Style Guide

Purpose

Use this style guide for any writing (wiki page, event, internal or external communication, etc…) under the MoHA umbrella. When there is no MoHA-specific use case, defer to the Wikipedia Manual of Style.

Program Naming conventions

The Museum of Human Achievement

• Full, Formal Title: The Museum of Human Achievement
• Casual Title: None
• Abbreviation: MoHA
  • Before using, establish the full name first.
    • "The Museum of Human Achievement (MoHA)"
    • Use in:
      • Internal communication
      • Informal communication
      • Logos
• Do Not Use:
  • Museum of Human Achievement
  • The MoHA, Moha, moha, MoHa, or MOHA

Welcome to my Homepage

• Full, Formal Title: Welcome to my Homepage Digital Artist Residency Program
  • Use when referencing the program without a blurb in external contexts.
• Casual Title: Welcome to my Homepage
  • Casual title used in most cases.
• Abbreviation: Homepage
• Disambiguation: Welcome to My Homepage!
  • Use case: When referencing the original artwork created by Rachel that housed Welcome to My Guest Room and eventually became the residency program
  • Also called: welcometomyhomepage.net

never: www.welcometomyhomepage.net (which is the URL of the residency program website)

• Do Not Use:
  • WTMHP
  • www.welcometomyhomepage.net
    • This is the URL of the residency program website)
  • Discontinued former program names:
    • Welcome to my Guest Room Digital Artist Residency Program
    • Welcome to my Guest Room

CATS+

• Full, Formal Title: The Collaborative Art + Technology Situation (CATS+)
• Casual Title & Abbreviation: CATS+
  • Before using, establish the full name first. The full name is an explanation of the program name, not the actual program name.
    • “CATS+ (Collaborative Art + Technology Situation)”
• Do Not Use:
  • CATS
  • CATs
  • Cats Plus
  • CATS+ (Collaborative Art & Technology Situation)
  • CATS+ (Collaborative Art and Technology Situation)
  • CATS+: Collaborative Art + Technology Situation
  • Collaborative Art + Technology Situation (CATS+)
  • The Collaborative Art + Technology Situation
  • Collaborative Art + Technology Situation (CATS+)

IRL @ MoHA

• Full, Formal Title: inreallife.lol
• Casual Title & Abbreviation:
  • IRL
  • IRL @ MoHA]
    • Note: The full, formal title is also the url
• Do Not Use:
  • In Real Life
    • This is the discontinued former legal name.

Games Y'all

• Full, Formal Title: Games Y’all
• Casual Title: Games Y'all
• Abbreviation: None
• Do Not Use:
  • Games Ya’ll
  • Games Yall

Fantastic Arcade

• Full, Formal Title: Fantastic Arcade
• Casual Title: Fantastic Arcade
• Abbreviation: None

Digital Do-si-do

• Full, Formal Title: Digital Do-si-do
• Casual Title: Digital Do-si-do
• Abbreviation: None
• Do Not Use:
  • Digital Do-Si-Do
  • Digital do-si-do
  • Digital Do si do

Cage Match Project

• Full, Formal Title: Cage Match Project
• Casual Title: Cage Match Project
• Abbreviation:
  • The Cage
  • CMP
• Do Not Use:
  • The Cage Match
  • Cage Match

The Mall

• Full, Formal Title: The Mall
• Casual Title: The Mall
• Abbreviation: None
• Do Not Use: the Mall

Unlisted Projects

• Full, Formal Title: Unlisted Projects
• Casual Title: Unlisted Projects
• Abbreviation: UP

MoHA-Specific Guidelines

Title Case

Title case is used in the following (unless otherwise noted or specifically stated):

• Event Names (https://moha.wiki/Past_Events)
• Program Names (https://moha.wiki/Category:Programs)
• Headers (https://moha.wiki/Board_Application_MoHA)

Lists

Bullet Points are cool! They help break up large chunks of text and make your content more readable and scannable. Always use actual bullet points when formatting where possible.

• How To on Wiki:
  • To make a single bullet point, type “*”
  • To add indentation, add additional asterisks: “**”
• Do Not Use: “-” or “~” or other notation

Use numbered lists only when keeping things sequential is necessary (for example, a list of instructions). If the list you are making is not a set of instructions or something else ordered, use bullet points.

• How To On Wiki:
  • To make an ordered list, type “#”
  • To add indention, add additional pounds: “##”
  • To add non-ordered indentation, type “#*”

Formatting

Font

• Use bold for:
  • Emphasizing key terms the first time they're mentioned.
• Use italics for:
  • Emphasizing content
    • Be careful of overuse.
  • Titles
    • Note that some wiki pages cannot support italics. For article page titles, use quotation marks.
• Dates are formatted as:
  • MM/DD/YYYY
• Use or don't use the Oxford comma. Fight to the death.

Styles

See Brand Assets

• Title
  • Font Name: PT Mono Bold
  • Color: #114a9f (or black)
  • Size: 40pt
  • Google Doc: Page Title
  • Wiki: H1
• H1
  • Font Name: PT Mono Bold (700)
  • Color: #114A9F (or black)
  • Size: 26pt
  • Google Doc: H1
    • Article or subject header
  • Wiki: H2
    • Article or subject header
    • Automatically collapsed on wiki when opening on mobile and collapsible on browser
• H2
  • Font Name: PT Mono
  • Color: black
  • Size: 22pt
  • Google Doc: H2
    • Sub-subjects underneath header, this will be reflected in table of contents as such
  • Wiki: H3
    • Sub-subjects underneath header, this will be reflected in table of contents as such
• H3
  • Font Name: PT Mono
  • Color: black
  • Size: 16pt
  • Wiki: Below H3 and so on…
• H4
  • Font Name: PT Sans Bold
  • Color: black
  • Size: 14pt
  • Wiki: Below H4 and so on…

Note: Most articles should begin with an introductory section: Purpose – a concise summary of the article – which is never divided into sections. An exception is artist-created wikis or other pages that are works of art.

Program Specific Typography

If letterspacing is not indicated, it can be left at 0. If case or weight is not specific, mixed case or weights are fine.

Brand	Style	Font	Letterspacing
MoHA	Header	PT Mono Bold
MoHA	Sub-Header	PT MONO BOLD UPPERCASE	25
MoHA	Body	PT Sans	40
Cage Match	Header	SULLIVAN FILL UPPERCASE
Cage Match	Sub-Header	FUTURA UPPERCASE	250
Cage Match	Body	PT Sans	40
CATS+	Header	FUTURA BLACK UPPERCASE	100
CATS+	Sub-Header	Futura Bold	20
CATS+	Body	Futura Bold	20
IRL	Header	SOURCE CODE PRO BLACK UPPERCASE	100
IRL	Sub-Header	Source code pro bold	20
IRL	Body	Source code pro
Games Y'all	Header	SPACE MONO BOLD UPPERCASE	40
Games Y'all	Sub-Header	space mono bold lowercase	40
Games Y'all	Body	Space mono	40
The Mall	Header	SNIGLET EXTRA BOLD UPPERCASE	100
The Mall	Sub-header	Gooper Semibold Italic	100
The Mall	Body	PT Sans	40
Welcome to My Homepage	Header	LUCIDA CONSOLE UPPERCASE	100
Welcome to My Homepage	Sub-header	lucida console lowercase	20
Welcome to My Homepage	Body	Lucida Console
Unlisted Projects	Header	SELADOR	40
Unlisted Projects	Sub-header	Hammersmith One	40
Unlisted Projects	Body	Quattrocento Sans	40

Program Specific Page Styles

Live here: https://moha.wiki/Special:AllPages?from=&to=&namespace=274

Writing Style

General Tips

• If using a phrase like “Let us know!” try to define who “us” is.
• No jargon, do not use academic or dense writing.
• In articles or instructions, try not to assume knowledge unless instructed otherwise.
• A nerdy joke, pun, or play on words is appreciated.

Present/Past/Current Tense

• Events
  • Event submissions and details should be written in the tense most applicable and not changed after the fact. For example: “Come join us on…” should be maintained as the tense the material was submitted.
• Programs
  • Should retain their original language. For example “Altar is an ongoing series” versus “Altar was a series”.

Key Vocab Words

• Underserved
  • Having to do with being services or resources being offered or accessible.
• Underrepresented
  • Having to do with being represented within a structure.
• Institutional Resources
  • Resources coming from an established institution (government, historical wealth, businesses, capitalism, loans etc…).

Universal Style Choices

• LGBTQIA+
• Black
• Latinx or Latine
• BIPOC
• Global Majority
  • Do Not Use: minority
• Disabled
  • Do Not Use: differently-abled

Events

See above for tense guidance.

Events titles cannot:

• Begin with a lowercase letter.
• Contain certain forbidden characters.
  • The following characters are forbidden due to clashes with wiki markup and HTML syntax:
    • <exclude># < > [ ] { } |</exclude>
  • See this link for “Other Problematic Characters.”

Event Series

In wiki, page names cannot be duplicates and event names each will have a representative page, therefore:

• Events in a discrete series (with a set beginning and end, ie: the run of a show) should be numeric and listed as “Event Name 1”, Event Name ”2”, etc…
• Ongoing events (ie: Games Y’all monthly meetups) should be listed as “Games Y’all August 2023”

Naming Taxonomy

If an opportunity or page title has the potential to be the same across multiple programs (e.g., Board Application), it should be named first based on its nature and then the program to which it applies.

Do:

• Board Application MoHA
• Resident Arts Onboarding CATS+

Not:

• MoHA Board Application
• CATS+ Resident Artist Onboarding

Alt Text

Include alt-text for images, unless they’re purely decorative and not part of a net art project. Tips for alt text:

• Keep it short and sweet
• Text info on the image can be excluded if it’s duplicated in the text of the page/post (unless it’s art)
• Don’t include a generic “picture of…” “image of…”
  • Just describe the image
  • If the medium is significant to understanding the image's meaning, use words to describe the medium. Disambiguate artworks from event documentation, from editorial graphics, etc.
• Do not provide outside context unless it is known to a mainstream audience.
  • Yes: Keanu Reeves holding a pair of red Crocs outside of a Chipotle.
  • No: My neighbor Donna crouching in a bush next to beloved local restaurant Chuy’s on Barton Springs Road, just a few days after her pregnancy.
• Unless the image is an artwork, do adjust your description to the image’s context (ie: What are the important elements communicated by the image)

Example: Meme of Nickelback holding a graph

• Images as links/navigation
  • Say where the image goes versus literally interpreting the icon (unless it’s art).
    • Not art example: link to About Resident page (vs. question mark icon)
    • Art example: A sinkhole that leads to the About page (vs. link to About page)

Wiki General Style Guide

Generally, we consider it best practice to follow the Wikipedia Manual of Style. Where our MoHA-specific style guide fails to provide clarity, look at Wikiedpia’s style guide and follow its guidance.

Article Titles

A title should be a recognizable name or description of the topic that is natural, sufficiently precise, concise, and consistent with those of related articles. If these criteria are in conflict, they should be balanced against one another.

Section headings

Section headings should generally follow the guidance for article titles (above), and should be presented in title case (Funding of UNESCO Projects in Developing Countries).

Technical Restrictions

For technical reasons, section headings should be unique within a page, so that section links lead to the right place.

Section headings must not:

• Contain links, especially where only part of a heading is linked.
• Contain images or icons.
• Contain <math> markup.
• Contain citations or footnotes.
• Misuse description list markup (";") to create pseudo-headings.
• Not contain template transclusions.

Style Restrictions

As a matter of consistent style, section headings must not:

• Redundantly refer back to the article's subject.
  • Use “Early Life” not “Smith’s early life” or “His early life.”
• Refer to a higher-level heading, unless doing so is shorter or clearer.
• Be numbered or lettered as an outline.
• Be phrased as a question,
  • Use “Languages” not “What languages are spoken in Mexico?”
• Use color or unusual fonts that might cause accessibility problems.
• Wrap headings in markup. This may break their display and cause other accessibility issues.

Abbreviations

When an abbreviation will be used in an article, first introduce it using the full expression.

• Example: “The Museum of Human Achievement (MoHA)

Except in special circumstances, common abbreviations (such as PhD, DNA, USSR) need not be expanded even on first use.

Italics

Italics are used for: Italics are used for emphasis, rather than boldface or capitals. But overuse diminishes its effect; consider rewriting instead.

Use <em>...</em> or {{em|...}} for emphasis. This allows user style sheets to handle emphasis in a customized way, and helps reusers and translators.

Correct: The meerkat is <em>not</em> actually a cat. Correct: The meerkat is {{em|not}} actually a cat.

Use italics for the titles of works (such as books, films, television series, named exhibitions, computer games, music albums, and artworks). The titles of articles, chapters, songs, episodes, storylines, research papers and other short works instead take double quotation marks.

Quotations

Brief quotations of copyrighted text may be used to illustrate a point, establish context, or attribute a point of view or idea. While quotations are an indispensable part of Wikipedia, try not to overuse them. Using too many quotes is incompatible with an encyclopedic writing style and may be a copyright infringement. It is generally recommended that content be written in Wikipedia editors' own words. Consider paraphrasing quotations into plain and concise text when appropriate (while being aware that close paraphrasing can still violate copyright).

Quotation should be used, with attribution, to present emotive opinions that cannot be expressed in Wikipedia's own voice, but never to present cultural norms as simply opinional:

Acceptable: Siskel and Ebert called the film "unforgettable".

Unacceptable: The site is considered "sacred" by the religion's scriptures.

Concise opinions that are not overly emotive can often be reported with attribution instead of direct quotation. Use of quotation marks around simple descriptive terms can imply something doubtful regarding the material being quoted; sarcasm or weasel words such as supposedly or so-called, might be inferred.

Permissible: Siskel and Ebert called the film interesting.

Unnecessary and may imply doubt: Siskel and Ebert called the film "interesting".

Should be quoted: Siskel and Ebert called the film "interesting but heart-wrenching".

Attribution

The reader must be able to determine the source of any quotation, at the very least via a footnote. The source must be named in article text if the quotation is an opinion (see Wikipedia:Neutral point of view § Attributing and specifying biased statements). When attributing a quotation, avoid characterizing it in a biased manner.

Punctuation

Apostrophes

Use straight apostrophes ('), not curly apostrophes (’).Do not use accent marks or backticks (`) as apostrophes.

Quotation characters

Use "straight" quotation marks, not “curly” ones. (For single apostrophe quotes: 'straight', not ‘curly’.)

Brackets and Parentheses

This section applies to both round brackets ( ), often called parentheses, and square brackets [ ].

If a sentence contains a bracketed phrase, place the sentence punctuation outside the brackets (as shown here). However, where one or more sentences are wholly inside brackets, place their punctuation inside the brackets. There should be no space next to the inner side of a bracket. An opening bracket should usually be preceded by a space. This may not be the case if it is preceded by an opening quotation mark, another opening bracket, or a portion of a word:

He rose to address the meeting: "(Ahem) ... Ladies and gentlemen, welcome!" Only the royal characters in the play ([Prince] Hamlet and his family) habitually speak in blank verse. We journeyed on the Inter[continental]. Most people are right-handed. (Some people are left-handed, but that does not make right-handed people "better" than left-handed people.) There should be a space after a closing bracket, except where a punctuation mark follows (though a spaced dash would still be spaced after a closing bracket) and in unusual cases similar to those listed for opening brackets.

Avoid adjacent sets of brackets. Either put the parenthetical phrases in one set separated by semicolons, or rewrite:

Avoid: Nikifor Grigoriev (c. 1885 – 1919) (also known as Matvii Hryhoriiv) was a Ukrainian insurgent leader. Better: Nikifor Grigoriev (c. 1885 – 1919; also known as Matvii Hryhoriiv) was a Ukrainian insurgent leader. Better: Nikifor Grigoriev (c. 1885 – 1919) was a Ukrainian insurgent leader. He was also known as Matvii Hryhoriiv.

Ellipses

Use an ellipsis (plural ellipses) if material is omitted in the course of a quotation, unless square brackets are used to gloss the quotation (see § Brackets and parentheses, and the points below).

Wikipedia's style for an ellipsis is three unspaced dots (...); do not use the precomposed ellipsis character (…) or three dots separated by spaces (. . .)

Colons

A colon (:) introduces something that demonstrates, explains, or modifies what has come before, or is a list of items that has just been introduced. The items in such a list may be separated by commas, or if they are more complex and perhaps themselves contain commas, the items should be separated by semicolons or arranged in a bulleted list.

We visited several tourist attractions: the Leaning Tower of Pisa, which I thought could fall at any moment; the Bridge of Sighs; the supposed birthplace of Petrarch, or at least the first known house in which he lived; and so many more. A colon may also be used to introduce direct speech enclosed within quotation marks (see § Quotation marks).

In most cases, a colon works best with a complete grammatical sentence before it. When what follows the colon is also a complete sentence, start it with a capital letter, but otherwise, do not capitalize after a colon except where doing so is needed for another reason, as for a proper name. Except in technical usage (a 3:1 ratio), no sentence should contain multiple colons, no space should precede a colon, and a space (but never a hyphen or dash) should follow the colon.

Semicolons

A semicolon (;) is sometimes an alternative to a full stop (period), enabling related material to be kept in the same sentence; it marks a more decisive division in a sentence than a comma. If the semicolon separates clauses, normally each clause must be independent (meaning that it could stand on its own as a sentence). In many cases, only a comma or only a semicolon will be correct in a given sentence.

Correct: Though he had been here before, I did not recognize him. Incorrect: Though he had been here before; I did not recognize him.

Hyphens

Hyphens (-) indicate conjunction. There are three main uses: In hyphenated personal names (John Lennard-Jones, Omar al-Bashir). To link prefixes with their main terms in certain constructions (quasi-scientific, pseudo-Apollodorus, ultra-nationalistic). To link related terms in compound modifiers:[o] Hyphens can aid ease of reading (that is, they can be ease-of-reading aids) and are particularly useful in long noun phrases: gas-phase reaction dynamics. But never insert a hyphen into a proper name (Middle Eastern cuisine, not Middle-Eastern cuisine).

Spacing: A hyphen is never followed or preceded by a space, except when hanging (see above) or when used to display parts of words independently, such as the prefix sub- and the suffix -less.

Dashes

Two forms of dash are used on Wikipedia: en dash (–) and em dash (—). To enter them, click on them in the CharInsert toolbar, or enter them manually as: – or —

Do not use a double hyphen (--) to stand in for a dash. (See also: Wikipedia:How to make dashes.)

Sources use dashes in varying ways. For consistency and clarity, Wikipedia adopts the following principles.

Punctuating a sentence (em or en dashes)

Dashes are often used to mark divisions within a sentence: in pairs (parenthetical dashes, instead of parentheses or pairs of commas) or singly (perhaps instead of a colon). They may also indicate an abrupt stop or interruption, in reporting quoted speech. In all these cases, use either unspaced em dashes or spaced en dashes, with consistency in any one article:

An em dash is unspaced (with no space on either side): Another "planet" was detected—but it was later found to be a moon of Saturn. An en dash is spaced (with a space on each side) when used as sentence punctuation: Another "planet" was detected – but it was later found to be a moon of Saturn.

In ranges that might otherwise be expressed with to or through

For ranges between numbers, dates, or times, use an en dash: pp. 7–19; 64–75%; Henry VIII reigned 1509–1547

Slashes (strokes)

Generally, avoid joining two words with a slash, also called a forward slash, stroke or solidus ( / ), because it suggests that the words are related without specifying how. Replace with clearer wording.

An example: The parent/instructor must be present at all times. Must both be present? (Then write the parent and the instructor.) Must at least one be present? (Then write the parent or the instructor.) Are they the same person? (Use a hyphen: the parent-instructor.)

And/or Avoid writing and/or unless other constructions would be lengthy or awkward. Instead of Most had trauma and/or smoke inhalation, write simply trauma or smoke inhalation (which would normally be interpreted as an inclusive-or to imply or both); or, for emphasis or precision or both, write trauma or smoke inhalation or both. Where more than two possibilities are present, instead of x, y, and/or z write one or more of x, y, and z or some or all of x, y, and z.

Gender-neutral language

Use gender-neutral language – avoiding the generic he and generic she, for example – if this can be done with clarity and precision. This does not apply to direct quotations or the titles of works (The Ascent of Man), which should not be altered, or to wording about one-gender contexts, such as an all-female school (When any student breaks that rule, she loses privileges).

References to space programs, past, present and future, should use gender-neutral phrasing: human spaceflight, robotic probe, uncrewed mission, crewed spacecraft, piloted, unpiloted, astronaut, cosmonaut, not manned or unmanned. Direct quotations and proper nouns that use gendered words should not be changed, like Manned Maneuvering Unit.

Instructional and presumptuous language

Avoid phrases such as remember that and note that, which address readers directly in an unencyclopedic tone and lean toward instructional. They are a subtle form of Wikipedia self-reference, "breaking the fourth wall". Similarly, phrases such as of course, naturally, obviously, clearly, and actually make presumptions about readers' knowledge, may express a viewpoint, and may call into question the reason for including the information in the first place. Do not tell readers that something is interesting, ironic, surprising, unexpected, amusing, coincidental, etc. Simply present sourced facts neutrally and allow readers to draw their own conclusions. Such constructions can usually just be deleted, leaving behind proper sentences with a more academic and less pushy tone: Note that this was naturally subject to controversy in more conservative newspapers. becomes This was subject to controversy in more conservative newspapers.