Wikipedia:Technical terms and definitions: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 06:27, 29 October 2005

Revision as of 03:29, 4 December 2005

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There are three basic markups used to make technical terms stand out; these are ''italic'' (also termed ''oblique'' with [[sans-serif]] fonts), '''bold''', and '''''bold italic'''''. The following uses of these styles are recommended for technical articles:

''Italic'' (<nowiki>renderededited as <nowiki>''</nowiki><tt>italic</tt><nowiki>''</nowiki>); used for:

*Binomial names of organisms (''Genus species'') are always <i>italicized</i>; the genus name is first-letter capitalized, the species name is not. Higher taxonomic levels are not italicized. When both the classification term and its name form a unified title, they are both first-letter capitalized: "Family Poaceae"; when they do not form a title, only the name is capitalized: "the family Poaceae".

*Foreign language words that are not generally used in English: ''hidari'' (Jp: "left"); but not the word gauche (from Fr: "left"), since this is an established word in English.

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*See also: [[Wikipedia:Manual of Style]], subsections '''Caption style''' and '''Style for words as words''' and [[Wikipedia:Cite your sources]] for other uses of italicised or oblique text.

'''Bold''' (<nowiki>renderededited as <nowiki>'''</nowiki><tt>bold</tt><nowiki>'''</nowiki>); used for:

*First use of the article name, near the front of the introduction sentence.

*Definitions that are important aspects discussed by the article, but have not been elevated to the level of subtitle and do not pass the "rare technical term" test. Example (from [[Current (electricity)]]):

::In [[electricity]], '''current''' is any flow of [[charge]], usually through a metal wire or some other electrical [[conductor (material)|conductor]]. '''Conventional current''' was defined early in the history of electrical science as a flow of positive charge, although we now know that, in the case of metallic conduction…..

'''''Bold italic''''' (<nowiki>renderededited as <nowiki>'''''</nowiki><tt>bold italic</tt><nowiki>'''''</nowiki>); used for:

*First time introduction of a technical term. This should be part of a definition sentence or immediately followed by a non-technical substitute in parentheses. Example (from [[Fern]]):

::A fern is defined as a [[vascular plant]] that reproduces by shedding [[spores]] to initiate an [[alternation of generations]]. New fronds arise by '''''[[Vernation|circinate vernation]]''''' (unrolling leaf formation).

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As in the fern example above, any of the three styles described above could be turned into a link if there exists a more detailed or better explanation of the technical term in a separate article. It may not be necessary then to define the term in the article if a link leads to a definition. However, to aid the reader in continuing with the text without having to leave an article for other details, it might still be appropriate to include a non-technical substitute in parentheses, as in the fern example above.

A number ofSome other markups are possibleavailable tobut distinguish words in textrisky. Examples are <tt>teletype</tt> (renderededited byas <tt>&lt;tt&gt; and teletype&lt;/tt&gt;</tt>), <u>underline</u> (renderededited byas <tt>&lt;u&gt; and underline&lt;/u&gt;</tt>), and ''italicsitalic'' (edited as rendered by <tt>&lt;i&gt; and italic&lt;/i&gt;</tt> or <tt>&lt;cite&gt; and italic&lt;/cite&gt;), and quotation marks ("...."</tt>). TheBut the teletype (monospace) tag does not usually produce text sufficiently different from the standard Wikipedia font to be useful. Use of; the underline tag can create confusion with links.; and Thethe HTML tags &lt;i&gt; and &lt;cite&gt; are not differentiated by most common browsers. The Wikipedia italic, described above and theedited Wikipediaas <nowiki>''italicised word</nowiki><tt>italic</tt><nowiki>''</nowiki> should be used. See also [[Wikipedia:Manual of Style]], subsectionis '''Punctuation'''preferably forto use of quotation marks.the

HTML tags &lt;i&gt; and &lt;cite&gt;.

The markup "double-quoted" (edited as <tt>"double-quoted"</tt>) is not risky, but see the [[Wikipedia:Manual of Style]], subsection '''Punctuation''' for use of quotation marks.

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