User talk:Rfconover/sandbox

Nice work here Rachel, both in finding a relevant article that needs a lot of work to bring up to scratch, and in evaluating it thoroughly.

I absolutely agree that sections on reception, historical background and themes might help the article. I suggest care in drafting a historical background section, as you do not want to repeat historical information at length that is already featured on its own history page. Rather, you’ll want to describe treatment of those histories in the play.

The article might also benefit from a production history of the play or, if a thorough production history is too difficult to compile, at least a history of notable productions.

I personally found the quotes section odd. Most of them don’t seem to make a lot of sense out of context. I also haven’t seen quotes sections like this on other Wikipedia play articles. Perhaps Shalor can give us some further advice here?

A character list is a sensible idea.

I also agree with your thoughts of sources – there is a wealth of scholarly research on this play, and it would be immensely valuable to share some of this knowledge with Wikipedia readers.

EmerOToole (talk) 16:52, 3 October 2018 (UTC)

Rachel, this is looking excellent. Your expansions of the section on themes is very useful. I recommend you to read Declan Kiberd's Synge and the Irish Language (available from the library - though you probably have to order it) to help you to further develop both the section on background and the section on fatalism. The fatalism in this play is about death in the immediate sense, but it is also about cultural death - the death of a way of life, of a language and culture. There is also some very interesting scholarship out there on Synge and Darwinism (e.g. Mary Burke, Jason Willwerscheid) that might complement the section on fatalism also. Keep up this fantastic work! EmerOToole (talk) 17:12, 29 October 2018 (UTC)

- excellent response to my feedback. Time to move this work to the real Wiki page! When you have done so, please tag me (here, on my talk page, on the RTTS talk page - as you like). I will be able to tell you if any more edits need to be made, or if you have finished the assignment.EmerOToole (talk) 18:59, 8 November 2018 (UTC)

- nice work, Rachel. Do you think you could leave a note on the talk page explaining your edits? Also, it would be great if you had time to clean up the plot synopsis, removing the lengthy quote from Maurya that the original writer claims (without a source) is famous in Irish drama and replacing it with a line explaining what happens at the end of the play. I hope you're feeling proud of these very useful and well researched contributions!