User:Joereadel/Choose an Article

Article Selection
Please list articles that you're considering for your Wikipedia assignment below. Begin to critique these articles and find relevant sources.

Option 1

 * Article title
 * The Eternal Adam


 * Article Evaluation
 * "Stub-class". It only has synopsis and reference tabs. It needs an infobox. Wikipedia says Verne's son completed the work, so maybe there's something there for a "background" section. Yikes, it's been nominated for deletion.


 * Sources

Option 2

 * Article title
 * Recall Mechanism


 * Article Evaluation
 * "Start-class" It only has synopsis and references tabs. Published in "If" magazine July 1959: https://archive.org/details/1959-07_IF


 * Sources

Option 3

 * Article title
 * For a Breath I Tarry


 * Article Evaluation
 * Stub-class. Supported by the short story task force and the science fiction task force.


 * Sources

Option 4

 * Article title
 * Summer Thunder


 * Article Evaluation
 * It's a short article for a short story. There's not really anything happening in the "Talk" section. It doesn't seem to be connected to any WikiProjects, hasn't been rated on the quality or importance scales. No task force either. I'm just worried I won't be able to find any sources. King wrote a paragraph as a preface to the story that talks about his inspiration for the story, but I don't know if that's useable. There are two citations that are needed - the story being deemed "horror" and its similarity to The Stand. I wonder if this article could benefit from a "characters" section, a "reception" section, a "background" section, and a "see also" section. These are the main things I can see the article needing.


 * Sources
 * LA Times review of the collection the story appears in
 * Tor.com write up on the collection (featuring some of the aforementioned background on the story) I'm unsure about the reliability of this source.

Option 5

 * Article title
 * The Day of the Triffids


 * Article Evaluation
 * Lead section


 * The lead section outlines the novel's title, publication date, genre, and author.
 * The second sentence of the lead section provides a brief description of the novel's plot.
 * The lead section does not mention anything about the novel's publication history or influences, which are two of the article's major subjects.
 * The lead section includes the following sentence: "Although Wyndham had already published other novels using other pen name combinations drawn from his real name, this was the first novel published as "John Wyndham". This information might fit better into the "Publication history" section, as it is information that's not present anywhere else in the article.
 * The lead is concise.

Content
 * The content is up to relevant and up to date.
 * A section in the "Influences" (The triffids are related, in some editions of the novel, to brief mention of the theories of the Soviet agronomist and would-be biologist Trofim Lysenko, who eventually was thoroughly debunked. "In the days when information was still exchanged Russia had reported some successes. Later, however, a cleavage of methods and views had caused biology there, under a man called Lysenko, to take a different course" (Chapter 2). Lysenkoism at the time of the novel's creation was still being defended by some prominent international Stalinists.) might be a bit off topic or miscatigorized. The article might benefit from an additional section that addresses things like this.
 * The article doesn't address any equity gaps.

Tone and balance
 * The article is written from a neutral point of view.
 * No biased positions that I could see.
 * No overrepresented or underrepresented viewpoints
 * I didn't find any fringe or minority viewpoints
 * There are no attempts to persuade the reader of anything in the article.

Sources and references
 * Two facts in the "Publishing" section (In the United States, Doubleday & Company holds the 1951 copyright. A condensed version of the book also was serialized in Collier's magazine in January and February 1951.) aren't backed up by a secondary source.
 * One fact in the "Influences" section (The triffids are related, in some editions of the novel, to brief mention of the theories of the Soviet agronomist and would-be biologist Trofim Lysenko, who eventually was thoroughly debunked.) isn't backed up by a secondary source.
 * One fact in the "Game adaptations" section (The Italian version of the 1983 Advanced Dungeons & Dragons "Shambling Mound" Fantasy Adventure Figure by TSR, Inc. named the creature Il Trifido dinoccolato "The slouching Triffid.") isn't backed up by a secondary source.
 * One fact in the "Print adaptations" section (Marvel Comics adapted the story in the magazine Unknown Worlds of Science Fiction (1975).) isn't backed up by a secondary source.
 * There are several references to readings of the book on the BBC that don't cite a secondary source in the "Radio adaptations" section.
 * Once fact in the "Television adaptations" section (A television serial version was produced by the BBC in 1981 and repeated on BBC Four in 2006, 2007, 2009 and 2014. It starred John Duttine as Bill Masen.) isn't backed up by a secondary source.
 * In the lead section there's a broken link on the source for the entry "It was nominated for the International Fantasy Award in 1952, and in 2003 the novel was listed on the BBC's survey The Big Read."
 * In the "Film adaptations" section there's a broken link on the source for the entry "In September 2010, Variety announced that a 3D film version was being planned by producers Don Murphy and Michael Preger."
 * The sources are written by a fairly diverse spectrum of authors.
 * The link for the source for "Wyndham frequently acknowledged the influence of H. G. Wells' The War of the Worlds (1897) on The Day of the Triffids" in the "Influences" is a link to the Wikipedia page for Edmund Morris. This article on The Guardian includes a reference to H.G. Wells' influence on Wyndham, but doesn't provide a secondary source.

Organization and writing quality
 * The article is clear and well written, but there are moments that might benefit from rewording. An example is how "Because of the excellent industrial quality of an oil produced by and obtained from the triffids, the result is triffid cultivation around the world." might read more smoothly as "Triffids are cultivated around the world because of the excellent industrial oil they produce."
 * "In this version the Triffids originally evolved in Zaire, and their oil is used as an alternative fuel, averting global warming. The elements of repopulating the Earth and the plague were overlooked in this adaptation; another difference in the plot was that the Earth was blinded by a solar flare rather than a meteor shower." might benefit from a rewrite.
 * The article is sufficiently organized, but might benefit from a "Characters" section and a "Themes" section.

Images and media
 * The article has a single image of the book's first edition cover, which is captioned as such.
 * The data for the image says "The book cover art copyright is believed to belong to the publisher, Michael Joseph, or the cover artist.
 * Use of the book cover in the article complies with Wikipedia non-free content policy and fair use under United States copyright law.
 * The image is where one would expect to find it.

Talk page discussion
 * There are no discussions on the topic.
 * The article is part of the Novels portal and the London portal. In the Novels portal it holds a C-class rating on the quality scale and a High-importance rating on the importance scale, and in the London portal it holds a C-class rating on the quality scale and a Low.-importance rating on the importance scale.

Overall impressions
 * The article's strengths are its large "Adaptations" and "Critical reception" sections.
 * The article might be improved by some rewriting and editing in the "Plot" section, replacing broken links, finding citations where needed, and removing some of the uncited sections mentioned above.
 * I would rate the article as somewhat underdeveloped, considering how much has been written about the novel and its wide influence.
 * Sources
 * The Blind Logic of Plants: Enlightenment and Evolution in John Wyndham's The Day of the Triffids
 * Everything Slipping Away: John Wyndham's The Day of the Triffids
 * The Day of the Triffids (The Irish Journal of Gothic and Horror Studies)
 * The Politics of Post-Apocalypse: Ideologies on Trial in John Wyndham’s The Day of the Triffids
 * Gender and Ethnicity in Post-Apocalyptic Suburbia

Joereadel (talk) 18:44, 11 March 2021 (UTC)