Wikipedia:WikiProject Biography/Peer review/Douglas Bruce

Douglas Bruce

This turned into a lengthier article than I expected on one of the more... interesting... characters in contemporary Colorado politics. I hope to pull this article up to GA and then FA status after a bit of polishing, but, at the moment, I'm mainly interested in how well the more colorful aspects of Douglas Bruce's career are covered. -- Sethant (talk) 05:30, 26 February 2008 (UTC)

Review by Psychless

This is an excellent, informative article. I'm glad to see an article on a state politician go beyond stub status! In terms of content, I'd like to read more about his younger years and personal life, but I understand that that information may just not exist in published sources. Here are my suggestions:

• The first sentence contains a list of the schools he graduated from. If you want to keep it in that format, you should remove the two "then"s

 Done--Sethant (talk) 20:19, 20 March 2008 (UTC)

• Did he graduate from the USC Gould School of Law? If so, you should include that in the article.

 Done He did, and in looking for that info, I found a page with a young picture of him --Sethant (talk) 20:19, 20 March 2008 (UTC)

• Replace " -- " with "—". Note the absence of space on both sides.

 Done--Sethant (talk) 20:19, 20 March 2008 (UTC)

• Does the 38th Assembly district still include those two cities? If it does, you should write "includes" instead of "included". If it doesn't, you should consider adding "at the time" at the end of the sentence to clarify this.

The 38th is now Santa Clarita and Simi Valley, so no.  Done--Sethant (talk) 20:19, 20 March 2008 (UTC)

• Is there any information on his switch from Democrat to Republican? That's a very big ideological switch.

I think the narrative makes it clear that he wasn't a typical Democrat, and he didn't become a typical Republican, either. Aside from what's included, there isn't much information about his career as a Democrat, alas.--Sethant (talk) 20:19, 20 March 2008 (UTC)

• "A third and final attempt in 1992" could be cut down to "A third attempt in 1992"

 Done--Sethant (talk) 20:19, 20 March 2008 (UTC)

• "tangling vocally" is very ambiguous. Don't be afraid to say he was shouting at the other person. If that's what he did, it's still NPOV. (This term was used in the lead as well.)

No, not shouting; I've changed that phrasing to "trading barbs;" and described an often-quoted incident from that campaign. Done--Sethant (talk) 20:19, 20 March 2008 (UTC)

• Colorado State Senate is linked twice in a row. Unlink the second occurrence.

 Done--Sethant (talk) 20:19, 20 March 2008 (UTC)

• "Bruce ran unsuccessfully for the Colorado State Senate again in 2000" sounds better than "Bruce ran unsuccessfully again for the Colorado State Senate in 2000" to me.

 Done--Sethant (talk) 20:19, 20 March 2008 (UTC)

• Is the "during his senate campaign," part necessary in "In June 2000, during his senate campaign,"? I'm not sure how the issue is relevant to his senate campaign other than it happened in the same time frame.

 Done--Sethant (talk) 20:19, 20 March 2008 (UTC)

• "Bruce was elected to the El Paso County, Colorado county commission" -> "Bruce was elected to the El Paso County, Colorado, county commission"

 Done--Sethant (talk) 20:19, 20 March 2008 (UTC)

• The first sentence of the 2004 election section is a run-on. The second sentence should start with "In the general election, he defeated".

 Done--Sethant (talk) 20:19, 20 March 2008 (UTC)

• "Bruce was frequently the lone vote in opposition to measures" -> "Bruce was frequently the only opposition to measures"

 Done--Sethant (talk) 20:19, 20 March 2008 (UTC)

• "He cast the lone vote against" -> "He cast the only vote against"?

 Done--Sethant (talk) 20:19, 20 March 2008 (UTC)

• References should always come after punctuation.

I can't immediately find instances where this occurs, but I'll be happy to correct any with this improper formatting.-- Sethant (talk) 20:19, 20 March 2008 (UTC)

• I'm assuming he called it "handouts for deadbeats".

My use of quotations marks echoes the original news source.--Sethant (talk) 20:19, 20 March 2008 (UTC)

• This is a suggestion for the entire article: Make sure your quotation mark use adheres to Wikipedia:MOS#Quotation marks. (I don't want to point out each misuse.)

I've fixed some instances, but I don't find prevalent problems as you seem to allude to. Can you be a little more specific? -- Sethant (talk) 20:19, 20 March 2008 (UTC)

• I'm not quite sure why Amendment 38 is linked. Would there ever be an article on the amendment? If so, I don't think that would be the correct title.

 Done--Sethant (talk) 20:19, 20 March 2008 (UTC)

• Does there need to be a comma in "of county staff, and told Bruce"? I don't think the "told Bruce ... " part is an independent clause. Also, should there be a [the] in the quote?

I've replaced that quote with a paraphrase which reads less awkwardly; it was the original quote.-- Sethant (talk) 20:19, 20 March 2008 (UTC)

• Should challenge be changed to challenges in "Bruce also lost legal challenge"?

 Done--Sethant (talk) 20:19, 20 March 2008 (UTC)

• In the second paragraph of the swearing in controversy, remove the comma after "Speaker Romanoff" and remove "both"

 Done--Sethant (talk) 20:19, 20 March 2008 (UTC)

• "was not recognized by Speaker Romanoff during the morning session" is not an independent clause so remove the comma before "but". Or you may add "he" before "was not recognized" and keep the comma.

 Done--Sethant (talk) 20:19, 20 March 2008 (UTC)

• "Javier Manzano, a Rocky Mountain News photographer" -> "Javier Manzano, a Rocky Mountain News photographer,"

 Done--Sethant (talk) 20:19, 20 March 2008 (UTC)

• I think "Bruce later accused the photographer of "violating the order and decorum" of the house and refused to apologize." sounds better than "Bruce later accused the photographer of "violating the order and decorum" of the house, refusing to apologize." (The situation is hilarious no matter how you word it :).)

 Done--Sethant (talk) 20:19, 20 March 2008 (UTC)

• How did Manzano respond to the controversy? Did he?

He testified to the House panel, but didn't press charges. Now included.  Done--Sethant (talk) 20:19, 20 March 2008 (UTC)

• "Bruce has also announced his intention to stand" -> "Bruce announced that he will stand"

 Done--Sethant (talk) 20:19, 20 March 2008 (UTC)

• "and is expected to face a challenge both for the Republican nomination (from attorney Mark Waller) and in the general election (from Democrat Allison Hunter)" -> "and expects to face a challenge for both the Republican nomination (attorney Mark Waller) and the general election (Democrat Allison Hunter)." (Forgot the period! Also note that our Mark Waller is a doctor)

Since revised with new developments. Done--Sethant (talk) 20:19, 20 March 2008 (UTC)

• The "free-ness" of the image is questionable. You may want to look around and see if you find this picture anywhere else.

A free-er, albeit lower-quality, image now adorns the infobox. Done--Sethant (talk) 20:19, 20 March 2008 (UTC)

Please leave a note on my talk page if you have any questions or comments. Good luck. Psychless 19:50, 26 February 2008 (UTC)

For the references issue, see the third paragraph of Policy positions. Also, I'm fairly sure the style for mdashes (—) is to have no space on either side. Other than those minor things, it's a great article. Psychless 17:13, 22 March 2008 (UTC)

Mdashes fixed! I'm afraid I still don't see the issues with placement of quotation marks or references that you allude to; I've gone through the whole article several times with the Manual of Style open to double-check the formatting. Perhaps if you gave specific reference numbers I could locate the mistakes more easily. -- Sethant (talk) 20:07, 22 March 2008 (UTC)