User talk:Abootface

Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis
Hi - thanks for writing. I see you;ve done a lot of work there in the last couple of months - I've been tied up on some other pages so had not been following this one too closely, so I'll have to take some time to look it all over. But I recommend if you haven't already done so that you get some books about her and try to work content and references in yourself - my experience has been that if you attempt to rewrite a piece on the scale you're doing it's best to do it with reference material at hand rather than rely on what's already been presented. Maybe you're already doing that - I haven't looked closely enough to know so don't take this as criticism! - but I know that it helps a lot to become an expert when you're doing such a major overhaul. Happyme22 and  Wasted Time R are wizzes at this. They've overhauled many political bios with sources in hand and greatly improved those pages - I believe Hap has edited Jackie's page a bit, but Wasted hasn't been active there - but their editing could be a model for you. I don;t know if either has the time to get involved there, but I know them both and will leave notes on their talk pages introducing you. Also there is probably a Wikiproject that handles First Ladies where there are people interested in improving these pages. I am not at all an expert on her life, although I have long been an admirer and have some knowledge of her having lived through some of her time - so if I were going to tackle this page in the way you are I would definitely arm myself with some books and extensively search online sources such as Google books and the archives of the NY Times, Time magazine, etc. I'm not sure I have the time to devote to major work there right now, but I will certainly look it over and help out as I can. Good luck - for what it's worth, I certainly think it's a worthy task! Tvoz / talk 17:13, 3 October 2009 (UTC)


 * Like she said. Doing a big rework/expansion of a political biography is a major undertaking that involves a lot of researching, writing, and referencing.  You'll also learn a lot in the process, and even if you think you knew the subject before, you'll probably have an at least somewhat different perspective afterward.  In addition to the sources Tvoz mentions, Current Biography Yearbook has very good 3-5 page biographies packed with good narrative and reference hints.  Most big libraries carry the series and there's an index so that you can see what volume a subject was covered in, if any.  The New York Times often has had "Woman in the News" or "Man in the News" profiles that are also densely packed sources for biographies here.  Google Books is good until the "snippet" and "limited preview" modes drive you crazy, then it's off to the physical library to look at physical books.  I can't really volunteer time to other articles beyond those I'm currently working on (such as right now, George McGovern), but good luck ...  Wasted Time R (talk) 19:34, 3 October 2009 (UTC)