Difference between revisions of "Writing Guide"

Revision as of 09:46, 8 February 2008

Focus and Tone

As you are writing or editing articles on MormonWiki.com, please consider the fact that our audience includes friends of all faiths, with varying degrees of knowledge about the teachings of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. For that reason, it's helpful to define gospel terms as they're used; words and phrases such as "covenants," "stake", "ward", "General Conference," "Relief Society," "Enrichment," etc. should be clarified within the context of a given post.

In reference to the tone of articles submitted, we welcome a friendly, inviting, and professional voice. While the articles should not be written solely for academia, they should be scholarly in the sense that they are well-documented, well-developed, and accurately referenced. Articles should not, in any way, be offensive, defensive, or condescending. As writers simply state our beliefs clearly, those compelling declarations will speak for themselves.

Other Guidelines

• Personal information should be limited to the Personal Experiences and Testimonies section and should not be incorporated into other articles.
• This website is for explaining the doctrines and practices of the Mormon Church from the perspective of faithful members. Controversial subjects are welcome, but should be treated in light of official Church doctrine.
• Profanity or vulgarity of any sort is prohibited.
• Third person (he, she, they, it) or first person plural (we, our) are preferable except for personal experiences or testimonies.
• Be prepared to have your work edited.
• Please give the references for all quotes used and cite your sources.
• When referring to the proper title of the Church, please capitalize The in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The first reference to the Church on any page should read, "The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (casually known as the Mormon Church)." Subsequent referrals to the Church can follow the standard in the notation below.
• It is standard for this website to use the terms Mormon, Mormon Church, and Mormonism, though we try to emphasize the proper title of the Church. The terms LDS, Latter-day Saints, and Saints are also perfectly acceptable. The reason for using the term Mormon is to make our site easier for search engines to find. Typically, people looking up information about the Church will use the appellation Mormon and we want them to be able to find positive information (See President Hinckley's Talk: Mormon Should Mean "More Good").

For More Information, see:

• MormonWiki Style Guide
• About Mormonwiki.com
• Policies
• Licensing (read this before using content from this site)
• Copyrights (read this before adding content to this site)