Ore, Twintail ni Narimasu:Format Guidelines
This page describes the formatting guidelines for Ore, Twintail ni Narimasu. Major differences from the usual guidelines on this page are marked in red.
General
Translators
Each project contains a "registration page" that lists all known chapters, together with the translator who has claimed that chapter.
- Please register yourself on the page before you start work on a chapter. Only do one chapter at a time.
- Registration is first come first served, although this is negotiable.
- Do not feel reluctant to post drafts. It will be the editor's job to clean it up. Discussion between editors and translators is encouraged via the Talk pages for each chapter.
- The registration page is not binding, and translators are encouraged to negotiate between themselves.
- Chapters that are not updated for a significant time may be taken over by another translator after getting permission from the project manager. You may work in parallel, or continue the work of the old translator, but please do not delete work. Move it somewhere else.
Editors
Editors are people who read the translated text, correct spelling and grammar errors, and look for awkward or unnatural translations. Editors are generally native speakers of the target language. When you are making an edit, please explain the reason for the edit in the summary box above the "Save page" button.
Grammar and spelling can be fixed directly, but if an editor thinks a paragraph needs to be rewritten, they should get in touch with the translator and tell them why they rewrote it, briefly explaining their reasons. The translator should consider the advice carefully, but the ultimate decision is theirs. They should feel free to re-rewrite the paragraph, or even to revert the edit.
It would be very time-consuming to do this one edit at a time, so here's one approach:
- Tell the translator for that chapter that you're going to start editing (so they know not to revise anymore)
- Copy the wiki markup to a Google Doc.
- Cover it to your heart's content in editor's notes and all colors of highlighter. You could even use a color scheme:
- Red: Stop! This sentence really needs to be fixed. (and a note with the reason)
- Yellow: It's not unreadable, but there is some problem in this part. (and a note)
- Blue: I rewrote this sentence. See what you think.
- And then share it! Keep in mind that anons cannot see notes.
Some editors are acknowledged for their continuing contributions, and are elevated to an official "Editor" status complete with some extra permissions on the Wiki. These are Baka-Tsuki "Staff Editors" who also have the task of monitoring the wiki for signs of vandals. They are able to issue warning flags, but are otherwise the same as everyone else.
Here are some guidelines:
1. Editors should focus on the flow of the text. What is awkward? What is hard to understand?
2. Honorifics should be kept, except -san, which can be dropped if it seems like a good idea. Twoearle says "Aika-san," but that seems fairly unnatural to me, so I have been translating it as "Aika". Here's all the exceptions so far:
- Aika-san → Aika
- okaasama → honored mother (not mother-sama)
3. Sound effects and especially gitaigo are left to the translator's discretion. Sound effect dictionaries: [1] and [2]
English doesn't have such a broad variety of sound effects, so consider translating them into something else! The line I translated as "Twoearle gurgled with little bubbles" in Chapter 3 was actually a line of dialogue ("Ogogogo.")
[list of examples so far]
4. Do not add yourself to the list of editors under a project page unless the manager/admin approves you.
5. Translators can be neurotic, to put it mildly. So please do ask or otherwise communicate. :)
Anonymous editors
Please feel free to fix spelling mistakes or obvious grammar mistakes. If you are editing a few pages or chapters at a time, you don't necessarily have to register with the wiki, but please get in touch with the translator like it says above.
Language
This project is in English.
Spelling and grammar
Exactly as specified in the official guidelines, our bible for spelling is the fourth edition of the fifth edition of the American Heritage Dictionary.
No, okay, listen, if you're British, feel free to use British spelling. That is not something with which this project is concerned.
Translating, idioms, and puns
Absolutely feel free to reverse syntax trees, split or join sentences, rearrange sentences in a paragraph, and so on. Japanese paragraphs are a shorter linguistic unit than English paragraphs, so go ahead and glue paragraphs together if you want to. In fact, you absolutely should!
Don't be afraid to change things, but understand the original text before you start making decisions about what to change. And even when everything seems hopeless, it's often possible to stay pretty close to the original.
Even idioms often have close relatives in English. For those that don't, please use your discretion. You can rewrite the line, or translate them literally and add a translator's note.
There are some puns in this book. You are on your own here. You could come up with a tolerable and vaguely similar English pun. You can add a translator's note. Or you can just crush the pun under your boot and write it off as lost in translation.
Free dictionary suggestions: zkanji, weblio/ejje, Google for whatever or whatever 意味.Formatting
Formatting refers to the general layout of the pages and arrangement of the information.
Project overview pages
Each project has an overview page, from which the individual chapters are linked.
At the very least, overview pages should contain, preferably in this order:
- Links to any alternate non-English versions, so non-English speakers can easily locate them.
- A brief and spoiler-free synopsis of the work (one paragraph would be sufficient).
- A list of volumes and chapters for the collection to be translated.
- The actual links to each portion of the translation, organized by volume if appropriate.
- A list of translators active and registered for the project.
- Clear indication of designated project manager for inquiries, with contact details.
- A section listing the books, with the original author, publisher, publishing date, and ISBN.
Project Overview pages should list the translators and editors, and their activity status. There are five "levels" of activity, depending on how long it's been since anyone has had contact with them and if there is a known reason for them being inactive.
Active - Recently active, easily contacted. Away - Has declared that they will be away and inactive (vacation, school etc). AWOL - Hasn't been seen or heard from for two months. MIA - Hasn't been seen or heard from for six months. KIA - 14 months of absence, presumed dead or permanently imprisoned.
There is a dedicated page for each chapter of the translation.
In general, no header is required for these pages as Wikimedia automatically places a title on the page based on its URL. If there is any specific translator/editor notes that need attention, they should be placed at the top of the page in italics. For example, a notice that a portion of the translation has been omitted or that there are multiple versions on this page for whatever reason.
Page footers should include links to the previous chapter (if any), a link to the project's overview page, and a link to the next chapter (again, if any). If there are no previous or next chapters, then the footer can be completely omitted. An example footer is as follows:
| Chapter (previous chapter) | Ore, Twintails ni Narimasu | Chapter (next chapter) |
Cover art
Cover art, as well as inserts, should be included in a special gallery page as the first section of the volume if available. There is no recommended size for these images, but JPEG format is preferred.
Inline images
Many times there are illustrations that accompany the text. The recommended image size and format is a high-quality JPEG somewhere around 600x1000. Actual size and format is left to the project manager or uploader.
Image names should be descriptive of what project they belong to and where they belong in the text. For example: "Sh_v05c02_01.jpg" would be the first image (01) in chapter 2 (c02), volume 5 (v05) of the Suzumiya Haruhi (Sh) series.
Use a captioned thumbnail to include the picture in the translated text. The thumbnail template places the resized image in a frame to the right, with text wrapping around it, and optionally places a caption under the image. An example of such an image is to the right.
Inline images are generally located close to the portion of text they refer to, or approximately where the image appears in the original text.
Translator's notes
Translator's notes should be used to clarify expressions, places, dates and so forth about which the reader may not have sufficient knowledge. For example, references to culture-specific holidays, food and ceremonies are common, as are places and items that may not be widely known.
Preferably, a new page for each volume should be created, with the title "Translator's Notes." The page should be divided into sections corresponding to the chapters of that volume.
The preferred format for a footnote is to add a numbered link after the key word or phrase to the appropriate section of the "Translator's Notes" page for that volume. (This is an example.[3])
Add your note using:
==Translator's Notes== ===Chapter 1=== ====note name==== <div style="margin-left: 2em;">(whatever)</div> ===Chapter 2==== ====note name====
To get the link, just go to the page and copy the link from the Table of Contents. It should look like
http://www.baka-tsuki.org/project/index.php?title=Ore,_Twintail_ni_Narimasu:Volume_1_Translator%27s_Notes#equally_excited
Notes on the same page: the ref tag
Alternatively, you can add notes/references on the same page.
<ref>It works like this.</ref>
Then at the end of the page, add
<references />
By clicking on the number, you're forwarded to the note content, and the link at the left of the note will bring you back to the line you initially clicked from.
Here is the result of that:
Alternatively, you can add notes/references on the same page. [1] Then at the end of the page, add
- ↑ It works like this.
By clicking on the number, you're forwarded to the note content, and the link at the left of the note will bring you back to the line you initially clicked from.
Using HTML comments for notes to editors
You could also use HTML comments to add notes for editors or other translators:
'''(!<!-- Note: I'm not sure about this sentence! Please check it for me -->)'''
The nowiki tag
If you would like to display special characters you'll have to put them into the nowiki tags.
<nowiki> [[ ~~~ ]] </nowiki>
Full Text Versions
Once all portions of a volume are completed, a "Full Text" version may be created and linked to via the volume's title on the project overview page.
Wiki Editing Tips
Wiki CheatsheetBelow is list of codes which are commonly used on this wiki | ||
| Description | You type | You get |
| Applies anywhere | ||
| Italicise text |
''italic'' |
italic |
| Bold text |
'''bold''' |
bold |
| Bold and italic |
'''''bold & italic''''' |
bold & italic |
| Internal link (within Baka-Tsuki) |
[[Name of page]] |
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| Redirect to another page |
#REDIRECT [[Target page]] |
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| External link (to other websites) |
[http://www.example.org] |
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Sign your posts |
~~~~ |
Your username 21:20, |
| Applies only at the beginning of the line | ||
| Headings A Table of Contents will automatically be generated when four headings are added to an article. |
== Level 1 == |
Level 1Level 2Level 3Level 4Level 5 |
| Bulleted list |
* One |
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| Numbered list |
# One |
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[[Image:picture.jpg|thumb|Caption text]] |
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