Wikipedia:Peer review/Russell T Davies/archive1

Russell T Davies
This peer review discussion has been closed. This article failed a FAC about two months ago for lack of support, and after talking to Karanacas, she mentioned there were prose issues to work on too. That, and the two month gap may have made the writing look somewhat "stale". I'd like to get this to FA soon enough, but I want to make sure it's good enough too. Thanks, Sceptre (talk) 20:42, 7 October 2010 (UTC)

I'm going to focus only on the lede so if others want to jump in and take on the body of the text, please do!

Lede:
 * Citations don't belong in the lede.
 * I think the lede is stiff and difficult to follow. The lede should invite the reader to continue into the body of the text but there's something that distances the reader here and makes the whole uninviting and inaccessible. Try something less wordy, more relaxed. Alternate short simple sentences with longer, more complex ones. Alternate single syllable words with multi-syllable word.


 * This, for example, is stiff: "aspired to work as a full time comic artist in his adult life"
 * This can do without all the syllables and hyphens: "he consequently refocused his aspirations to play- and screen-writing." All those syllables and hyphens are unattractive.
 * Too many commas, commas, commas, here: "After he graduated from Oxford University, Davies joined the BBC's children's department on a part-time basis in 1985 and worked in varying positions, including producing and writing two series, Dark Season and Century Falls, until leaving in 1994 to become a freelance writer." Cut it up into two sentences and get rid of the commas.

Write for the general reader:


 * Davies was born in Swansea, Wales and entertained youthful dreams of becoming a professional comics artist. He redirected his energies to writing for theatre and film when a career advisor suggested he study English literature. After graduating from Oxford University in 1985, he produced and wrote two series for the BBC's children's department, Dark Season and Century Falls.
 * He left the BBC in 1994 to write adult television dramas exploring religion and sexuality. etc.

- — Preceding unsigned comment added by Susanne2009NYC (talk • contribs)
 * doing Der Wohltemperierte Fuchs ( talk ) 23:24, 13 October 2010 (UTC)
 * Comments by David Fuchs
 * Random comment: Shouldn't it be Russell T. Davies? Is "T" his actual middle name?
 * The first paragraph of the lead isn't really a paragraph (it's just one big long sentence.)
 * I think there might be a tad too much detail in the second paragraph. I think it's important that you tell us in a nutshell what kind of themes he was grappling with and what shows he was working on, but a blow-by-blow synopsis of each series might be a tad much.
 * Echoing Susanna above, there's a few spots where there are technical or esoteric terms that should be explained or can be axed (for example, us young people in the era of cable have no idea what closedown means.)
 * "The show, originally called The Adventuresome Three, would featured the [...]" - would have featured?
 * "He accepted Home's offer and the show was allocated the budget and timeslot of [...]" The reference to "budget" give me pause. Did they inherit the money left over after that series was axed? Or did they receive the same sized budget as that show? This might not be important to mention here anyhow.
 * It's at "Dark Season and Century Falls" that I start feeling that the article hews too closely to the structure and style of Aldridge & Murray; this was a bigger issue during the FAC but I still see the same underlying structure (for example the "Saving it from extinction" quote at the end of the article). As this isn't a book, it doesn't need the same type of framing and context, which means you can cut down on specific examples and reciting of plots. Maybe this is just something that requires greater sourcing variety. I just get bogged down the further I get into the article.
 * Jump back to the lead: "His most notable achievement was reviving" Usage of "was" implies he's dead, secondly where's the source for this being his most notable achievement?
 * "After the cancellation of the series and the death of Princess Diana, an existential crisis and near-overdose persuaded him to detoxify to make a name for himself by producing a series celebrating his homosexuality." - The way this is phrased makes it sound like Diana's death caused his existential crisis. Is this true?
 * "most notably given to his pansexual time-traveller Captain Jack Harkness" - I'm pretty sure this exact same descriptor was used earlier in the article, and it should not be linked again (there are other items that are overlinked as well.)

-- Der Wohltemperierte Fuchs ( talk ) 19:04, 15 October 2010 (UTC)