Help:References

References are the cornerstone of any serious encyclopedia. Though much of our old content remains without references, Tolkien Gateway wishes to properly credit its facts. This way, fanon and overinterpretation can be properly identified as such, and omitted.

General rules

See also: Canon

As to what counts as a reliable source, in the tightest sense it is simple: primary material. From there, we have secondary and "semi-secondary".

Semi-secondary

Semi-secondary, as we call it for the sake of convenience, are texts by Tolkien that are about Middle-earth; these could be The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien, but also material published in Vinyar Tengwar or Parma Eldalamberon.

Secondary

Secondary texts are texts about Tolkien's work by other authors. We have a short rule for it: if they cite primary, we cite primary, and if they come up with original research, we cite them.

Referencing

How To

Tolkien Gateway uses, like most wiki-based encyclopedia's, the Cite/Cite extension. A short how-to:

With this method, sources are cited within the text. They appear wherever you type "{{references}}".

This is the text you type.<ref>And this is the source</ref>

The text in between the <ref>-tags appears in the References section. These tags can be named for reuse:

This is the text you type.<ref name="One">And this is source number one</ref>

Then, you use something with another source,<ref>Like this one</ref>, before returning 
to the first one.<ref name="One"/>

Shortkeys

We have several templates that write out most sources automatically:

• S = The Silmarillion
• H = The Hobbit
• UT = Unfinished Tales
• RGEO The Road Goes Ever On

• FR = The Fellowship of the Ring
• TT = The Two Towers

For all other books, use HM.

Questionable statements

Questionable statements can be challenged with the {{fact}} template. Fanon, conjecture and overinterpretation that goes unreferenced can be deleted on sight.