User:Tony1/FAC checklist for intending nominators

Here is a list of issues that reviewers frequently raise on FAC pages. Dealing with them before you nominate the article will save everyone time and make the nomination process run more smoothly. Use the table of contents as a quick check-list.

Final period in captions

Image captions should not have a final period (full-stop) unless they are full sentences. Most captions are not full sentences, but just extended noun phrases. Watch for an operative verb, which is the sign of a full sentence. These captions are all wrongly punctuated.

(1) Before their 2007 football opener, the Hokies released 32 balloons in a ceremony commemorating the victims

*(1) They released the balloons; period required.

(2) A view north up the main street following the unusually heavy snowfall in March 2005.

*(2) The caption describes just one thing: "a view". It's an extended noun phrase, and the final period should be removed. "A view" is what we call the head, and everything after it is the postmodifier of the head. "Following" is not an operative verb here.

(3) The schoolroom (on the right side of the picture) was built as an annex to the church in 1884

*(3) The schoolroom WAS built ... end of story: it's a full sentence and requires a period.

The schoolroom (on the right side of the photo), built as an annex to the church in 1884.

*(4) "The schoolroom" is a thing, and the rest of the sentence just modifies it. There's no operative verb. Remove the period.

Final period in nested quotations

Where a quotation starts within one of Wikipedia's sentences, the final punctuation should not come before the closing quotation marks.

Spaced ellipsis dots

Ellipsis dots stand for text that you've omitted from a quotation. They're very useful in trimming quoted material down to what is necessary for your purpose. They should be spaced on both sides; the following example needs a space to be inserted before "is":

Baxter and Crumley (1988) suggest that St Kilda "...is a mad, imperfect God's hoard of all unnecessary lavish landscape luxuries he ever devised in his madness".

Here, spaces are needed before and after:

The islanders...were reported to have stayed cheerful throughout the operation. But as the long antler of Dun fell back onto the horizon and the familiar outline of the island grew faint, the severing of an ancient tie became a reality and the St Kildans gave way to tears.

The exception is when the omitted text starts after a period within your quotation. Four periods are required, spaced only on the right side:

The sun rose out of a calm and sparkling sea and warmed the impressive cliffs of Oiseval…. The morning of the evacuation promised a perfect day.