Wikipedia:Featured article candidates/Summer Mortimer/archive1


 * The following is an archived discussion of a featured article nomination. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the article's talk page or in Wikipedia talk:Featured article candidates. No further edits should be made to this page.

The article was not promoted by Ian Rose (talk) 11:42, 9 July 2014 (diff).

Summer Mortimer

 * Nominator(s): Zanimum (talk) 19:46, 5 July 2014 (UTC)

This article is about a Canadian Paralympic swimmer, winner of multiple medals at London, who has recently announced she's switching to the Netherlands national team. I'd like to see where this stands; it was listed as GA in October 2012, and she's been out of competition since the Olympics, so there's been little new content. As far as I know, I've exhausted all reliable sources. -- Zanimum (talk) 19:46, 5 July 2014 (UTC)

Oppose: I'm sorry to appear negative, but while the article is informative on the details of this athlete's career it does not, at present, come near to FA standard. It doesn't seem to have had much preparation before this nomination, and there are numerous faults apparent even on a fairly quick lookover:
 * Lead: Too short at present: it should act as a broad summary of the whole article. It also has an awkward double-link on "SM10 classification"; it would be better to explain these terms in simple language rather than requiring the link. What is a "high-level swimmer"? "in the process." is followed by "In the process". Conventionally, world records are held for particular disciplines, not in them.
 * Article structure: WP featured biographies have a fairly standard format which is broadly chronological, starting with early life, going on to first career steps, early achievements, career highlights etc. Since Mortimer is only 21 the chronology will obviously be incomplete, but the general format should be followed.
 * The prose should be formal and encyclopedic, not magaziney as in "Daughter of Craig and Janice, she began swimming at age 2; Janice is co-owner of Oakville Swim Academy." The main subject, incidentally, should never be introduced into a section or paragraph by a pronoun
 * Other prose infelicities include "the Worlds" with no explanation; "isn't" (informal); "she's annoyed" (ditto) – these are examples, not a full list.
 * Much of the writing is anecdotal, and sometimes clumsy to the point of being incomprehensible, e.g. "She wears an elastic band that she snaps, when thinking a negative thought; being "incredibly hard on myself", it helps her realize the frequency of times she thinks "down", in an effort to change her mental perspective".
 * I note from further down in the article that there are many short, single-sentence paragraphs.

Overall the article needs some pretty comprehensive treatment before it can be considered worthy of promotion to FAC. Rather than leaving it here, it would be better to withdraw it, send it to peer review for a more detailed assessment of its faults, and bring it back when it has had some thorough preparation on the basis of the FAC criteria. Brianboulton (talk) 23:42, 6 July 2014 (UTC)


 * Oppose for pretty much the same reasons: looks more lovey-dovey and sentimental than encyclopedic. Parcly   Taxel  09:29, 7 July 2014 (UTC)

Closing comment -- Scanning the article myself, I can only agree with Brian re. the shortfalls in terms of the FA criteria, so I'll archive this shortly. Please don't be discouraged but act upon the advice, and I hope we see an improved version of the article back here in due course. Cheers, Ian Rose (talk) 11:37, 9 July 2014 (UTC)

Ian Rose (talk) 11:42, 9 July 2014 (UTC)
 * The above discussion is preserved as an archive. Please do not modify it. No further edits should be made to this page.