Wikipedia:WikiProject Contract bridge/Manual of Style

This Manual of Style of Wikiproject Contract bridge has the goal of making the bridge-related articles easy to read by following a consistent format. The following guidelines do not claim to be the last word. One way is often as good as any other, but if everyone does it the same way, Wikipedia will be easier to read and use, not to mention easier to write and edit. For general style guidelines, see Wikipedia:Manual of Style.

Capital letters

• Use lowercase words for honor card rank when used in text, i.e. jack, queen, king or ace
• Use single uppercase letters for honor card rank when used with suit symbol, i.e. ♥J, ♠Q, ♦K or ♣A
• Use lowercase words for the strain when used in text, i.e. spades, hearts, diamonds, clubs or notrump
• Use capitalized compass positions for players when used in text, i.e. North, South, West or East

Denomination and strain

• In the versions of the official Laws of Duplicate Bridge issued by the World Bridge Federation and the American Contract Bridge League, the collective term for the suits and notrump is denomination. The Official Encyclopedia of Bridge, 6th Edition, states that the "modern term is strain.
• Accordingly, use strain unless quoting the "Laws"

Suits

• Use templates {{Clubs}}, {{Diams}}, {{Hearts}} and {{Spades}} to display the suit symbols ♣, ♦, ♥ and ♠ respectively
• Do not use the upper or lower case letters C, D, H or S.

Notrump variants

• Use Notrump or notrump, and not No Trump, no trump, No-trump or no-trump.
• Use NT to abbreviate Notrump or notrump.

Card rank presentation

• A specific card is represented by its suit symbol followed by its rank with no space between, i.e. ♠K
• Do not use a mix of words and symbols, i.e. neither "♣ king" and "club K" are correct
• When the cards are presented in the text, use "king of clubs", or "club king" (discusss)
• Use "two" rather than "deuce"
• Use "jack" rather than "knave"
• Use "three" rather than "trey"
• Use "10" rather than "T"

Distribution

Suit distribution notation will follow this convention:

• Four numbers with hyphens as separators when specific suit lengths are not designated, e.g. 4-4-3-2 denotes any hand with two four card suits, a tripleton and a doubleton
• Four numbers with equal signs as separators when specific suit lengths are designated, e.g. 4=6=1=2 denotes a hand with four spades, six hearts, one diamond and two clubs

Auction

Players are generally described by their nominal seating position, i.e. North, West, East and South.

In the description of competitive bidding and of bidding systems, players may also be referred to as either the Opener, the Intervener (the opponent who makes his side’s first bid, the Responder (partner of the Opener) or the Advancer (partner of the Intervener).

An auction can be presented inline or as a table. Table notation can be used in all cases; inline notation should only be used for short bidding sequences, i.e. at most five calls.

Give proper distinction to the terms call and bid.

Inline

• When presented by symbols, the level should precede the denomination, e.g. 2♣ or 3NT. There is no space between the number and the symbol;
• Separate the calls of the same round with en-dash (–) or use the first symbol (–) from the editing toolbar. There should be a space between;
• Separate the rounds with a semicolon without preceding space;
• In text format, use 'Pass', 'Double' or 'Redouble' and not 'No bid' or 'No';
• When used in an inline bidding sequence, use P, Dbl and Rdbl;
• Omit the ending three 'Pass' ('P', 'All pass' or 'AP') calls;
• Use {{nowrap begin}} {{nowrap end}} around each round of bidding and incorporate the round ending semi-colon;
• If an opponent's calls are included, put them in parentheses, e.g. 1♥ – (1♠) – Dbl; 2♦ – 2♠;
• Use "M" for "a major suit" and "m" for "a minor suit" for inline bidding, when the intent is to refer to either major or to either minor. For example, 1♦ – 1M; 2♣ subsumes both 1♦ – 1♥; 2♣ and 1♦ – 1♠; 2♣.

Table

See Appendix 3: Bidding table examples for further details.

• When an auction consists of more than five calls, present it in a table.

Templates

Hand and deal diagrams

See Appendix 4: Deal diagram examples for further details.

Several templates have been developed to illustrate individual hands, full deals and partial deals; instruction documentation is included.

Suit combination play may be illustrated by the templates found in Appendix 4: Deal diagram examples.

Template summary

All bridge templates are listed in Category:Bridge (card game) templates; previous sections have illustrated use of the following:

• {{clubs}}, {{diamonds}} or {{diams}}, {{hearts}} and {{spades}} for the suit symbols: ♣, ♦ or ♦, ♥ and ♠
• {{BridgeHandNWES}} and its derivatives produce bridge hands for selective players; examples are illustrated in Appendix 4: Deal diagram examples
• {{BridgeHandInline}} produces a single hand result such as "North holds ♠ AK5 ♥ 56 ♦ J986 ♣ Q753"
• {{BridgeSuitNS}} used to illustrate holdings by declarer and dummy and generally used to illustrate a line of play of suit combinations
• {{BridgeSuit}} produces holdings in a suit for all four players, centered; {{BridgeSuitLeft}} places the diagram on the left.

Vocabulary and spelling

See Appendix 2: Vocabulary and spelling guidelines for further details.

Narration

Use of templates and tables is guided by the appropriate section of this manual.

Examples of recommended inline text narration involving auctions, a bid and card play are presented below

Preferred	Avoid/Minimize
to be completed	to be completed

Appendices

• Appendix 1: Article naming conventions
• Appendix 2: Vocabular and spelling guidelines
• Appendix 3: Bidding table examples
• Appendix 4: Deal diagram examples
• Appendix 5: Referenced Manuals of Style

References

• Wikipedia:Manual of Style
• The Bridge World Manual of Style
• Bridge Writing Style Guide by Richard Pavlicek
• The Official Encyclopedia of Bridge