Template:Did you know nominations/The Oregon Desert

The Oregon Desert

 * ... that The Oregon Desert is a book that successfully blended natural science and scholarly prose with cowboy humor to create a Pacific Northwest classic?
 * Reviewed: Hillsboro Fire Department
 * Comment: Hook source is Oregon Public Broadcasting (see text just below on-line video of Reub Long’s Oregon Desert).

Created by Orygun (talk). Self nominated at 03:58, 18 January 2014 (UTC).


 * Symbol possible vote.svg Article meets length and age guidelines, but the hook is not neutral (especially the word "successfully") and sounds more like a publisher's advertisement for the book than like a statement of an unusual fact. Also, the entire hook is a direct quote (slightly condensed but otherwise unaltered) from the cited Oregon Public Broadcasting article; clearly this is meant in good faith, but since the writer of the OPB article is not cited in the hook itself, the use of the quote counts as plagiarism. Perhaps the nominator can come up with an original, and more neutral, hook? Note: I'm a first-time DYK reviewer and would appreciate a second opinion.--Lemuellio (talk) 19:19, 19 January 2014 (UTC)


 * Here are 3 alt hooks. First, shortens hook text and specifically cites OPB as sources. Source is same as above.
 * ALT 1: ... that Oregon Public Broadcasting said The Oregon Desert is a book that blended natural science and scholarly prose with cowboy humor?
 * Since OPB and the Oregon State Library (both neutral/authoritative sources…especially the State Library) call this book a "classic", we might be able keep last phase as well.
 * ALT 2: ... that Oregon Public Broadcasting said The Oregon Desert is a book that blended natural science and scholarly prose with cowboy humor to create a Pacific Northwest classic?
 * Third, is entirely different hook. It’s less interesting, but very neutral.
 * ALT 3: ... that The Oregon Desert is a book about the history, people, places, plants, and animals of Oregon's high desert?
 * Source for this hook is either the book itself (Table of Contents will confirm all these subjects are included) or multiple other references including Oregon State Library (Ref 12, p. 10), Oregon Encyclopedia (Ref 9 in article), Oregon Blue Book (Ref 13), and OPB reference cited above plus the first 5 minutes of OPB's The Oregon Experience video entitled Reub Long’s Oregon Dersert.--Orygun (talk) 22:40, 19 January 2014 (UTC)


 * Again, I'd appreciate a second opinion, but personally I like the direction your edits are taking. I'm trying to think of a smoother way to phrase it…maybe something like this?
 * ALT 4: ... that Oregon Public Broadcasting praised The Oregon Desert for blending scholarly natural science writing with cowboy humor?--Lemuellio (talk) 02:07, 20 January 2014 (UTC)


 * Sounds good to me.--Orygun (talk) 05:25, 20 January 2014 (UTC)


 * Symbol confirmed.svg ALT4 is the best-phrased of the proposed hooks, and it's neutral, accurate and cited in the article. I've struck the others for clarity. DoctorKubla (talk) 11:52, 6 February 2014 (UTC)
 * Forgot to mention, I've checked a couple of things not mentioned by the original reviewer: article is well-sourced, no evidence of copyvio, and QPQ has been done. DoctorKubla (talk) 11:56, 6 February 2014 (UTC)