Editing SMO.wiki:Editing guidelines

This page contains some guidelines to help your articles appear more professional and match our wiki's standards. It should be noted that these are only guidelines, and most of them will have exceptions.

== Grammar ==
Good grammar is important to ensure wiki articles sound professional.
* Any forms of the pronoun "you" should be avoided on most pages. Instead, use phrases such as "the player", "Mario", or the pronoun "one" or "they".
* Some words such as "get" or "do" might strike the reader as too informal, so consider alternative words like "obtain" or "perform" instead.
* Ensure that your writing otherwise uses proper spelling, grammar, and capitalization. If you're unsure, use a program like [https://www.grammarly.com/ Grammarly] to check.
* American English spelling should be used. Most notably, this means using a single L in words such as "canceling", "canceled", "traveling", and "traveled", and writing "color" instead of "colour".

==Capitalization==
In addition to the capitalization rules of standard English, there are a few nuances to keep in mind when it comes to the titles of Super Mario Odyssey game objects, mechanics, and strategies.

Terms coined by the community are generally considered proper nouns if:
* they refer to a strategy or phenomena that occurs in one or two specific places, such as [[Dram Strat]] or [[Letter Escape]].
* they are generally used without an article such as "a" or "the" by the community. The exception to this is tricks that are phrased as a [[wikipedia:Gerund|gerund]] or similar ordinary form of speech, such as [[nut jumping]] or [[coin duplication]].

Terms coined by the community are generally considered improper nouns if:
* they are something that can occur in a variety of locations or for many different applications, such as [[Triple jump|triple jumps]], [[Moon clip|moon clips]], or [[Loading error|loading errors]].
* they are generally used with an article such as "a" or "the", such as the [[suckage glitch]].

Official terms used by the game itself will follow their own capitalization rules in the game or other official resources, which is often not consistent with the guidelines for community-coined terms.
* A generally reliable way to check the capitalization of an in-game term is to search for the relevant article on the [https://www.mariowiki.com/ Super Mario Wiki].
* If a community-coined term contains an official term that is a proper noun, the official term should always be capitalized within the name even if the community-coined term is an improper noun, such as in the terms [[Cappy return cancel]] and [[Rocket Flower refresh]].

==Page creation==
When creating a page, it is important to consider whether the subject is deserving of its own page, or if it would be better suited as a section of an article on a broader topic instead. Here are some things to consider:
* Does the subject have an official name in the game or a generally accepted name in the community? If it doesn't, not only may it be too obscure to merit its own page, but it might require coining a term on the spot, which is generally undesirable.
* How much content can be meaningfully written about the subject? If the article seems like it may end up as a [[:Category:Article stubs|stub]], consider incorporating the information into another page.
* Refer to the capitalization guidelines above when selecting an article title, as well as considering the spacing used by the majority of the community (such as when deciding between "dive vault" and "divevault"). Note that the first letter of an article title will always be uppercase, regardless of how it is capitalized in regular speech, due to technical limitations.

==Sections==
One should generally attempt to keep section names consistent across similar articles. Some common section names used on this wiki include:
* '''Explanation''' – provides a more in-depth explanation of a trick than is possible in the intro paragraph.
* '''Execution''' – describes the exact steps required to perform a trick or glitch.
* '''Methods''' – lists various possible methods of performing a trick. Generally used as a replacement for Execution rather than alongside it; if both should coexist, Variants should be used instead of Methods.
* '''Variants''' – lists additional, less common methods of performing a trick beyond the main one found in the Execution section.
* '''Uses''' – lists various applications of a trick or glitch.
* '''Speedrun usage''' – lists the applications of the trick or glitch to various speedruns, often with each speedrun or group of speedruns listed as a subheading. Generally used as a replacement for Uses rather than alongside it; if the Uses section already exists, consider listing speedruns as subheadings of that instead.

[[Category:Policies]]