User talk:Emlass/DRAFT

Hello,. User:Peridon suggested that I take a look at your draft and advise you about it. I can tell that you worked hard on it and that you write well. I also get the impression that Kim Le is an admirable and successful woman. However, I see some problems with this article as an article.

The first problem is the way it is written. It is not encyclopedic. It reads more like the introduction she would get at a speaking event, or the description that would accompany an award. It is flowery and melodramatic, full of purple prose, praising her to the skies. That's not at all appropriate for an encyclopedia. Here at Wikipedia we want "just the facts", an article entirely neutral in tone. A proper article about her might start out something like this: "Kim Le (born c. 1972) is a Vietnamese-American businesswoman based in California's Silicon Valley. She is the founder and CEO of the accounting firm A2Q2. She was born in Vietnam; she and her mother and brother fled Vietnam in 1978 as 'boat people'. After a stay in a Malaysian refugee camp, the family immigrated to the United States and settled in Tucson, Arizona. Le attended local schools, then went to Arizona State University, graduating with a degree in accounting. She worked for the Arthur Anderson accounting firm and in 2000 was transferred to the Silicon Valley office. In 2003 she went into business for herself by founding the A2Q2 accounting firm."

...and so on. An article like this could be written, provided there are independent reliable sources to verify the information. You would have to learn how to cite references and add them to the article.

But there is a bigger problem, one that cannot be solved by rewriting. Wikipedia is an international encyclopedia, not just a Facebook-like site for anyone and everyone. In order to have an article here the subject must be "notable", which basically means "famous". It means that the person has been written about in a significant way by independent, reliable sources (which means things like getting independent news coverage, receiving MAJOR awards, etc.). The specific requirements for notability for a person are spelled out at WP:BIO. Kim Le is a successful local business person and has received some awards and recognition. But in my opinion she is not "notable" enough for an article. I could find no news articles about her or her accounting firm in a search. The awards she has gotten do not IMO meet the definition of a "major" award.

I am just one person, not even an administrator, so this decision is not up to me. But I suspect that if this article is rewritten and put into the encyclopedia, someone will nominate it for deletion, saying that she is not notable enough for an article. That nomination would be discussed at WP:Articles for deletion, and a group decision would be made. If you look at WikiProject Deletion sorting/Businesspeople you can see how such discussions go.

Sorry for the negative review! but I know you would want my honest assessment: It would take a great deal of work to get this article into shape, and even after doing all that work, there is a significant chance the article would get deleted. --MelanieN (talk) 15:24, 4 January 2014 (UTC)