Editing Encyclopedia:Manual of Style (section)

===Typographic conformity===
{{Shortcut|MOS:CONFORM}}

A quotation is not a [[wikt:facsimile|facsimile]] and, in most cases, it is not a requirement that the original formatting be preserved. Formatting and other purely typographical elements of quoted text{{efn|"Quoted text" for typographic conformity and many other purposes includes titles of works, names of organizations, and other strings that are, in essence, quoted. Example: things like "Mexican-American War" are routinely corrected to "Mexican–American War" on Wikipedia, including in titles of cited sources, whether in article prose, citation footnotes, or elsewhere on the page. This has no effect on searching for the works we have cited, since all major search engines disregard punctuation marks.}} should be adapted to English Wikipedia's conventions without comment, provided that doing so will not change or obscure meaning or intent of the text. These are alterations which make no difference when the text is read aloud, for example:

*Normalize dashes and hyphens: see {{Section link||Dashes}}. Use the style chosen for the article: unspaced [[em dash]] or spaced [[en dash]].
*Convert apostrophes and quotation marks to Wikipedia's style:
**These should be straight, not curly or slanted. See {{section link||Quotation marks}}.
**When quoting a quotation that itself contains a quotation, alternate between using double and single quotes for each quotation. See {{section link||For a quotation within a quotation}} for details.
*When quoting text from non-English languages, the outer punctuation should follow [[Wikipedia:Manual of Style#Quotation marks|the Manual of Style for English quote marks]]. If there are nested quotations, follow the rules for correct punctuation in that language. If there are multiple styles for a language, the one used by the Wikipedia for that language is preferred unless the punctuation itself is under discussion.
*:{{xt|The cynical response "{{lang|fr|italic=unset|L'auteur aurait dû demander&nbsp;: «&nbsp;à quoi sert-il d'écrire ceci&nbsp;?&nbsp;» mais ne l'a pas fait}}" was all he wrote.}}
*Remove spaces before punctuation such as periods and colons.
*Generally preserve bold and italics {{crossref|pw=y|(see {{section link||Italics}})}}, but most other styling should be altered. {{!xt|{{Underline|Underlining}}}}, {{!xt|spac&nbsp;ing}} within words, {{!xt|1=co<span style="color:Goldenrod;">lor</span>s}}, {{!xt|ALL CAPS}}, {{Smallcaps|{{!xt|small caps}}}}, etc. should generally be normalized to plain text. If it {{em|clearly}} indicates emphasis, use italic {{em|emphasis}} ({{tlx|em}}) or, in an already-italic passage, boldface (with {{tlx|strong}}). For titles of books, articles, poems, and so forth, use italics or quotation marks following [[Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Titles|the guidance for titles]]. Italics can also be added to mark up [[#Non-English terms|non-English terms]] (with the {{tlx|lang}} template), for an [[#Animals, plants, and other organisms|organism's scientific name]], and to indicate a [[#Words as words|words-as-words]] usage.
*Expand an abbreviation (not already used in the content before the quotation) as a square-bracketed change, or explain it using {{tlx|abbr}}.
*Normalize archaic glyphs and ligatures in English that are unnecessary to the meaning (except in proper names and for languages where ligatures are standard, per {{section link||Ampersand}} and [[MOS:LIGATURE]]). Examples include ''[[æ]]''→''ae'', ''[[œ]]''→''oe'', ''[[Long s|ſ]]''→''s'', and ''[[Thorn (letter)#Abbreviations|þ<sup>e</sup>]]''→''the''. 

{{crossref|pw=y|See {{section link|Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Titles#Typographic conformity}} for special considerations in normalizing the typography of titles of works.}}

However, national varieties should not be changed, as these may involve changes in vocabulary. For example, a quotation from a British source should retain British spelling, even in an article that otherwise uses American spelling. {{crossref|pw=y|(See {{section link||Consistency within articles}}.)}} Numbers also usually [[Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Dates and numbers#Quotations, titles, etc.|should not be reformatted]].

Direct quotation should not be used to preserve the formatting preferred by an external publisher (especially when the material would otherwise be unchanged), as this tends to have the effect of [[Scare quotes|scare-quoting]]:
*{{em|Acceptable}}: {{xt|The animal is listed as endangered on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.}}
*{{em|Unacceptable}}: {{!xt|The animal is listed as "Endangered" on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.}}

Italics can be used to mark a particular usage as a [[term of art]] (a case of "[[Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Text formatting#Words as words|words as words]]"), especially when it is unfamiliar or should not be reworded by a non-expert:
*{{em|Permissible}}: {{xt|The animal is listed as ''critically endangered'' on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.}}

When quoting a complete sentence, it is usually recommended to keep the first word capitalized. However, if the quoted passage has been integrated into the surrounding sentence (for example, with an introduction such as "{{var|X}} said that"), the original capital letter may be lower-cased.
*{{xt|LaVesque's report stated: "The equipment was selected for its low price. This is the primary reason for criticism of the program."}}
*{{xt|LaVesque's report said that "the equipment was selected for its low price".}}
*{{xt|The program was criticized primarily because "the equipment was selected for its low price", according to LaVesque.}}

It is normally unnecessary to explicitly note changes in capitalization. However, for more precision, the altered letter may be put inside square brackets: {{nobr|"The" → "[t]he".}}
*{{xt|The program was criticized primarily because {{nobr|"[t]he}} equipment was selected for its low price", according to LaVesque.}}