User:Gryllida/Quiz/StyleGuide

This quiz includes questions about the style guide. Please read everything in the style guide carefully, and test yourself today!
 * Copyedit other submissions in the Newsroom and improve their chances of publication.
 * Write your articles better with the aim of getting them published easier and earlier.



{What is the style guide about? + The ways Wikinews content should be presented to readers. - A comprehensive guide to English spelling, grammar, and punctuation. - Information on the reporting process. - Wiki editing syntax.
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 * Incorrect. See this section for tips about written English.
 * . This is covered in the content guide.
 * . This is covered at Help:Editing.

{What is the purpose of the style guide? + A style guide helps writers and editors by providing a standardised way of writing. + Style guides help ensure consistency in such things as headlines, abbreviations, numbers, punctuation and courtesy titles. + The Wikinews style guide is aimed at producing understandable and informative articles readily understood by the majority of readers. - To make writing more difficult and to create excuses for not publishing an article.
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 * . Well styled articles provide authors with a set of agreed guidelines on the expected style of writing, and help new authors avoid mistakes.
 * . Well styled articles are more consistent and easier for people to follow.
 * . Well styled articles are easier for people to read.
 * While style issues may prevent an article from publishing, the reviewers leave detailed feedback with instructions. Each review also touches content and other issues even if style issues are already identified, providing a comprehensive overview of the work that the author(s) need to complete.

{What is the status of the style guide? + It is a guideline. + Changes may be proposed at the talk page, however, they are not applied retroactively. - It is a policy, which allows no exceptions.
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{In his 1946 essay Politics and the English Language, author George Orwell devised six easy tips to make anyone a better writer. What are these tips? + Never use a metaphor, simile or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print. + Never use a long word where a short one will do. + If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out. + Never use the passive where you can use the active. + Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word or a jargon word if you can think of an everyday English equivalent. + Break any of these rules sooner than say anything barbarous. - Use Simple English only. - Use a couple foreign quotes in each story. They provide an international view on the topic and make the article more neutral.
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{What are some more of the technical, easily fixable, guidelines about headlines? + Use present tense. + Use downstyle capitalisation. - Use past tense. - Use upstyle capitalisation.
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 * . Headlines (article titles) should be written with verbs in present tense.
 * . Downstyle capitalisation is the preferred style. Only the initial word and proper nouns are capitalized. In upstyle headlines, all nouns and most other words with more than four letters are capitalized. (Examples: Downstyle: "Powell to lead U.S. delegation to Asian tsunami region" Upstyle: "Powell to Lead U.S. Delegation to Asian Tsunami Region".)
 * . At Wikinews the headlines need to be in the present tense.
 * . Downstyle capitalisation is the preferred style as it is considered easier to read.

{What are the guidelines about headlines? + Make them unique and specific. + Make them short. + Use verbs. + Write in a neutral point of view. + Tell the most important and unique thing. + Use active voice. + Try to attribute any action to someone. + Avoid jargon and meaningless acronyms.
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 * Due to the way the software of Wikinews works, each headline must be unique; choose specific details which describe this unique news event.
 * Headlines are as short as possible. The word 'and' is generally replaced by a comma. Example: "Powell and Annan set international goals for aid" could be written: "Powell, Annan set international goals for aid"
 * A headline is essentially a sentence without ending punctuation, and sentences have verbs.
 * Headlines should not be biased in tone or word choice.
 * Article titles should consist of a descriptive, enduring headline. As a series of stories on a topic develop, each headline should convey the most important and unique thing about the story at that time. For example, "Los Angeles bank robbed" is a bad example.
 * News is about events, and generally you should center on the doers, and what they are doing, in your sentence structure. Active voice is "Leader goes to shops" whereas passive voice, to be avoided, would be "Shops visited by leader".
 * "Insurgents shoot U.S. troops in North Baghdad" is better than "U.S. troops shot in North Baghdad".
 * Avoid uncommon technical terms, and when referring to a country or organization, use its full name rather than acronym, unless the acronym is more common than the full name (ex: NASA, UK, AIDS) or length is prohibitive. In cases where using an acronym because length is prohibitive, spell the acronym out as soon as possible in the article body.

{How do we specify date of the article? + As the first line of the article, using the date template. - It is not needed, because we have the sources and the story says anyway.
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 * . The date template is filled automatically if using the standard template presented when creating an article from WN:WRITE.
 * . The date must be present as the first line of the article. Please see this section.

{What needs to be included in the first paragraph? + Five Ws and an H: who, what, where, when, why, how. - The most impressive part of the story. What makes it relevant. - Five Ws: who, what, where, when, why. The 'how' is not important, leave it to the end.
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 * This is the correct answer. This is known as the "five W's (and an H)", and is the first thing to learn about news writing.
 * This is . At Wikinews, an article is required to follow the inverted pyramid structure, with 5Ws and one H clearly stated in the first paragraph.
 * Almost . At Wikinews, in the first paragraphs we are required to state 5Ws and one H ('how').

{Approximately how long is the first paragraph? + Around 50-80 words, using one to three sentences. - One sentence. - There is no length limit.
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{Approximately how long is the article? + At least three paragraphs, and single-line paragraphs do not count for this purpose. - Any length, at least one paragraph. - At least five paragraphs.
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 * . Such short submissions may be published as a brief or a short from the newsroom.
 * . Three paragraphs are enough. In the case the event is complex it may require the reporter to write at least five paragraphs, however this is not always required.

{What are the expectations in regards to language in news reports at Wikinews? + Use punchy, active language to intone a sense of immediacy. - Use spoken English constructs to make the text more energetic and impressive. + Each paragraph should ideally be only one or two sentences (three if you use very short sentences). - Each paragraph needs to be at least five sentences long. + Each paragraph covers a single topic only. - Write about two-three related topics in one paragraph. - Write one-sentence paragraphs with quotes, and group them by topic using headings.
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 * . The news report language needs to be neutral and factual.
 * . Long paragraphs are confusing and difficult for the readers to follow. Please see this section.
 * . Mixing different topics makes the story more difficult to follow.
 * . This makes the story difficult to connect or follow. Instead there needs to be one topic per paragraph; please see this section.

{What is the article structure? + A key, and strict, policy is absolute neutrality.
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 * See the neutrality policy for full details of this.

+ Concentrate on the new facts and their known or potential consequence — background information is of lesser importance. - Start with the background to contextualize the reader, then write about the new event at the end. + Put the most important and newsworthy facts first, with least important and least immediate facts last — this is opposite to development order in typical narratives, and is termed inverted-pyramid style.
 * . At Wikinews the text is written with context awareness by means of adjectives and descriptions, however, background is included at the end of the article. First the event is in the first one-two paragraphs so that after a few seconds of reading the reader already knows the essence of the event. (This is unlike many other news sources -- please do not copy their writing style! Please see this section.)

{What is the article tone? + Be balanced. + Be clear, concise and unambiguous. - Ask questions which engage the reader into the activity of completing the description of the event. + Promote the human aspects of any story, using quotes etc — this makes the story interesting to a wider range of people.
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 * . Clarity allows for accurate, bias-free news reports.
 * . A news report includes an accurate, bias-free account of what has occurred.
 * . Any speculations need to be attributed.

{What about fact checking and how they are presented? + Be clear, concise and unambiguous. + Ascribe any speculation to a source — never introduce any of your own. - Speculate about the event. Write your opinion about what happened. It is interesting for the readers to read blogs and opinion columns. - Argue your point in the article, to present it to the readers more clearly.
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 * . Clarity allows for accurate, bias-free news reports.
 * . Wikinews is not a blog or a collection opinion. Instead we aim to write without bias; any controversial or speculative materials need to be attributed.
 * . Any speculations need to be attributed.

{When is attribution needed? + Opinions, unverified claims, speculation. - Everywhere, it is like an inline citation and helps the reviewer with fact checking.
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 * . Attribution is only required for opinions, unverified claims, speculations, and the like. Verified parts of the report do not need to be attributed. Please see this section.

{In what tense do articles need to be written? + Past tense or the present perfect. - Present tense.
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 * . Please see this section.