User:Amgine/SG Details-W

wacky

Not whacky.

Wahhabi

Prefer to Wahabi.

waive, waiver

To give up a claim or right, or reject. Not to waver indecisively.

wake

"In the wake of" is clichéd; prefer the simple and obvious such as "after" or "as a result of".

Wallace & Gromit

Always an ampersand, and not Grommit or Gromet.

Wal-Mart

Hyphenated, not Mall-Wart. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. is the full corporate name, Walmart (one word, unhyphenated, proper noun capitalisation) is a specific trademarked brand of the company.

war

Armed conflict between two identifiable disputants. Do not use hackneyed marketing phrases such as "war on drugs" or "war on poverty"; they are POV and generally utterly disconnected from reality. Likewise, avoid euphemism such as "police action" or "peace-keeping intervention"; an invasion is an invasion, and a war is a war, no matter what the political entities prefer their actions to be called.

war crime, war dance, war games, war zone

Each two words, hyphenated adjectivally (war-zone chaos, war-games mindset, etc.)

war crimes

Capitalise only when part of a proper noun. War crimes are those actions taken by a party during the conduct of a war which violate various international agreements, in most cases whether or not any party of war is a signatory to the agreements. The USA, one of many countries to do so, claims its citizens are not liable to prosecution by the Hague International Criminal Court for war crimes and is highly opposed to the phrase being applied to any of its actions, which must not be allowed to deter accurate reporting.

warfarin

Not a trade name, so lowercase.

warhead, warhorse, warlord, warpath, warship, wartime

Single word.

warrant officer

Lower case, class of officer between non-commissioned officers (NCOs) and commissioned officers.

wars

Lists of wars is probably more extensive than you will need, and generally follows the USA POV on titling of conflicts, but does accurately state all such conflicts are wars.

Some standard titles for wars:

• First World War (not the Great War, WWI)
• Second World War (WWII)

Was (not Was)

US-based music group founded by David Weiss (a.k.a. David Was) and Don Fagenson (a.k.a. Don Was).

wherever, whereever, where-ever, where ever

Each and every of these writing variants is equivalent in meaning, although some are more common than others. Wherever is the most common written formation on the internet. It is, however, an attempt to express sloppy spoken English in written form, and good style would tend to avoid either of the first two variants in favour of the latter two, which more clearly express the two unique components of the expression.

while

Do not use indiscriminately in place of and or but; often in such cases be replaced with a semicolon. There are cases where it can be a virtual replacement for although, but can create ambiguity. In general, use while in its strictly literal sense, during the time that, to avoid problems.

who, whom, whomever, whomsoever

Strictly speaking, who is the subject of a verb, whom is the object of a verb. This is similar to we and us, they and them. Who asks the question. He asks whomever. Whom is often preceded by a preposition, from whom, with whom, of whom. The particular construction "who he/she said" is often incorrectly rendered "whom he/she said"; His mother, who he said would send him money, who being the subject of "would send" (he said she would send him money.)

worth while, worthwhile

Avoid use as the phrase is clichéd, but if you must the former is preferred. Do not use adjectivally; a noun is never a worth while noun (though it may be a worthy noun), but an action may be a worth while action. A novel is never worth while, but the novel may be (or may not be) worth while reading. Volunteering may be worth while, a charity cannot itself be described so. Working may be worth your while; work isn't.