Talk:Adaline Couzins

Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment
This article is or was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment. Further details are available on the course page. Peer reviewers: Alwvy4.

Above undated message substituted from Template:Dashboard.wikiedu.org assignment by PrimeBOT (talk) 16:51, 17 January 2022 (UTC)

Proposed Edits
Hi Jacqueline! I wanted to point out the first thing that I noticed about your article. It has SO much information, and the fact that you found all of that information so quickly is very impressive.

Your lead sentence is great. Maybe you could make a contribution to a wikipedia page as to what a 'civil servant' is. I say this because I had to research what a civil servant was, and the suffragist and American Civil War nurse both have tags. Just a thought!

One thing that I do notice throughout the article is the wordiness. For example, you state, "She spent most of her career as a nurse during the Civil War on hospital ships that tended to Union and Confederate soldiers all along the Mississippi River.[1][2]" Instead, eliminating some of the words would be beneficial. You could state, "Her career was most spent as a nurse during the Civil War." This is short, sweet, and to the point. I think including the information about the Confederate and Union soldiers and the Mississippi River could be moved into a later section, since it is more descriptive than what is usually in the introduction/lead paragraph.

The rest of the information in the lead/introduction paragraph could also be moved to further sections. It describes her work as a Civil War nurse, so possibly moving that information down to under "Civil War Nursing Career." I say this because the introductions on a Wikipedia page are supposed to offer a good grasp of what the article is about, with the details coming further in the article.

I still can't believe the amount of information that you found! I am impressed.

Another side note on the wordiness: You state, "Several years after her move to St. Louis, Adaline married John Edward Decker Couzins in 1834.[1][2][3]" In this instance, you could say, "Adaline married John Edward Decker Couzins a few years later in 1834." This eliminates the wordiness, but still gets to the point.

In the 'Early Career' section you state that there was devastating epidemic. This could be considered an opinion, so just stating that there was an epidemic would be a better choice. (Obviously it was devastating.)

Just another time where an opinion is stated is when you state, "All of the work Adaline Weston Couzins did was much appreciated and acknowledged by many." This can't be included in a Wikipedia article because it is not a factually proven statement. If this was stated with a source, then the source would just need to be cited.

Overall, it is a great start to your article! I would just make sure that the wordiness is condensed and that the opinions are taken out and it is strictly factual information. I look forward to seeing your progress and final product! — Preceding unsigned comment added by Alwvy4 (talk • contribs) 16:41, 6 October 2016 (UTC)


 * Thank you for your input on my article! Although, I do have a lot of information, it still needs some work so I appreciate the points you have made. I do agree that I need to make links to some more words, like civil servant, and I definitely plan on going through it when it is all done and making sure I have links for as much as possible, so thank you for pointing that one out. I do agree that some of my sentences could benefit from some rewording, but the sentence you pulled out I would like to keep that she worked on hospital ships in that sentence because it was new, and something she was known for. So, I will have to work a little harder to make sure those sentences flow better! I will also be removing devastating from the epidemic that I mentioned! Some times I cannot help fluffing up my writing because I am so use to typing papers for class, so, thank you for recognizing that! The statement I made about Adaline being appreciated and acknowledged by is not an opinion statement, and I have made sure it is cited in the sources that say that. Also, I will be keeping my introduction the way it is for now. I did that because I wanted people to have a good brief about her life and if they chose to read on for more detail they could. I will definitely keep that in mind though as I finish up my article. Thank you again for you advice, I know it will make my article better! JacquelynSkoch (talk) 19:25, 17 October 2016 (UTC)

Peer Review
Hey there Jacqueline!

I love your article, it looks like you have done a lot of work to it. I just have a few quick suggestions. Under your civil war service section, consider removing the sentence "she simply volunteered her service." The sentence before this covers that pretty well so it seems a little redundant. Second, a minie ball is not so much a cannonball as it is a muzzle-loaded rifle bullet. Finally, under your final days section you should say that she passed away. I also had a quick question, did the bill that was passed granting her government pension apply to all of the female nurses? If so, you might mention that. Your article looks really good and the edits I suggested are only minor, I didn't see anything real critical to fix. Let me know if you need help attaching pictures. Sean Dwyer (talk) 17:28, 6 October 2016 (UTC)


 * Thank you for your feedback Sean! As far as I understand, the government pension that was granted was only for Adaline and did not apply to other female nurses. I am looking in to getting more specifics about her government pension and will hopefully be able to have a more definitive answer at a later date! I am interested in attaching pictures to this article and would love your help, but I must locate those pictures first! Thank again for your feedback! JacquelynSkoch (talk) 18:23, 6 October 2016 (UTC)

Jacqueline, although you article is very interesting and very well written, I believe describing Adaline in the beginning paragraph would help the reader get a sense of her personality and what she was about before they get into reading about her accomplishments. Other than that, awesome article!Fatimasehic (talk) 17:01, 20 October 2016 (UTC)

Feedback from Prof. P
Excellent work. This new article is very important, and does a great job of drawing attention to the varied contributions of Couzins. I love that you've added the picture here. I've added some links to other Wikipedia.org articles. Be sure to link *every* time something is mentioned, as that section might be the only one that a reader looks at. I'd like to see her connected over to the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_Female_Guardian_Home Western Female Guardian Home page so that both of those can support one another. It would be a good place to mention her St. Louis chapter. This article is exceptional. MeganPeiser (talk) 21:22, 14 November 2016 (UTC)