Wikipedia:WikiProject Biography/Peer review/Gore Vidal

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Gore Vidal[edit]

This article has the potential to become a featured article, but currently it seems to lack a lot about his younger life. CAN 03:38, 23 May 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Review by Awadewit[edit]

  • The lead should be a summary of the entire article per WP:LEAD.
  • I would delete the two "influences" fields from the infobox since such information is so debatable. Moreover, not all of the influences listed in the box are discussed in the article - that is confusing for the reader.
  • The article is sorely lacking in sources. The "Writing career" and "Political views" sections, for example, have almost none. Perhaps even more egregiously, the article has unsourced quotations.
  • Note: Links to websites should be placed in footnotes, not at the bottom of the article in the "External links" section.
  • I would suggest that the editors do a substantial amount of research as they revise this page. There is a lot of material written on Vidal by literary scholars - they should avail themselves of it.
  • The "Early years" jumps oddly to the death of Auster; it seems that that information should go later.
  • The structure of the article is not entirely clear to me. Do the editors want to cover all biographical material first and then turn to an analysis of Vidal's works or do they want to follow a chronological pattern, integrating the works with the life? Right now, it seems a bit unfocused.
  • There are several very short (even one-sentence paragraphs). These should be combined with other paragraphs or fleshed out.
  • Can you choose a representative work or two in the "Fiction" section and expand on it? This would help readers gain a sense of Vidal's style as an author.
  • The "Essays" section appears to be a prose list. Expand this section and describe Vidal's style as a prose writer.
  • The "Political views" section should probably be divided into subsections and its paragraphs made longer.
  • The "Trivia" section should be removed - any information you want to retain should be integrated into the article.
  • The article needs a thorough copyedit for dropped words, long and convoluted sentences, and punctuation.
  • Ex: The senator's steadfast isolationism contributed to one of the major principles underlying Vidal's political philosophy, which has been consistently critical of what he perceives as a foreign (and, by extension, a domestic) policy shaped by the imperatives of American imperialism.
  • If you eventually want to go for FA, check out the manual of style before doing so. Awadewit Talk 19:05, 29 May 2007 (UTC)[reply]
    • Thank you very much for the review! CAN 19:14, 29 May 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Review by Karanacs[edit]

I think if you can properly source the article this would be a good candidate for GA, but it needs more work before it will reach FA status. Some of my comments duplicate those of User:Awadewit -- I didn't read his review first.

  • Need citations for
    • "His second middle name honors his maternal grandfather, Thomas P. Gore, Democratic senator from Oklahoma." I would have assumed that the Gore was simply because it was his mother's maiden name
    • Last three paragraphs of Early Years
    • Writing career must be sourced or it appears to be WP:Original research
    • Pretty much everything after Writing career must also be sourced, especially quotations.
  • need to remove red links
  • The last two paragraphs of Early Years do not speak of his early years but of his later years.
  • Fiction section should not start with "The man" -- which man? for simplicity, simply say "Vidal"
  • don't spell out numbers over 10
  • I don't like the way you use a semicolon and then add more information -- this appears to be overdone in writing section
  • I recommend adding more info on critical response to his books in writing section
  • What made his novels "highly successful" in the 1960s? Sales or critical response?
  • The first paragraph of political views and activies should be removed. Most of that information is already in the early years section
  • All citations need to be formatted properly There are several in political activism section that are not footnotes as the rest of the article uses.
  • The Trivia Section needs to be removed
  • The external links section needs to be cleaned up. If at all possible, use these interviews as sources instead

Karanacs 14:38, 1 June 2007 (UTC)[reply]

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