• The correct formatting of the subject of this Web site is "Pokémon," not "pokemon" or "Pokemon."
• Use Japanese Pokémon names when they are in translated titles that do not yet have an official English counterpart.

Example: Nyula and Barrierd! Whose Restaurant?!

• Song, movie and episode titles are italicized.
• Pictures are good; they attract readers and pique their curiosity.
• Remember the inverted pyramid. Put the most relevant and important information at the beginning of your article (your lead) and gradually work your way down to more trivial information. However, this is not a reason to make the majority of your story slop.
• "Toward" and related words, such as "afterward," "forward," and "backward," do not have an "s."
• Use "U.S." as an adjective and "United States" as a noun unless that's how it is in a direct quote. Same goes for "U.K." and "United Kingdom."

Example: "Pokémon is popular in the United States," not "Pokémon is popular in the U.S."

• Usually in numbers, those nine and below are words and those 10 and above are numerals, including uses such as "second" and "11th." Exceptions are numerous, including ages, dimensions and addresses, all of which use numerals. Any number beginning a sentence is a word. Try to avoid this by rewriting the sentence.
• Use a hyphen to connect related adjectives, such as 9-foot board, first-place finisher, 3-year-old girl. When linked adjectives are not related and not dependent upon each other to make sense, they require a comma, such as "the rusted, dull saw."
• A sentence with one subject and two verbs does not need a comma. A sentence that is constructed with subect-verb and subject-verb does need a comma.

Example: "Pikachu ate an apple and threw away the core," "Pikachu ate an apple, and Pichu ate a pear."

• Watch use of opinionated words, such as "gracefully," unless you quote a source with them. Also, instead of writing "He was grateful," you write "He said he was grateful."
• A specific named unit is all capitals, such as "Saffron Pokémon Center." If more than one are used, the specific names are capitalized but not the common word.

Example: "Saffron and Celadon Pokémon centers"

• The word "age" isn't needed with an age, such as "Ash Ketchum, age 10," unless the numeral can be confused with some other figure in the same sentence. Hyphenate an age when ahead of the noun, such as "4-year-old boy" and use separate words otherwise, such as "He is 4 years old."
• Numbers, incluidng years, simply need an "s" (not an apostrophe) when they are pluraled, such as "in the 1990s" and "He is in his 20s." When it it one digit, it does need an apostrophe, such as "He got all A's."
• Titles ahead of a name are capitalized, such as "Frontier Brain Noland." Titles after a name are lower-case, such as "Noland, frontier brain,..." Put a long title in back of a name (making it lower-case). If it is a job description, it is always lower-case, such as "trainer Ash Ketchum."
• Subjects and verbs must match, such as "Electric and Psychic ARE my favorite types." Some misleading pronouns are singular, such as "everyone." So "Everyone brought their Poké Balls" is incorrect (unless it is in a direct quote).

Example: "Everyone brought his or her Poké Balls."

• "It's" is a contraction for "it is" as in "It's time we got this right." "Its" is possessive as in "The Poochyena wants its bone."
• Avoid "there" unless you mean a place, such as "over there." The sentence "There is a Persian living here" should be "A Persian lives here." You get rid of extra characters, and you avoid the boring "to be" verb of "is."
• Avoid first-person writing in the use of "I, me, us and we" unless you're writing a first-person feature, column or opinion piece.
• Avoid second-person writing in the use of "you" unless you're writing directions, a second-person feature or a column.
• Never comma splice, such as "Misty said being a Gym Leader is hard, her sisters give her plenty of trouble." Instead of the comma, you have three options: a conjunction ("because" is good in this case), making it two sentences or using a semi-colon (the best choice in this case, but don't over-use it).
• Starting a direct quote requires its own paragraph. An indirect quote (paraphrasing what someone else said) directly related to the preceding sentence can be part of the same paragraph. Try to have paragraphs be no longer than six lines. A reader needs plenty of breaks. Try to mix short and longer paragraphs and sentences.
• Don't worry about overuse of "said." The reader does not tire of it; he reads over it. (Notice the use of semi-colon). Speech tags such as "claimed" makes the reader think the writer doubts what is being said. Accuracy is needed to correctly use certain speech tags. Some speech tags reveal the sentiment of the writer. We often improperly write that "Team Rocket demands" and "League officials request."
• In speech tags, the subject goes ahead of the verb.

Preferred: "You get it right," May said.

Avoid: "You get it right," said May.

OK: "You get it right," said May, the youngest coordinator in the room.

• Hourly times do not use 0's (5 p.m., not 5:00 PM) and the a.m. and p.m. are written lower-case with periods. Use "noon" and "midnight" instead of "12." Only use "o'clock" and "12" in a direct quote and then avoid it.
• Use "plenty" and "several" instead of "much," "lots," or "a lot" except in a direct quote. Note that if you are using "a lot," they are two words.
• Use a comma, not a period, when connecting a quote to a speech tag. It is not: "You do this right." he said. If the punctuation ending the quote is a ! or a ?, the pronoun is still lower-case, such as "You get it right!" he said.
• Months with dates are abbreviated, such as "Sept. 5" unless they are March, April, May, June or July.
• Spellcheck is fine, but it will not catch the interchangeable uses of "there," "their," "they're" or "nest" instead of "best." You still have to proofread.
• When in doubt, ask an editor or consult the Associated Press Stylebook or Webster's New World Dictionary, both which dictate news style.
• A tagline is a brief, single statement (it can be a sentence fragment and does not require a period at the end) that summarizes or states a major fact from your story.
• A brief consists of the first several sentences of your story, quickly informing the reader the "who, what, where, when and why" of your story.
• Use Bulbapedia links as often as they are appropriate (most of the time). Wikipedia links are helpful for unfamiliar, non-Pokémon terms.
• OBJECTIVITY AND FAIRNESS ARE VITAL. Keep your opinion out of your article unless you're writing a review or editorial! A new Pokémon game should not be described as "exciting" or "boring" unless it's in a direct quote from someone else.
• We are not held accountable to any sort of corporation, such as Nintendo or Game Freak. We are not their cheerleaders or advertisers. It is one matter to inform the public of a new product of interest, but quite another to tout its benefits or provide links to where the readers can purchase it.

Editor's note

• Some guidelines were adapted or coped from Nils Rosdahl's Notes on News Style.

External resources

• News style (Wikipedia)
• News values (Wikipedia)