Talk:Penumbra (law)/GA1

GA Review
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Reviewer: Mr rnddude (talk · contribs) 15:39, 3 August 2016 (UTC)

Hi there, I will be taking on the review for this article, expect a full review by tomorrow. Mr rnddude (talk) 15:39, 3 August 2016 (UTC)

I will be using the above table for my review. Mr rnddude (talk) 15:39, 3 August 2016 (UTC)
 * I have not forgotten, I'll be at it either tonight or tomorrow morning. Sorry for the delay I have been busy. Mr rnddude (talk) 14:37, 4 August 2016 (UTC)
 * , I have completed my initial review of the article, there are some issues that can be rectified relatively quickly. My review notes are in the above table. Feel free to ping me if you need any assistance. Mr rnddude (talk) 06:33, 5 August 2016 (UTC)

Preliminary responses
first and foremost, I want to thank you for agreeing to review this article. It is an exceedingly complex and arcane subject; I admire your willingness to dive into the heart of things with this review. I have already begun to work on your suggested modifications, but I want to offer a few preliminary responses: I'll be sure to ping you once these changes are made. In the meantime, feel free to contact me if you have any questions. Best, -- Notecardforfree (talk) 08:23, 5 August 2016 (UTC)
 * Placing the term "penumbra" in quotation marks (1a): To be honest, I'm not really sure why I chose to do this when I first wrote the article. I think it was to distinguish the technical use of the term from the metaphoric use of the term, but in any event, I agree that it should not be placed in quotation marks every time. I think I have successfully resolved this -- I have only kept the term "penumbra" or "penumbral" in quotation marks when the article is describing the definition the word, rather than actively using it in a sentence.
 * Missing quotation mark (1a): I fixed this (see this edit).
 * Use of quotations (1a): Quotations are extremely useful for ensuring that the description of an author's idea, theory, etc. are accurate. Nevertheless, I your point is well taken; I will go through the article over the next few days to paraphrase some of the quotations.
 * Words to watch (1b), (2c), and (4): I agree that the quotations should be attributed to the authors that wrote/said those things. I will go through the article over the next few days to provide the necessary attributions.
 * Citation style (2a): The citations are written in Bluebook style, which is ubiquitous in American legal scholarship. The use of this style is perfectly acceptable per MOS:LAW and WP:CITEVAR ("If the article you are editing is already using a particular citation style, you should follow it").
 * Earwig's results (2d): Earwig's tool produces many false positives for articles, like this one, that (1) use many technical terms of art and (2) utilize a large number of quotations. As you noted, editors should not rely on pure numeric results alone.
 * Regarding points 1 and 2, understood and thanks for the fix. Point 3 I agree that quotations are useful, it's just that there are quite a few of them and I think that may be why Earwig thought copyvio's had occurred. Point 4, sure I can wait a few days for the attributions to be implemented no problem. Point 5, I hadn't encountered the citation style before hence my comments, I tend to work on ancient history article's and make extensive use of cite-book and cite-journal templates, leave as is in that case. Point 6, refer point 3 comment, Earwig is fine for a preliminary check but it's really quite necessary to do it yourself or you may miss something (or expect a vio where there is none). I had a copyvio report where Wikipedia may have violated copyrighted material from the University of Iowa, turns out, the university had just whole sale copied Wikipedia and apparently passed it off as their work (I didn't note any attribution for the original source, Wikipedia). Mr rnddude (talk) 09:07, 5 August 2016 (UTC)
 * One other thing, I mentioned in the table, but, you can just italicize the word penumbra (like so), it'd be perfectly fine as the article is specifically about the word and therefore emphasizing the word (subtle emphasis) is pretty normal. Just a thought. Mr rnddude (talk) 09:12, 5 August 2016 (UTC)
 * Just a quick update re fixes to the article -- I am wrapped up in interviews/meetings today, but I will return to working on this article later tonight or early tomorrow. Many thanks for your hard work with this, and I hope you are enjoying a nice start to your week. All the best, -- Notecardforfree (talk) 16:24, 8 August 2016 (UTC)
 * , thanks for the well wishes, I am currently on break from GA (due IRL) and will return to it by the tenth (possibly tomorrow depending on how busy I am). Feel free to ping me if you need anything and I'll respond as soon as possible. Mr rnddude (talk) 16:33, 8 August 2016 (UTC)

8/15/2016 update
I apologize for not finishing this earlier, but I have gone through the article and I have implemented the changes requested in your GA review. Statements should now be properly attributed to the authors that made those statements, and most of the quoted material has been paraphrased. Let me know if there is anything else that you think needs to be done. I also moved around some text to help improve the flow/readability of the article. Best, -- Notecardforfree (talk) 10:16, 15 August 2016 (UTC)
 * Almost everything cleared;, "Scholars characterize the term" <- "just change this sentence to The term is a metaphor ...". It would be preferred if the article made a statement of fact rather than the vague attribution to "scholars", in other cases where the term scholars has been used its been adequately backed by sources and explanation, but, in the lede I'd avoid all such attributions as they won't come pre-packed with a load of citations (per WP:LEDE). Mr rnddude (talk) 10:53, 15 August 2016 (UTC)
 * For that particular sentence in the lead, the sources provide "substantial basis" the assertion that scholars characterize the term in that manner (per WP:WEASEL). Nevertheless, I have re-phrased that sentence to resolve any potential issues. Thanks again for taking the time to do this review -- I very much appreciate your eye for detail and the thoroughness of your analysis. Wikipedia needs more GA reviewers like you, and I hope that you continue your good work! All the best, -- Notecardforfree (talk) 17:23, 15 August 2016 (UTC)