Ace Attorney Wiki:Article structure

This page describes how to structure articles of different types on the Ace Attorney Wiki.

Quality templates
Certain warning messages are sometimes placed at the very top of a page. The most common ones are Template:Expand, Template:Cleanup, Template:Japanimages, Template:JReleased and Template:Released. If any of these apply to a page, please use them.

Characters
In short, character articles should read like biographies of actual people. This means that they should be written in "in-universe" style, as if someone from inside the Ace Attorney universe is writing about them. For more on this concept, see Ace Attorney Wiki:Perspective.

At the beginning of each character article, right below the article quality templates, Template:Character should be implemented with all of the fields filled with the proper information if possible. More information on how to do this is in the template's page.

A character article should begin with a general description of the subject. This is generally called the lead section. The description should include the subject's name (in bold) and perhaps a very brief summary of what makes the character noteworthy. A mention of the subject's appearances in episodes may also be made here. Consider the following example:


 * Phoenix Wright is a professional poker player who was instrumental in re-introducing the Jurist System into California law. He was a renowned defense attorney who was famous for turning hopeless cases around.

Info should also be presented in the appropriate tense. In the above example, Phoenix Wright was a lawyer and is currently a professional poker player. In articles about people who have been convicted for murder, it is assumed that these people are dead to resolve ambiguities in tense, so info on them would be presented entirely in past tense (other than in out-of-universe sections).

A short quotation giving a general "feel" for the character may precede the description. Preferably, quotations should come from in-universe sources. In general, quotations should not come from an unofficial source.

Immediately following the lead section should be an in universe biography, split into appropriately titled sections ("Early life", "Career", etc.) detailing the character's life and actions in roughly chronological order. The biography should give details on all of the character's appearances. A "Personality" section should immediately follow the biography.

(Note: Ace Attorney is not Court Records. The character articles at Court Records have a tendency to give a rough background on a character and then terminates at the point in which their appearances in the games start. This is not appropriate for this wiki; instead, characters' appearances in episodes should be noted and summarized, so that a reader can look at a character's article can find out pretty much everything he or she needs to know about the character, why the character is in the situations he or she is in in the games or after the games, just by reading that article.)

Following the personality section, it may be appropriate to have additional out-of-universe sections, including but not limited to the following:


 * Voice cast
 * Name
 * Development
 * Notes/Misc/Trivia

"Trivia" sections are usually discouraged because it is usually possible, and therefore more appropriate, to categorize even trivial info into appropriately named sections like "Development".

Episodes and cases
In short, articles of episodes and other cases should read like real historical accounts. This means that they should be written in "in-universe" style, as if someone from inside the Ace Attorney universe is writing about them. For more on this concept, see Ace Attorney Wiki:Perspective.

At the beginning of each episode/case article, right below the article quality templates, Template:CaseData or Template:Investigation should be implemented with all of the fields filled with the proper information if possible. More information on how to do this is in the template's page. Template:Episodes should be implemented at the end of each episode/case article, which can be done by typing in. The template itself should also be updated with the episode or case in the row labeled by the name of the game or other medium in which the episode or case appears.

An episode article should begin with a general description of the subject. This is generally called the lead section. The description should include the subject's full title (in bold) and perhaps a very brief summary of the noteworthy aspects of the episode or case. The lead section is generally written in an out-of-universe style to accommodate for the information that is to be presented in it. Consider the following example:


 * Episode 1: Turnabout Memories is the first episode of the video game Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney: Trials and Tribulations. It takes place five years prior to The Stolen Turnabout; the player assumes the role of Mia Fey in her second court trial, set to defend Phoenix Wright in the murder of Doug Swallow. Dahlia Hawthorne debuts in this case. Like all first cases in the series to date, there is no investigation stage, only a court trial.

A short quotation giving a general "feel" for the episode or case may precede the description. Preferably, quotations should come from in-universe sources. In general, quotations should not come from an unofficial source.

Following the lead section should be an account of the events in the episode or case in chronological order and in past tense. This account may begin with an out-of-universe description of the prologue (the movie that inaugurates each episode), and then the rest of the account should be divided into sections by date, which should then be subdivided into "Investigation" and "Trial" sections, if appropriate. The "ending" of an episode, which refers to events that occur after the final verdict is given, should be in its own section named "Aftermath" or "Epilogue" or something similar. "Aftermath" may be more appropriate for non-playable cases like the DL-6 Incident.

It may be appropriate to have additional out-of-universe sections at the end. For example, Rise from the Ashes has a section detailing its many references to other cases in the Phoenix Wright trilogy.

Game articles
Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney and Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney: Justice For All are very good models for determining what to include in a game article.

Other articles
Other in-universe articles often have very little information to go with, so a short description is usually enough. Ideally, a detailed history should be given if it is reasonably doable (e.g. Fey clan, MASON System, Solitary Cell 13).

More on Trivia and Notes
Articles may include a section to point out the relationship the subject may have with an out-of-universe object. Please use common sense and use points that are notable.