:Peer review/volunteers
 * WikiQueer:WikiProject Guild of Copy Editors