Wookieepedia:Manual of Style

If something is in-universe (IU), or is described as such, it belongs to the Star Wars universe rather than the real world. While characters and battles are in-universe topics, the actors who play them and the film productions in which they feature are out-of-universe. The correspondent in-universe term for the English language is Galactic Basic, the common language in the galaxy in Star Wars. In-universe articles should always be written from an in-universe perspective as if the Star Wars universe had actually existed; they should not refer to out-of-universe knowledge, such as actors or real-world media titles (e.g. Carrie Fisher or Star Wars), or lack of knowledge, such as characters who are not officially named (e.g. Instead of "An unidentified biologist visited the Agoliba-Tu system…" write "A biologist visited the Agoliba-Tu system…"). This includes infobox fields, with the exception of the name field in articles that are conjecturally titled "Unidentified," per the Layout Guide.

To maintain consistency, the prose of in-universe articles should be in past tense, per the opening titles of the Star Wars saga. Wookieepedia treats in-universe information as if they had actually occurred "a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away." Present tense may be used in headings, image captions, and quote attributions.

The exception to an in-universe perspective in an in-universe article is the "Behind the scenes" section.

Out-of-universe (OOU) is the perspective opposite of in-universe, i.e. something written from a real-life point of view. Out-of-universe articles and sections, including in-universe articles' "Behind the scenes" sections documenting the real-life development history of the topic in question, should be written in an out-of-universe perspective. This means mainly using present tense, including when describing the plot of Star Wars publications, such as "the character pursues the player in the video game," and using past tense to describe past events, such as "the video game was released by LucasArts in 2002."

In tandem with verifiability to a reliable source, all articles must be written from a neutral point of view (NPOV), presenting various perspectives fairly and without editorial bias. Both in-universe and out-of-universe articles should describe verifiable facts, including facts about opinions attributed to relevant individuals, instead of asserting opinions themselves (e.g. Instead of "Notably, the devious attack by Palpatine's evil empire…" simply write "Mon Mothma deemed the covert attack under Palpatine's dictatorship an outrage…").

If official material characterizes the Galactic Empire's rule as "evil and tyrannical," then articles should instead describe the Empire in an objective and verifiable way that is factually correct in-universe, such as "an oppressive dictatorship." Ambiguous wording such as "it was known," "it was considered," "ultimate fate is unknown," and "what happened to the ship afterward is a mystery" should be avoided. If official material use such wording quantifies who held the view, then it should be specified. If official material use such wording regarding an in-universe knowledge or lack of knowledge, then articles should document it accordingly unless the information is superseded by another source, for example stating that a character whose fate was previously described as "unknown" had died.

Wookieepedia articles should also focus on events directly relevant to the subject and avoid self-references (e.g. Instead of "There has been some debate between editors of Wookieepedia, which assumes…" simply write "This article assumes…"). If documenting the role of Wookieepedia in a subject's development history, use the phrasing "the free-to-edit, unofficial online encyclopedia named Wookieepedia" to emphasize the potential unreliability of the information on the site and clarify that it is not an official source. Avoid using lists as they present information in the form of trivia or miscellaneous facts; information relevant to the article topic should be formally presented in prose as part of a suitable article section, pursuant to the Layout Guide.

Though the readers and editors of Wookieepedia speak many varieties of English, we mandate standard American English spelling, grammar, punctuation, and word usage. This is the variety of English used in the first printings of most primary sources.

• If a word has two acceptable variants in American English, the one that is considered "more American" is to be used. Such example is the spelling of judgement as judgment. The only exception of this rule is the spelling of words ending in -ogue: while dialog is an acceptable version of dialogue, the latter is preferred.
• If a direct quotation from a British source has a word which is spelled differently in American English, the original British spelling must be preserved. However, a [sic] sign may be put after the word to indicate the text was quoted verbatim.

Many official Star Wars sources use the metric system of measurement, while others use American measurement units. It is recommended that in-universe articles use the metric system, but users should avoid making measurement conversions based on real-world conversion standards. Articles may state measurements based on whichever system is used in a particular canon source. (See also List of measurement units.)

• All characters, including individual droids, should be referred to by their specified pronouns.
• Refer to inanimate, non-sentient objects by "it/its" pronouns, even if characters or narrative text use other pronouns (example: "The Executor fired its turbolasers" instead of "The Executor fired her turbolasers.").
• In its singular form, a droid model, as with other types of products such as starship classes, should be referred to by "it/its" pronouns (example: "The XLT-014 labor droid was a fifth-degree droid […] Instead of arms, it had two long, flat claw appendages […] Units of the model had repulsorlifts installed in their three-toed feet.").

While plural nouns ending in "s" should be made possessive by adding only an apostrophe, singular nouns ending in "s" can be made possessive by adding either an apostrophe followed by another "s" or simply an apostrophe, providing each article is consistent throughout. Users are encouraged, but not required, to use only an s' for possessive nouns ending in a Z-sound. For example, while discussing the armor of multiple Mandalorians, one would write "Mandalorians' armor"; but while discussing the armor of Darth Nihilus, one could write "Nihilus's armor" or "Nihilus' armor."

Refer to individual starships and space stations using the definite article (example: "The Devastator pursued the Tantive IV."), unless source material demonstrates a clear and consistent departure from this standard (example: "Home One served as Admiral Ackbar's flagship at the Battle of Endor.").

Capitalize the first letter only of the first word and of any proper nouns in a heading, and leave all of the other letters in lower case. Do not employ title case.

When the galaxy is linked to, it is not to be capitalized. Similarly, when naming and linking to systems and sectors, the words "system" and "sector" should remain in lower case, unless canon dictates otherwise (e.g. Corporate Sector).

Examples: Corellian sector and Corellian system

The words "Jedi" and "Sith" must always be capitalized. "Jedi" and "Sith" are metonymies that refer to "a member of the Jedi Order" and "a member of the Sith Order," respectively.

• While "the Force" is a proper noun and therefore must be capitalized, the light and dark sides of the Force are not capitalized in the vast majority of official sources. Therefore, they must not be capitalized on Wookieepedia. For example: "Anakin Skywalker fell to the dark side," not "...to the Dark Side."
• This does not apply if force refers to any other meanings of the word: A strike force of stormtroopers entered the system, not A strike Force...

• If the adjective "Imperial" is referring to the Galactic Empire, it should always be capitalized, e.g. "The Imperial base on Kejim was..." When "Rebel" is used independently, it should only be capitalized when referring to the Rebel Alliance of the Star Wars Legends continuity.
• However, note that if the referent of these forms are not either of these organizations, there is no reason to capitalize: "The galaxy was in turmoil by a series of rebellions and civil wars."

• In all sections of Canon in-universe articles, the word "human" is not to be capitalized, even though other sentient species (Twi'lek, Rodian, Wookiee, etc.) are. Note, however, that Star Wars Legends in-universe articles do capitalize the words "Human" and "Near-Human." The word "humanoid" is not to be capitalized in any in-universe article.

• Semi-sentient or nonsentient creature names must not be in capitals unless dictated otherwise by canon. Hence, writing "Rancor" instead of "rancor" is agrammatical.

• Ranks and titles are to be capitalized when they immediately precede an individual's name. Do not capitalize ranks or titles when used as a substitute for the name. "As an experienced leader, Admiral Ackbar served the Rebel Alliance. The admiral later served the New Republic."

• There are some ranks the name of which should always be capitalized, no matter the semantics. Such titles are Padawan, Vice Admiral, Flight Leader, and so on.

• Only image captions and reference notes that constitute full sentences should receive a period (full stop).

• Do not add a period (full stop) in quote template attributions.

Articles shall use the serial comma as standard.

Three types of hyphens and dashes are used on Wookieepedia: standard hyphens (-), en dashes (–), and em dashes (—).

• Use the (-) for
• Use the () for
• Use the () for

• Whole numbers between one and ninety-nine (inclusive) should be spelled out in article prose (e.g. "fifty-four," not "54"; "fifty-fourth," not "54th"). Numerals can be used for other numbers (e.g. "one-half," "3.14," "127," "five thousand," "582,797,754").

Use wiki markup instead of HTML tags where available, unless otherwise specified. Examples include

• instead of
• instead of .

Articles can be sectioned and sub-sectioned using headings. Adequate sectioning helps readers by breaking up the text and outlining the article, and words within headings are given greater weight in search results.

• Do not use level 1 headings () within articles. These are reserved for the page title. Level 2–6 headings are available for article sectioning.
• Use proper heading wiki markup (), not bold markup (), to produce headings. A table of contents will then be automatically generated from the headings in an article.

• The name of the article should be bolded in its first usage in the article's text, as should any alternate formal names and nicknames mentioned in the article's text (or in its introduction, if present).
• Articles with conjectural titles may, but do not need to, bold the complete article title.

• Names of individual starships are capitalized and italicized (example: Millennium Falcon), unless source material explicitly differentiates (example: Ship, the Sith Meditation Sphere).
• Names of space stations are italicized or not, according to formatting in source material (examples: Death Star, Tarkin, the Wheel).

In certain situations, Star Wars canon and Star Wars Legends follow different formatting standards for starship classes. Adhere to the following, noting any differences between Canon and Legends:

• When used as a compound adjective, the name of the ship class is italicized and hyphenated.
• When used as a compound noun, the name of the ship class is italicized. In Canon, the term is hyphenated; in Legends, it is not hyphenated.
• When used as a noun without the accompanying term "class," the name of the ship class is not italicized.
• Starfighter and vehicle classes shall adhere to the preceding rules as appropriate in accordance with source material formatting respective to each continuity (examples: Nantex-class territorial defense starfighter, Seraph-class urban landspeeder).

Do not italicize the issue numbers of individual comic books (examples: Legacy 18, Marvel Comics 1000, Doctor Aphra (2016) 38, Star Wars Adventures (2017) 28).

• To easily distinguish between hyphens and dashes in the editing interface, create em dashes and en dashes by typing "" and "", not and , respectively.

• Articles shall avoid "smart" (also known as "typographic" or "curly") quotation marks and apostrophes by converting them to ASCII (also known as "neutral" or "straight") quotation marks and apostrophes. In other words, quotation marks and apostrophes on Wookieepedia should look like '...' and "...", not ‘...’ and “...”.

• For ellipses, use "" rather than "".

No artificial white spaces are to be added to mainspace articles.

• When mentioning individual issues of comic book series that include the series' initial publication year as a parenthetical descriptor in the article title, the year parenthetical should be included, in the following format: Doctor Aphra (2020) 12. This applies to all articles' reference notes; in-universe articles' "Appearances" section; and out-of-universe articles' "Bibliography" and "Sources" sections.
• When mentioning individual issues of comic book series or magazines with an issue number in the article prose (such as in-universe articles' "Behind the scenes" section and out-of-universe articles' "Biography" section), articles may specify the issue number independent of the series title (e.g. "the twenty-second issue of the Star Wars: Darth Vadercomic series"; "issue 0 of Dark Horse Comics' Star Wars: Tales of the Jedi — The Golden Age of the Sith mini-series"; "issue 131 of the magazine The Official Star Wars Fact File").

When using the {{Scroll box}} template for multiple entries, the closing braces of the template should be listed on their own line after the final entry for readability. An exception to this rule is the wrapping of scroll boxes around {{Reflist}}, which can be listed on a single line.

To supplement the article content, quotes may be added as part of the prose or using quote templates.

For rules regarding the placement of quote templates, refer to the Quotes section of the Layout Guide.

A quote used in a Wookieepedia article should only include:

A quote used in the "Behind the scenes" section of an in-universe article (or anywhere, in an entirely out-of-universe article) may contain any properly cited and formatted text required to supplement the information presented in that section and is not subject to the preceding content restrictions. Such a quote may include any text content relevant to Wookieepedia's areas of interest and relevant to the article text it accompanies. Quotes including narrative text and thoughts, specifically, should be reserved strictly for illustrative purposes and not for general use. Quotes with this kind of otherwise prohibited content may not be used outside of an out-of-universe section or article.

• Users should not correct the capitalization, spelling, grammar, or word usage within direct quotes taken from copyrighted sources as such modifications jeopardize our Fair use claim on that material. Quotes should be verbatim and any changes, edits, or exclusions should be explicitly noted by using square brackets ("[]"). Any errors made by the author may be noted by using "[sic]." This includes words such as Human, which is capitalized in Star Wars Legends, and the word galaxy, which is to be decapitalized in all other contexts. However, the below changes may be made without being noted:
• Per standards of American English, double quotation marks (" ") should be used and the period (full stop), comma, question and exclamation marks should be within the quotation marks.
• For quotes inside quotes, use single quotation marks (' '): "I never liked 'May the Force be with you.'"
• For quotes with one or two speakers, use {{Quote}}. For quotes with more than two speakers, use {{Dialogue}}.
• Quotes should be sourced using standard references.

For formatting help, refer to the template documentation pages.

Within prose From Dromund Kaas operation:

Single speaker template From Onager-class Star Destroyer:

Two speakers template From Anakin Skywalker/Legends:

Three speakers template From Darth Zannah/Legends:

• A subject should be linked once upon its first mention in
• Furthermore, subjects not linked elsewhere in the article (excluding references) may be linked in
• However, do not include links in
• Articles within a specific continuity should only link to other articles within that continuity (example: [[Yoda]] should not link to [[Yoda's species/Legends]]). The only exceptions to this are:
• Articles should avoid redirecting links by correcting these links to point to an article's actual title (example: [[Alliance to Restore the Republic|Rebel Alliance]], not [[Rebel Alliance]]).
• Articles should avoid linking to disambiguation pages, with the exception of disambiguation and redirection templates.
• In-universe articles should not link to real-world Wikipedia articles, except in the "Behind the scenes" section.