Wikipedia:Peer review/Shimer College/archive1

Shimer College
This peer review discussion has been closed. I've listed this article for peer review because I aspire to take this to FAC soon and am hoping for a good wringing out from the fine editors at WP:PR. A nitpicky going over with the FAC process in mind would be very much appreciated.

Thanks, Nasty Housecat (talk) 22:56, 17 June 2010 (UTC)

Finetooth comments: I think this professionally written and apparently comprehensive article is ready for FAC. It's clear, well-organized, interesting, and enjoyable. I can imagine some "own photos" that would be better than some of the existing ones, but that would not prevent me from supporting this article at FAC. I have a few comments and quibbles, none of which should cause much trouble. Nice job.


 * The flaming smelt is the most unusual mascot I have ever encountered. Wonderful.

History
 * "In the late 1960s, Shimer experienced a period of internal unrest known as "the 'Grotesque Internecine Struggle' which resulted in half of the faculty and a large percentage of the students resigning from the College." - Perhaps just a sentence explaining the essence of the struggle would be good. I couldn't help but be curious about something with such a wonderful name.

Note b
 * You might mention the St. Johns campus in Santa Fe, N.M., as well.

Note c:
 * The return click does not seem to work on this note. Ditto for Note e. That is, clicking the little arrow to the left of the note letter in the footnote does nothing, whereas with the other three notes the arrow hops the reader back to the note-insertion point in the main text.

Curriculum
 * "Shimer awards Bachelor's degrees with concentrations in Humanities, Social Sciences, and Natural Sciences. Two-thirds of the courses needed to graduate are required Core Courses." - Instead of initial caps perhaps "bachelor's", "humanities", "social sciences", "natural sciences" and "core courses"? Ditto for "core", "core curriculum"? On the other hand, the caps seem useful on "Basic Studies", "Advanced Studies" and "Advanced Integrative Studies", which appear to be proper nouns.

Special programs
 * "A joint program has been operated since 2009 with Harold Washington College (HWC), one of the very few Community Colleges to offer a Great Books program... ". - Lower-case "community colleges". Ditto for "bachelor's" in the next sentence.

Recognition and accomplishments
 * "can’t be captured in the U.S. News measurements" - Should U.S. News should be in italics?

Governance
 * My inclination would be to go easier on the initial capital letters here too. Here's an example: "and the assets of the College. The Board delegates authority to the President of the College, who acts as the chief executive administrator, and to the Dean of the College." My sense of these words is that "college", "board", "president of the college", and "dean of the college" are all generic terms not needing caps. Ditto "board of trustees". On the other hand, "Shimer College" is fine because that's its full, formal, and unique name. Later in this section the word "Assembly" is capitalized many times, which I find jarring. My solution would be to alter "Since 1977, Shimer has been governed internally by faculty, staff, and students working through a structure of committees and a deliberative body called the Assembly... " to "Since 1977, Shimer has been governed internally by faculty, staff, and students working through a structure of committees and a deliberative body called the assembly... " and then to refer to it simply as "the assembly" or "assembly" thereafter. I'd also lowercase "constitution" later in this section.

Student life
 * ""Students do not necessarily graduate with the skills for specific career." - Should that be plural, "careers"?

Other
 * The dab tool in the toolbox above finds two disambiguation links.

I hope these few comments prove helpful. If so, please consider reviewing another article, especially one from the PR backlog at WP:PR. That is where I found this one. (Forgive the boilerplate here. I know you do reviews, which are much appreciated.) Finetooth (talk) 18:25, 28 June 2010 (UTC)