Talk:Gundam Unicorn

So, the person who added all the double angle brackets: may I ask why that was done? I assume, based on what you put in brackets that it was to italicize those things, but there are a few usage issues with what you've put there RE: how italics are used. Anyway, I let me know if that's actually why you put those there, and I'll incorporate the appropriate parts into what I'm doing. TheWonko 22:05, 30 May 2012 (CDT)

The adding of the << >> was done to indicate terminology usage. If you look at the edit history for Volume 2 Chapter 3 you should see that for mobile suit names, ship names and colony names, Teh_Ping had put their names in between << >>. I thought this was done to indicate terminology usage like in the Sword Art Online project which uses « » for any place names, terminology etc. Really I should have used « » like the SAO project but I couldn't figure out how to type those so instead I used << >> instead like Teh_Ping did for Volume 2 Chapter 3. So the edits to Unicorn adding << >> was done to indicate terminology, as I thought it was the standard way to denote project specific terminology. You can remove them if you want.

Ah, I see. I know that Japanese does use indicate terminology usage like that, but it makes the English awkward to read. There are ways to indicate jargon and terminology usage in English, and I I'll probably end up using them more in my second pass edit. TheWonko 20:03, 2 June 2012 (CDT)

An explanation, a question, and a reference

Sorry I've been away for a while, it's been a busy couple of weeks.

Anyway, Teh_Ping, under the assumption that you're watching this page, I thought I'd give an explanation for why I made the changes I did as far as jargon and terminology indicators, and ask what you, as project lead, think I should do in future edits. Putting all this on the talk page also gives me a handy reference sheet to refer back to during editing so that I stay consistent with myself.

For radio and other electronic broadcasts I put the text in single angle brackets (that is, <>) for two reasons. One: Angle brackets aren't used anywhere in standard English writing, so they lent themselves well to an unambiguous meaning, whereas parenthesis (which were used at least in the prologue to denote electronic transmissions) could conceivably be taken to mean that the enclosed text is a very long aside. The second reason I chose single angle brackets for electronic communication is because, frankly, they look more electronic than square brackets ([]) or braces ({}).

In standard written English, the double angle bracket (<<>>), which you used to indicate terminology or jargon usage, isn't used at all, which is why I elected to change them to common standard English alternatives, such as italics, Capital Letters, or "double quotation marks", as appropriate.

In most written English style guides, names of ships (and, by extension, space ships) are given in italics, such as the U.S.S. Enterprise, or the Millennium Falcon, so naturally I chose that for ship names, such as the Garencieres.

Italics, together with double quotation marks, are generally used in fiction to denote internal thoughts. So a character would think ”I'm screwed”.

The names of cities, provinces or states, colonies, and countries are always capitalized, as they are proper nouns. You wouldn't talk about “New York” or London. Therefore, I decided to talk about Industrial 7.

On a similar note, it has become relatively common to denote that an object is important by capitalizing the initial letters in each word, such as saying that something is a Big Deal. Following this trend, I chose Laplace's Box.

For general jargon and terminology usage that doesn't fall into any of the above cases (such as the common names of military hardware), double quotation marks are used. Therefore, F-16 “Fighting Falcon”, F-22 “Raptor”, NZ-666 “Kshatriya”. Once the quotation marks are used once, however, it's generally accepted that the name can be repeated without them in all future uses. Admittedly, I've been lax on this on myself, as I rarely, if ever, used quotation marks that way, but I have been working them into my edits as I go along, and I plan to make the second pass edits all have them properly.

So, that's why I used the styles I did. But English is a weird, inconsistent language, and you're in charge of the project. If you dislike anything I've done, let me know what, and what you'd like me to use instead, and I'll put them into future edits.

TheWonko 23:34, 22 June 2012 (CDT)