History Sandbox / ExampleInstructionsRemix

* '''Don't Write in the First Person:''' TVTropes is not a forum or a blog, so using such self-referential language (even something like "This Troper") is not appropriate. You aren't the topic of conversation; this isn't the time or place to make the discussion about you.\\\

* '''Administrivia/ExamplesAreNotRecent:''' Avoid using words like "recent" or "new" when writing on TVTropes. The work in question may be new when you ''wrote'' the example, but people might still be reading it years from now. Also, works tend to come out on different dates in different countries, so what is "new" to America may not be so recent in Japan or Europe. If the time of release is important to your point, use an actual date.\\\

* '''Make Sure it's Allowed:''' Not every trope allows examples, and some only allow certain ''kinds''. Some tropes are [[Administrivia/InUniverseExamplesOnly strictly in-universe]], and others forbid [[Administrivia/NoRealLifeExamplesPlease non-fictional examples]]. Likewise, certain types of works (such as [[Administrivia/TheContentPolicyAndThe5PCircuit pornography]]) are not allowed on the wiki at all. Be sure to fully read the description to make sure your example actually applies, and that it's allowed on the page.\\\

* '''Don't Be Afraid to Edit:''' Sometimes a prior example is worded strangely or glosses over distinct examples in its own right. You are encouraged [[Administrivia/WikiMagic to clean up what came before]]: parse down a WallOfText into bullet points, fix grammar and formatting, and eliminate natter. The cleaner the page looks, the better your example can be read and understood.\\\

* '''Check Your Formatting:''' Check your entry after writing to make sure it's formatted the way you intended. Double check trope links to make sure they aren't [[Administrivia/RedLink broken links]]. Try to avoid spending [[SerialTweaker three editing sessions]] fixing your mistakes; use the Preview function to double-check your work before committing to it.\\\

* '''Check Your Formatting:''' Check your entry after writing to make sure it's formatted the way you intended. Double check trope links to make sure they aren't [[RedLink broken links]]. Try to avoid spending [[SerialTweaker three editing sessions]] fixing your mistakes; use the Preview function to double-check your work before committing to it.\\\

* '''Don't Be Afraid to Edit:''' Sometimes a prior example is worded strangely or glosses over distinct examples in its own right. You are encouraged [[WikiMagic to clean up what came before]]: parse down a WallOfText into bullet points, fix grammar and formatting, and eliminate natter. The cleaner the page looks, the better your example can be read and understood.\\\

* '''Don't Be Afraid to Edit:''' Sometimes a prior example is worded strangely or glosses over distinct examples in its own right. You are encouraged [[WikiMagic to clean up what came before]]: parse down a WallOfText into bullet points, fix grammar or bad mark-up and eliminate natter. The cleaner the page looks, the better your example can be read and understood.\\\

* '''Don't Write Reviews on the Trope Page:''' TV Tropes defines "tropes" [[Administrivia/TropesAreTools tools for storytelling]]. As such, they cannot improve or destroy the quality of a work; they merely ''exist'' in a work. Using the trope page to highlight your opinion of how the trope is used is off-topic. If you ''must'' write reviews, we have a [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/review_activity.php Reviews Section]], as well as the relevant sections of the SugarWiki/SugarWiki, and DarthWiki/DarthWiki.\\\

* '''Avoid Detail Bloat:''' One of the most common mistakes tropers make is believing that they have to include ''every'' semi-relevant detail in their examples, thus bloating fairly simple entries into massive blocks of text. Examples should only include details necessary to understanding the example; comprehensive detail is neither necessary nor desirable in trope examples. This is admittedly one of the more difficult habits to break, and developing a sense of what's truly necessary can take time, but help is available if you need it.\\\

[[folder:Editing Existing Tropes]]

* '''Good Examples Are Easily Explained:''' All examples must provide context, or ''briefly explain'' what the trope is and how the work uses it. However, providing context is not the same thing as trying to justify why why you think the example fits the trope. The truth is, if you have to spend ''significant'' time qualifying and justifying how your example fits, it's probably not a very good example...or an example at all.\\\

* '''General Wiki-Editing Behavior:''' Administrivia/TVTropesCustoms

* '''Good Examples Are Easily Explained:''' All examples must provide context, or ''briefly explain'' what the trope is and how the work uses it. However, providing context is not the same thing as trying to justify why why you think the example fits the trope. The truth is, if you have to spend ''significant'' time qualifying and justifying how your example fits, it's probably not a very good example...or an example at all.

* '''Good Examples Are Easily Explained:''' All examples must provide context, or ''briefly explain'' what the trope is and how the work uses it. However, providing context is not the same thing as trying to justify why why you think the example fits the trope. The truth is, if you have to spend ''significant'' time qualifying and justifying how your example fits, it's probably not a very good example...or an example at all.

* '''Give Sources for Anything WordOfGod Related:''' While we don't require strict Wikipedia style citations, one ''should'' say where a WordOfGod statement originated from. Something as simple as providing a link, or giving a specific place to find the claim is sufficient. We require this because a lot of people like to [[GodNeverSaidThat claim a "fact" is Word of God]] to make their claims seem more valid.\\\

'''Information on Text Formatting and Markup:''' Administrivia/TextFormattingRules
'''Guidelines for Indenting and Ordering Examples:''' Administrivia/ExampleIndentationInTropeLists
'''General Wiki-Editing Behavior:''' Administrivia/TVTropesCustoms

Also see: , Administrivia/TVTropesCustoms.


Contrast DarthWiki/HowNotToWriteAnExample.

* ''''Good Examples Are Easily Explained:''' All examples must provide context, or ''briefly explain'' what the trope is and how the work uses it. However, providing context is not the same thing as trying to justify why why you think the example fits the trope. The truth is, if you have to spend ''significant'' time qualifying and justifying how your example fits, it's probably not a very good example...or an example at all.

[[folder:Good Examples are Not...]]

* '''Have Fun!''': These rules are here to help produce a useful, easy-to-read, fun environment for reader and editor alike. They are ''not'' a massive SwordOfDamocles waiting to fall on you at the slightest misstep. ''Follow'' them to the best of your ability, but don't let them ''stress you out.''. TV Tropes is generally a pretty relaxed place, and as long as you aren't deliberately causing trouble, vandalizing the wiki, or outright refusing to listen or communicate, our moderator team and community are more than willing to work with you.\\\

* '''Make Sure it's Allowed:''' Not every trope allows on-page examples, and some tropes only allow certain ''kinds'' of examples. For example, some pages only allow [[Administrivia/InUniverseExamplesOnly in-universe examples]], and others do not allow [[Administrivia/NoRealLifeExamplesPlease any non-fictional examples]]. Likewise, certain types of works (such as [[Administrivia/TheContentPolicyAndThe5PCircuit pornography]]) are not allowed even as examples. Be sure to fully read the description to make sure your example is actually an example, and that it's allowed on the wiki.\\\

If tropes are the "meat" of TV Tropes, examples are the potatoes, vegetables, sauces and condiments that give that meat both substance and flavor. A list of tropes with descriptions and clever names is all well and good, but examples bring articles to life, flesh out readers' understanding of tropes, and showcase the many ways a single trope can be used.

Also see: Administrivia/ExampleIndentationInTropeLists, Administrivia/TVTropesCustoms.

* '''[[Administrivia/ClearConciseWitty Remember that the point of an example is to convey information]].''' Clarity is the most important aspect of any example. "Clever" is nice, "Funny" is nice, "Detailed" is nice. But if any of these get in the way of ''clarity'', they cease being nice additions and become a problem.\\\

* '''Administrivia/ExamplesAreNotRecent:''' Avoid using words like "recent" or "new" when writing on TVTropes. The work in question may be new when you ''wrote'' the example, but people might still be reading it years from now. Also, works tend to come out on different dates in different countries, so what is "new" to America may not be so recent in Japan or Europe. If the time of release is important to your point, use an actual date.

* '''Check For Duplicates''': Before you hit the edit button, it's always wise to search existing examples to make sure yours hasn't already been added. If you don't want to read them all, Ctrl+F (Command+F if you're a Mac user) the page instead.\\\

* '''Make Sure it's Relevant:''' Be careful to avoid [[Administrivia/SquarePegRoundTrope shoehorning examples in where they don't fit]].

* '''Make Sure it's Accurate:''' At times there can be many different tropes that describe very similar events. Check into those other tropes before adding examples to the wrong trope. We have the CanonicalListOfSubtleTropeDistinctions just for that purpose.\\\

While the size of this list may seem intimidating, please remember that very few of these "rules" are completely unique to TV Tropes. Most of them are about the characteristics of good writing in general: clear, concise, organized, informative. Likewise, if you've spent time reading the wiki, you probably have a decent enough idea of what an example is expected to look like. These guidelines are about refining and improving your example writing, not boxing you into a boring, uniform writing style.

While the size of this list may seem intimidating, please remember that very few of these rules are completely unique to TV Tropes. Most of them are about the characteristics of good writing in general: clear, concise, organized, informative. Likewise, if you've spent time reading the wiki, you probably have a decent enough idea of what an example is expected to look like. These guidelines are about refining and improving your example writing, not boxing you into a boring, uniform writing style.

Given all that, it's important that our examples be as readable, informative, and interesting to as many readers as possible. To that end, we've come up with a list of rules, guidelines, and best practices to keep in mind when adding examples to pages.

Here at TV Tropes, we like to encourage editors to dive right in and add examples without forcing them to spend months lurking around and arduously studying proper editing [[Administrivia/TextFormattingRules form and style]]. Unfortunately, unleashing an ever-increasing horde of eager-but-clueless contributors onto an unprepared wiki can lead to ''problems''. With that in mind, here are some pieces of advice and common pitfalls for tropers new and old to consider when posting examples.

* '''Remember that [[Administrivia/ClearConciseWitty the point of an example is to convey information]].''' Clarity is the most important aspect of any example. "Clever" is nice, "Funny" is nice, "Detailed" is nice. But if any of these get in the way of ''clarity'', they cease being nice additions and become a problem.\\\

* '''Aim For "Final Draft" Quality:''' Simply adhering to this concept will serve you well throughout your troping career. \\\

* '''Include the Full Name of the Work or Trope:''' Every example on a trope page should either include the name of the work, or be placed under the work's entry as a secondary bullet point. Likewise, every trope on a work page should be placed the name of the trope. You ''do'' want the reader to know which work or trope you're talking about, right?\\\

** Don't use the hottest new slang. Most slang terms disappear before long, and future readers shouldn't need an interpreter to understand you.

** If the page is ''not'' sorted and the page has gotten long enough to ''need'' sorting, then adopt the method used by the same [[Administrivia/WhatPageTypesMean page type]].\\\

* '''Do Not Place Multiple Tropes on the Same Bullet:''' This creates all kinds of messes with duplicate entries, organization errors, and confusion over which trope applies to which example. If two or more tropes apply to a single example, put each trope separately in its correct place. Don't use a backslash/slash tropes together.\\\

* '''Don't Speculate or Predict:''' If you haven't actually ''seen'' a trope used in a work, it's not in the work -- no matter how much you think it will be. TV Tropes doesn't deal in predictions or uncertainties.\\\

* '''Don't Use Weasel Tropes:''' It's true that Administrivia/TropesAreFlexible, and some tropes have broad definitions. Still, it's not acceptable wedge in examples that don't fit, especially if it subverts the rules. For example, FridgeLogic is defined as "You didn't notice this until long afterwards," but some use it solely to complain about minor details that annoyed them.\\\

* '''Have Fun!''': Seriously, don't stress on the rules too much. Relax. We're mostly pretty chill here. As long as you don't go trashing entries, peeing on other tropers' lawns, we'll forgive just about anything. Seriously. Even the administrators are the type of people who'd [[AllLovingHero give their shoes to a man on the street if he asked nicely enough]].\\\

* '''Keep it Brief:''' Administrivia/BrevityIsWit. No one wants to read WallsOfText. Examples should have enough substance that readers can get a clear picture of how a work uses s trope, ''and no more.'' As a general rule, if your example is longer than a medium-sized paragraph, it's too long.\\\

* '''Italicize "Long" Work Names:''' Most works, such as books, TV series, and music albums, are considered "long works", and their names should be italicized. Shorter works (or parts of works) like individual songs, TV show episodes, short stories, short poems, essays or chapters should be set in quotation marks. When in doubt, it is best to use italics.

** If you do emphasise something, just use one form of markup;

** Most pages on the wiki are sorted by medium. Add examples to the proper medium, and if the list is in alphabetical order, follow suit. If it's not alphabetized, add your example to the end of the list.

* '''Do Not Place Multiple Tropes on the Same Bullet:''' This creates all kinds of messes with duplicate entries, organization errors, and confusion over which trope applies to which example. If two or more tropes apply to a single example, put each trope separately in its correct place.\\\

[[folder: Cutting the Crap]]

* '''Don't Comment on the State of the Article:''' Are you surprised that a specific example hasn't been added to the page yet? Then feel free to add it...but don't talk about how you're ''shocked'' that it's not already on the page. Commenting on the current state of a page is silly, doesn't help anyone, and such of-the-moment remarks tend to become obsolete very quickly.\\\