Editing Encyclopedia:Manual of Style (section)

===Pronouns===
{{shortcut|MOS:PRONOUN}}
{{See also|Wikipedia:Writing better articles#Use of pronouns}}

====First-person pronouns<span class="anchor" id="First-person pronouns"></span>====
{{Shortcut|MOS:I|MOS:OUR|MOS:PERSON|MOS:WE}}

To maintain an objective and impersonal encyclopedic voice, an article should never refer to its editors or readers using ''I'', ''my'', ''we'', ''us'', ''our'', or similar words: {{!xt|We note that some believe that bats are bugs}}. But some of these words are acceptable in certain figurative uses. For example:
*In historical articles to mean the modern world as a whole: {{xt|Only portions of ''De re publica'' have come down to us.}}
*The [[author's we|author's ''we'']] found in scientific writing ({{xt|We construct {{mvar|S}} as follows}}), though [[English passive voice|passive voice]] may be preferable ({{xt|{{mvar|S}} is constructed as follows}}).{{efn|name=passive|1={{anchor|passive|Passive|PASSIVE}}The [[English passive voice|passive voice]] is inappropriate for some forms of writing, but it is widely used in encyclopedia articles, because the passive voice avoids inappropriate first- and second-person constructions as well as tone problems. The most common uses of encyclopedic passive are to keep the focus on the subject instead of performing a [[Wikipedia:What Wikipedia is not#Wikipedia is not a newspaper|news-style]] shift to dwelling on a non-notable party. Contrast {{xt|The break-in was reported to police the next morning}}, versus {{!xt|Assistant manager Peggy Plimpton-Chan reported the break-in to police the next morning}}.}}

====Second-person pronouns<span class="anchor" id="Second-person pronouns"></span>====
{{Shortcut|MOS:YOU|MOS:YOUR|MOS:BAIT|MOS:PEDAGOGY|MOS:SOCRATIC}}
{{redirect|WP:YOU|"Wikipedia is not about {{em|you}}"|WP:NOTYOU|"A picture of you"|WP:APoY}}

Avoid addressing the reader using ''you'' or ''your'', which sets an inappropriate tone {{crossref|pw=y|(see also {{section link||Instructional and presumptuous language}})}}.
*Use a noun or a third-person pronoun: instead of {{!xt|When you move past "Go", you collect $200}}, use {{xt|A player passing "Go" collects $200}}, or {{xt|When a player passes "Go", they collect $200}}.
*If a person cannot be specified, or when implying "anyone" as a subject, the impersonal pronoun ''[[One (pronoun)|one]]'' may be used: {{xt|a sense that one is being watched}}. Other constructions may be preferable if the pronoun ''one'' seems stilted: {{xt|a person's sense of being watched}}.
*The [[English passive voice|passive voice]] may sometimes be used instead:{{efn|name=passive}} {{xt|Impurities are removed before bottling}}.
*Do not bait links, e.g., "{{!xt|Click here for more information}}"; let the browser's normal highlighting invite a click. ("{{!xt|Click here}}" also makes no sense to someone reading on paper.)
*Likewise, "See:&nbsp;..." or "Consider&nbsp;..." (in reference to arguments, principles, facts, etc.) are milder second-person baits, common in academic writing ([[pedagogy]]). This interactive personality is inconsistent with an encyclopedia's passive presentation of objective matter.
**"See" and the like can be used to internally cross-reference other Wikipedia material. Do not italicize words like "see". Such a cross-reference should be parenthetical, so the article text stands alone if the parenthetical is removed. {{tlx|Crossref}} can be used for this: {{tlx|Crossref|(see <nowiki>[[Chicken]]</nowiki>)}}, {{tlx|Crossref|(See <nowiki>[[Dacian language]]</nowiki> for details.)}} It is usually better to rewrite the material to integrate these links contextually rather than use [[Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Self-references to avoid|explicit Wikipedia self-references]].
*Do not address the reader with the [[Socratic method]] by asking and answering questions. {{!xt|Did [[Francis Bacon|Bacon]] write [[Shakespeare]]? Then who wrote Bacon?}}

====Third-person pronouns====
Refer to a person with pronouns (and other gendered words) that reflect their latest self-identification in recent reliable sources. [[Singular they|Singular ''they/them/their'']] are appropriate in reference to anyone who uses those, as replacements for [[neopronoun]]s, and in generic reference to persons of unknown gender.

{{crossref|pw=y|(For considerably more detail, see {{section link|WP:Manual of Style/Biography#Gender identity}}.)}}

{{shortcut|MOS:SHIPPRONOUN|MOS:SHE4SHIPS}}
Ships (military or private-sector) may be referred to by either [[Grammatical gender|neuter]] pronouns (''it'', ''its'') or feminine pronouns (''she'', ''her''). Both usages are acceptable, but each article should be internally consistent and exclusively employ only one style.{{efn|As usual, direct quotations should not be altered in such a regard, and have no effect on determination of consistency within Wikipedian-authored content.}} As with all optional styles, articles [[Wikipedia:Manual of Style#Retaining existing styles|should not]] be changed from one style to another without clear and substantial reason.{{efn|name=debates|See [[Wikipedia talk:Manual of Style/Archive (ships as "she")]] – an index of recurrent debates about this subject, from 2004 though 2022.}} Try to avoid close, successive uses of the same referent for a ship, by using different referents in rotation; for example, ''it'' or ''she'', ''the ship'', and the ship's name. The ''she/her'' optional style does not apply to other vessel/vehicle types, such as trains.{{efn|See {{section link|Wikipedia talk:Manual of Style/Archive 167#WP:SHE for steam locomotives as well as ships}} – concluded with a strong consensus against the practice.}}

{{crossref|pw=y|(See the next section, "Plurals", for singular ''it'' or plural ''they'' in reference to organizations and other collective nouns.)}}