Help:Editing/House Style/Linking

Internal References
Due to the desired standard of rigor on, there are a lot of concepts on any given (proof) page that have their own, dedicated Proof or Definition page on.

To ensure ease of reference and maximal clarity and consistency, the following rules for internal reference are to be adhered to.

For information on creating links, see this section.

References to Theorems and Axioms
Whenever a theorem is invoked or referred to, be it in a proof or, for example, a clarifying comment, it should be referenced by its full title.

Also, for ease of editing, there is no need to change the case of theorem names; the page title will suffice.

Thus, for example, a valid reference to the result Union Distributes over Intersection is simply:


 * "By Union Distributes over Intersection, $A \cup \left({B \cap C}\right) = \left({A \cup B}\right) \cap \left({A \cup C}\right)$."

This is achieved by simply putting the title of the page you want to reference between double square brackets,  and.

The same convention applies to axioms, except that the namespace identifier Axiom: should be removed.

The correct way to reference the page Axiom:Axiom of Choice thus is:


 * Axiom of Choice

which is produced by:



References to Definitions
Whether or not a particular concept should be linked to its definition page is subject to a less strict philosophy.

In general, whenever a part of a definition is critically used in an argument, or is important for understanding the flow of the argument, a link should be included.

A good rule of thumb is to include a reference at least at the first occurrence of a concept on a page, or whenever the concept is used in a new way, or a new context.

It is considered good practice to have at least one reference in a paragraph where the concept is used; this is - naturally - attached to the first occurrence of the concept.

These references are made in a non-intrusive way. Thus, we write:


 * Let $R$ be a ring.

and not:


 * Let $R$ be a Ring (Abstract Algebra).

For example, it is not necessary to include three references to Definition:Ring (Abstract Algebra) in one sentence which happens to have three occurrences of "ring" in it.

If however a proof contains three paragraphs, then it would be good to include at least one reference to Definition:Ring (Abstract Algebra) in each paragraph.

Also see

 * Template:Missing links
 * Template:Link wanted