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The Manual of Style is one of the core article policies on the Harry Potter Books Wiki. It regulates the style and formatting of our articles. For rules regarding the layout of the articles, refer to the Layout Guide.
Out-of-universe perspective[]
Articles are written with an out-of-universe (OOU) perspective, i.e. something written from a real-life point of view. This means characters can be treated as such and are not described with an in-universe (IU) perspective, in addition to locations, objects and events. For example, the opening line of Harry Potter's article says that he "is a character in the Harry Potter book series" instead of only describing the character as "a half-blood wizard" and can include which book they first appeared in. The infoboxes also have a section for book information which provides the first and last appearance of the topic.
Tense and language[]
All articles should be written in present tense and with sentence case. There should be consistency across the site.
Though readers and editors speak many varieties of English, we mandate standard British English spelling, grammar, punctuation, and word usage. This is the variety of English used in the first printings of most primary sources. If a direct quotation has a word which is spelled differently in British English, the original spelling must be preserved. However, a [sic] sign may be put after the word to indicate the text was quoted verbatim.
Neutral point of view[]
All articles must be written from a neutral point of view (NPOV), representing views fairly and without bias.
Naming articles[]
An article's title should contain the full first and last name of a character wherever possible. For example, use William Weasley instead of Bill Weasley unless they are known by two given names (e.g. Phineas Nigellus Black) or who have more than one surname (e.g. Hector Dagworth-Granger). The article's title should include all of these possible names, since they represent the character's full first name and last name.
An article's title should contain the surname most often used throughout the Harry Potter series, regardless of marriage. For example, use Ginevra Weasley instead of Ginevra Potter but Lily Potter instead of Lily Evans. Titles are not used in an article's title. For example, use James Potter's father instead of Mr Potter. Exceptions to this are cases when the title is part of their actual name. For example, Mrs Norris or Sir Cadogan. If the topic has no given name, the article should be named according to their description in the book(s). For example, Wizard in a violet cloak.