WikiIslam:Source Editing: Difference between revisions

Formatting a WikiIslam article differs from when writing on a standard word processor. Wikis use text codes to create particular elements of the page (e.g., headings). This markup language is known as wikitext (or wiki-markup) and is designed for ease of editing.

Layout

The general layout for each article varies, depending on the subject and type of article. For example, encyclopedic (e.g. 72 Virgins), counter-apologetic (e.g. To You Your Religion and To Me Mine) or list articles (e.g. The Timeline of Muhammad) are all different types of articles. Within each of these types, the layout is further varied depending on each article's individual subject matter and needs (e.g. The Timeline of Muhammad and List of Muhammad's Wives and Concubines, which are both list articles).

There are certain features that most of them share:

1. They usually begin with a one-line description covering the objective of the page (e.g. Science and the Seven Earths).
2. They are usually organized into several different sections and subheadings for ease of navigation and reading.
3. They usually begin with an "Introduction" section and end with a "Conclusion" section, followed by a "See Also", "External Links", then "References" section (always in that order).

Emphasis

Bolding and italicizing are done by surrounding a word or phrase with multiple apostrophes ('):

Bold emphasis should only be used within quotation boxes or when the name of an article's subject in an encyclopedic page is first mentioned. In all other cases, italics should be used when emphasis is needed (this should be used sparingly and only when absolutely needed). Underlining and allcaps should be avoided.

Sections

Headings and subheadings are a way to improve the organization of an article. If there are two or more distinct topics being discussed, the article should be made more readable by inserting a heading for each topic — that is making each into its own section. This can go up to subsubsubsubheadings.

If an article has at least four headings, a table of contents will automatically be generated. Headings do not form a part of the main text. They only indicate the general topic of that particular section, and should not contain information not found within its main text. So when choosing titles for headings and subheading, questions or long sentences should be avoided.

Lists

Quotations

Links

See Also