Wikipedia:Peer review/Norodom Sihanouk/archive1

Norodom Sihanouk

I've listed this article for peer review because…

Done a major expansion on the article from June 2015. At the present state, I am confident that it will pass the GA review stage. I think nominating it for FA review should not be an issue either, after I have looked through a number of FA nominations this year and I believe that I have safely meet the FA standards. I understand that articles are highly recommended to undergo a GA review and Peer review before nominating for FA. Comments on prose, sourcing, and other relevant issues are highly welcome to improve the article as much as possible.

Thanks, Mr Tan (talk) 03:53, 20 August 2015 (UTC)

Comments from LK

Overall impression – well written and neutral. Weight for different topics appears to be appropriate. Some brief comments:

• Lead:
  • There should be a IPA pronunciation guide for his name, Norodom Sihanouk.

I am totally new to IPA guides. Feel free to input the IPA version of Sihanouk's name if you wish :) Mr Tan (talk) 03:42, 16 September 2015 (UTC)

• • First paragraph of the lead should be edited to keep only what is most important about Norodom Sihanouk. Other information from current first paragraph should be moved to the rest of the lead.

I acknowledge your recommendation, and note that quite a number of biographical articles are written in the form as you mentioned. The thing is, Sihanouk held many positions throughout his life - King, Head of State, Prime Minister, Leader of GRUNK/FUNK, Leader of FUNCINPEC party. To also list the years that he served in the positions, I can foresee the first paragraph would get pretty long on this, and felt that an "integral" approach to writing the lead would be more pragmatic and elegant. Anyway, I wrote the lead by broadly following the style of Barack Obama's article as a guide (a FA), which also uses the "integral" approach. I also noted that another FA, John Adair also follows this approach more or less as well. Mr Tan (talk) 03:42, 16 September 2015 (UTC)

• • Last paragraph of the lead should be split into 2 paragraphs.

The previous GA reviewer had recommended to expand lead content corresponding to the section on his "Artistic career", and I had to inevitably write a bit more, hence the last paragraph is the longest. But I think the paragraph size is still within acceptable range, as short paragraphs are not encouraged (see Wikipedia:Manual_of_Style/Layout#Paragraphs and Wikipedia:Writing_better_articles#Paragraphs) I think that at the present state, the lead paragraphs are within a consistent range of lengths. 3 paragraphs would be just nice, as per WP:LEADLENGTH guideline. Mr Tan (talk) 03:42, 16 September 2015 (UTC)

• Photos:
  • For FA, the photos should have alt tags to aid the seeing impaired, see Wikipedia:Alternative text for images

For example, take the first image

File:Mao Sihanouk.jpg|thumb|left|250px|Meeting in Beijing in 1956: from left Mao Zedong, Peng Zhen, Sihanouk, Liu Shaoqi.|alt=Sihanouk with Chinese leaders in Beijing, 1956.

Should the "alt" be placed something like this, in terms of HTML format? Because I did a trial edit, I tried to press "alt" after that and the alternative caption did not show up. Mr Tan (talk) 03:42, 16 September 2015 (UTC)

• • There are some photos in commons that are not used in the article. A few more photos in the article would be nice.

There is are guideline at Wikipedia:Manual_of_Style/Layout#Images and Wikipedia:Manual_of_Style/Layout#Images. I mean, if we are to input all "relevant" images from Commons into the article, it would risk over-cluttering the article unnecessarily. I am of the opinion one image per sub-section, placed at the start of each section would be enough, and that Wikimedia Commons was created for the specialist purpose of accomodating images relevant to a personality etc. There is a Wikilink to Sihanouk's page on Wikimedia Commons, and I think that would be sufficient in redirecting readers craving to seek more pictures of Sihanouk on Wikimedia.

You may want to refer to an older version of the article [1], take a look at the "Death" section on the clutter issue. I also noted that during two FA reviews, editors have expressed similar concerns on Image clutter. (You may want to refer to Wikipedia:Featured_article_candidates/History_of_Solidarity and Wikipedia:Featured article review/Autostereogram/archive1). Mr Tan (talk) 03:42, 16 September 2015 (UTC)

• • Photos of people and places he was associated (e.g. the royal palace, Hun Sen) with would also not be amiss.

I think this maybe considered only if there are a shortage of images directly relevant to the personality as a "second option". But I think there is no need for this since there are sufficient images used. Mr Tan (talk) 04:14, 16 September 2015 (UTC)

• Sprinkled through the article are places where the language is stilted and grammatically suspect. The article could use an edit by a native English speaker.

I agree that I would need help on this. Please feel free to copy-edit any issues that you see in the prose, or highlight specific examples here if possible. Mr Tan (talk) 03:42, 16 September 2015 (UTC)

LK (talk) 08:23, 15 September 2015 (UTC)

I am closing this Peer Review, as there has been no activity for more than 3 weeks. For the suggestions that I had requested clarification, I had tried to follow up on Lawrence's talk page at User_talk:Lawrencekhoo#Wikipedia:Peer_review.2FNorodom_Sihanouk.2Farchive1, but no reply had been effected until now. At the moment, there are a few additional areas that I plan to expand, or tweak upon over the next few months before I reach a decision for FAC nomination. Mr Tan (talk) 11:59, 9 October 2015 (UTC)