Help:Style

Obviously, all contributions to HeroesWiki are welcome and appreciated, but to present the most professional content possible, editors should follow consistent style guidelines when editing articles.

Please Note: If you want to try out or practice wiki markup or other formatting, please use the Sandbox, not an actual article.

Style Basics

• Use full sentences at all times.
• Properly capitalize your words and punctuate your sentences.
• Be careful with contractions, plurals, and possessives.
  • Apostrophes:
    • Contractions always have an apostrophe (isn't, doesn't, it's).
    • Possessive only do when they are the possessive form of a noun (Nathan's campaign). Possessive pronouns do not use apostrophes (His, hers, its)
  • Possessives:
    • The possessive of a single noun always adds an apostrophe and an "s", even if the single noun ends in "s" (D.L. Hawkins's car)
    • The possessive of a plural noun which ends in "s" adds only an apostrophe to the plural (The Hawkinses' Home, The Bennets' Home)
    • The possessive of a plural noun which does not end in "s" adds an apostrophe and an "s" (the men's hammers, the women's crowbars)
  • Plurals:
    • Most nouns take an "s" to become plural (powers, diners)
    • Nouns which end in a sibilant ("s", "sh", "ch", "x") take "es" to become plural (buses, wishes, marches, taxes)
    • Nouns which end in "y" change the "y" to an "i" and add "es" to become plural (worries, candies, flurries)
    • Many nouns which are borrowed from other languages have non-standard plurals (alumnus becomes alumni, for example)
    • Some common noun phrases for occupations place an adjective after, not before, the noun. Be careful to make the noun plural, not the adjective (attorneys general, brothers-in-law)
    • Family names should be made plural when referring to more than one member of the family. Family names follow all the normal rules except that the name is never changed. (Peter and Nathan are the Petrellis, Niki and Micah are the Sanderses, George and Laura are the Bushes, Carmelo's family is the Anthonys, not the Anthonies)
• Write in the third person at all times.
• Be mindful of pronouns and antecedents. Generally, a pronoun refers to the last appropriate noun (i.e. the last noun of the appropriate number and gender for the pronoun used) which precedes it. Sentences like "Hiro and Ando walk through the casino, where he sees a roulette table" are ambiguous, and if the writer intended to mean that Hiro saw a roulette table, incorrect.
• Preview and spellcheck articles before saving.
• Provide an edit summary.
• Use consistent section headings. Check other articles in the same category.
  • Typical section headings: "Character History", "Powers", "Notes", "Fan Theories"
• Use consistent formatting:
  • Write a short lead section—that is, a section that appears ahead of any section headings—and bold the article title in that section.
  • Apply sidebars and navbars consistent with other articles in the same category. For a list of these elements, see Category: Templates
  • Link to all relevant articles the first time they appear in each section. This allows readers who have followed a section link from another article or who have used the table of contents to navigate the site more readily.

Categories

Assign appropriate categories and be sure to sort the article properly (exclude articles, last name first, etc.)

• To assign a category, simply link to it anywhere in the article. For example, [[Category: People]] will assign the article to the "People" category.
• To link to a category page, be sure to precede the word "Category" with a colon, like [[:Category: People]]. This prevents the category from being assigned to the article you are editing. This is especially important when redirecting to a category
• To change the category sort of an article, pipe the preferred sort method after the category assignment. For example, [[Category: People|Petrelli, Nathan]] will cause the article to appear under "P" rather than "N".
  • Sort people by last name
  • Sort plot points and unnamed characters to exclude articles ("Exterminator, The" instead of "The Exterminator")
  • Sort episodes by production number (101, 102) in [[Category: Episodes]] and by sequence within the season (01, 02, 03) in [[Category: Season (#) Episodes]]

The following table lists the top-level categories, plus some primary subcategories:

Category	Description	Article Perspective	Subcategories
Heroes	Articles about in-show information, such as episodes, characters, and plot points	In-world	Episodes, Characters, Events, Items, Places , Locations, etc.
Graphic Novels	Articles about the Graphic Novels, such as issues, characters, and plot points	In-world	Issues, Graphic Novel Characters, Graphic Novel Places, Graphic Novel Locations, etc.
Heroes Wiki	Articles about this website, such as help, policy, and user pages	Real-world	Help, Heroes Wiki Contributor, Templates, Stubs, Articles without images, etc.
Production	Articles about the behind-the-scenes production of the Heroes TV show, including cast and crew bios	Real-world	Principal Cast, Supporting Cast,Recurring Cast, Guest Stars,Series Crew, Graphic Novel Crew, etc.
Files	All images, animations, video clips, and audio clips uploaded and available	In-world (descriptions) Real-world (sources)	Images, Animations, Multimedia
Speculation	Information not from canon sources, including theories, spoilers, and fan creations	Real-world	Fan Creations, Spoilers, Theories

Language

Tense

Whenever possible, write in the present tense. This provides consistency between articles and makes narratives more clear. Obviously, references to future and past events relative to the time you are writing about should use the future and past tenses respectively.

It's appropriate to use the past tense for deceased characters, depending on context. "Charles Devaux is Simone's late father" is appropriate, because "late father" refers to his present condition. Conversely, "Robert Fresco was an oncologist at UCLA" is appropriate because "an oncologist at UCLA" describes his past condition, not his present condition. ("Robert Fresco is crispy" would use the present tense, of course.)

Person

Use the third person at all times. Avoid the use of "I", "we", or "you". It is not clear to the reader to whom such pronouns refer.

Perspective

Narrative sections (such as episode summaries and character histories) should be written from an "in-world" perspective. That is, they should read as if the events and people of Heroes are real. This provides consistency and clarity. Avoid any mention of the viewer, scene changes, commercial breaks, actors, seasons, episodes, or the like within these sections; it will only cause confusion. References to episodes should be parenthetical or section titles only in these sections.

References to anything about Heroes as a series, including its production, actors, broadcast schedule, or the like should be confined to Notes, Fan Theories, and other appropriate sections. This makes it more clear what information is "in-world" and which is not.

"Out-of-world" articles, including those for actors, crew, and production, should conversely maintain an "out-of-world" perspective. If you need to describe events within an episode in such an article, make it clear that you are describing a scene. For example, in Santiago Cabrera, it would be better to say "in the scene where Isaac paints the future, Santiago had to wear custom made scleral shells to "white out" his eyes" rather than "when Isaac paints the future, he wears custom made scleral shells to white out his eyes."

Tone

HeroesWiki is generally written in a somewhat casual tone. Contractions and common slang such as "cop" or "thug" are fine. Avoid any uncommon jargon unless you provide a definition. Also avoid any overt profanity unless you are quoting a source. Be mindful that any idioms may make the work much harder for translators.

Speculation

Any information which is not confirmed in an episode of the show should be considered speculative and labeled as such. Fan theories should always be labeled as fan theories. Spoilers, whether confirmed by a reputable source or not, should be confined to Notes sections and labeled with the {{Spoiler}} template. Note the source of any information you include in an article with an external link whenever possible. It's not necessary to do so for common fan theories.

The degree to which the Graphic Novels can be considered a canonical source is not yet known. To date, no information from the novels runs contrary to that of an aired episode. In all likelihood, the novels are canonical. However, it's best to note the source of any information from the novels which has not been confirmed on-screen.

Be especially careful with regard to inferences. Some information has been so strongly inferred that it's practically confirmed. However, it's best to note that such information is inferred and not confirmed.

For more on speculation and sources, see Help:Sources.