User:Rayn00/sandbox

Article Evaluation: F. Scott Fitzgerald
Although the article on F. Scott Fitzgerald is relatively long and well-detailed, I did identify some issues that don't seem to meet Wikipedia's standards. Most of these issues are organizational, although some are more serious issues with sourcing and bias language.

The first issue I identified was the somewhat disproportionate focus on certain aspects and periods of Fitzgerald's life. While many articles about significant figures and authors tend to focus on the part of the figure's life in which they achieved most, Fitzgerald's article has a heavy focus on the sections "Early Life" and "Illness and Death," both of which are about the same length or longer than the two other periods his life is split into, "'The Jazz Age' (1920s)" and "Hollywood Years".

The "Early Life" section, as well as "Hollywood Years", also sources self-published materials by Fitzgerald in detailing his opinions about his situation and autobiographical facts. While this might have been necessary for writers, perhaps due to a lack of records kept, it is something we were advised against in the training modules. The bias these sources might bring in doesn't seem to be addressed.

On the topic of bias, there is also a short but significant biased statement in the section titled "'The Jazz Age' (1920s)". The article states that "Fitzgerald's friendship with Hemingway was quite effusive, as many of Fitzgerald's relationships would prove to be." This isn't sourced or followed up on, and seems to be an assumption on the writer's part. Although it is only one sentence, this edit could create an assumption in the reader's mind about Fitzgerald that isn't backed up by any source material.

Some material in the sections also feels out of place. Although the section "Zelda" is titled to make the reader believe it is only about Fitzgerald's wife and his relationship with her, it functions more as a description of a period in Fitzgerald's life, between "Early Life" and "'The Jazz Age' (1920s)", covering from about 1918 to 1921. This section doesn't seem to fit into a description of Fitzgerald's relationship to Zelda:

"Fitzgerald returned to his parents' house at 599 Summit Avenue, on Cathedral Hill, in St. Paul, to revise The Romantic Egotist, recast as This Side of Paradise, a semi-autobiographical account of Fitzgerald's undergraduate years at Princeton. Fitzgerald was so short of money that he took up a job repairing car roofs. His revised novel was accepted by Scribner's in the fall of 1919 and was published on March 26, 1920 and became an instant success, selling 41,075 copies in the first year."

This section also doesn't cover Fitzgerald and Zelda's relationship past 1921, despite it continuing until his death in 1940.

In the section "Illness and Death", which as I previously stated seems to be disproportionately long, some information seems better fitted to a "Posthumous Works" section, which doesn't currently exist. It might be best combined with the current "Legacy" section, as for a distinguished author said to be "regarded as one of the greatest American writers of the 20th century" in the lead of the article, it seems to be a little short.

Overall, I think a reader could still get a good sense of Fitzgerald's life and achievements, but might be misled or confused by some shortcomings of the article.

Drafting for A Game At Chess
A Game at Chess satirizes historical events and figures of the 17th century. Those depicted include members from the English court, the Spanish court, and prominent religious figures (need source). James I, who reigned as King of England and Ireland from 1603 until his death in 1625, is depicted as the White King by Middleton. His son and successor, Prince Charles or Charles I, reigned after the play was written and is depicted as the White Knight. Elizabeth of Bohemia, James I's daughter, is also caricatured in the play as the White Queen. From Spain, Middleton depicts Philip IV, who reigned as King from 1621 to 1665, as the Black King. His sister Maria Anna of Spain is symbolized by the Black Queen. Don Diego Sarmiento de Acuña, Conde de Gondomar, the widely unpopular Spanish-English ambassador, is depicted by Middleton as the Black Knight. [insert edited sentence about Fat Bishop, now reading: Amongst important religious figures depicted is the Archbishop of Split Marco Antonio de Dominis, or the Fat Bishop, who left the Roman Catholic Church to join the Anglican Church, later returning to Rome again. "]

Personal Implementation Plan
My contributions to the Wikipedia project mostly revolves around the above paragraph, which will be the first paragraph of the new "Historical Context" section our group is adapting from the current section titled "The play". My paragraph sets up the context for Marie's paragraph that follows, which delves deeper into the political environment of the play's era. I gave some very basic information on the major political and religious figures at the time, and identified who they are depicted as in the play, in turn setting up an understanding of the relationships in Marie's section. Almost everything in my draft is original content, with the exception of the last line about the Fat Bishop, which is edited down from a sentence in the current section "The play". Other contributions of mine include providing comments for edit on two other members' sections, Luke and Maria, and research for my section. I used some sources we read in class, as well as some outside resources, like the family tree of Maria Anna of Spain and "Middleton's A Game at Chess: Parliamentary-Puritans and Opposition Drama" by Margot Heinemann.