Wikipedia:Technical terms and definitions: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 01:47, 19 August 2009

Revision as of 01:50, 19 August 2009

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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'' (edited as <ttcode><nowiki>''</nowiki>italic<nowiki>''</nowiki></ttcode>) is used for:

*Words, other than [[loan word]]s, of foreign languages: ''hidari'' (Jp: "left"); but not "gauche" (Fr: "left"), an established loan word in English.

*Binomial names of organisms (''Genus species''), which are considered Latin, even if newly coined. (The initial letter of a genus is always capitalized, but never that of a species.) 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".

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*Words as words: ''Deuce'' means ''two''. 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''' (edited as <ttcode><nowiki>'''</nowiki>bold<nowiki>'''</nowiki></ttcode>); used for:

*First use of the article name, near the front of the [[MOS:INTRO|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 [[electric charge|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''''' (edited as <ttcode><nowiki>'''''</nowiki>bold italic<nowiki>'''''</nowiki></ttcode>); used for:

*First time introduction of a technical term if the term is 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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When a vast amount of jargon appears in an article, you might consider bundling all terms and their definitions within a list. When you do so, do use the appropriate definition list markup:

Instead of

<blockquote><code><nowiki>*'''term''': definition</nowiki></code></blockquote>

use

<blockquote><code><nowiki>; term : definition</nowiki></code></blockquote>

Wikipedia uses "double quotation marks" (and for quotations within quotations, 'single quoations marks'), regardless of [[WP:ENGVAR|English-language variant]]. “Curly quotes” are not used in articles. See the [[Wikipedia:Manual of Style#Quotation marks|"Quotation marks" subsection of the Manual of Style]] for more information.