Talk:Bixby letter/GA1

GA Review

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Reviewer: Display name 99 (talk · contribs) 23:42, 9 July 2016 (UTC)[reply]

I plan to begin reviewing this shortly. Display name 99 (talk) 23:42, 9 July 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Here we go:

Lead

In the second sentence, I would add "Along" before "with" in order to make it flow better.

Done

For the same sentence, add "is" before "often".

Done

For the last sentence of the lead, replace the semi-colon with a comma.

Done Libertybison (talk) 08:12, 10 July 2016 (UTC) (all three above)[reply]

Text

If Lydia Bixby got the letter in the mail, it would be best to replace "delivered" with "received".

The 25 Nov. 1864 Boston Evening Traveller article makes it clear that letter arrived in the mail that morning to Adjutant General Schouler. It doesn't actually mention the letter being delivered to Bixby, implying Schouler gave the story to the Traveller before it was delivered to her. The 25 Nov. 1864 Boston Evening Transcript article (the one in the image at the top of the article) says that the letter was delivered to her that morning (it doesn't say how). Presumably, Schouler or someone from his office delivered the letter to her after it arrived in the mail; possibly later in the morning as described in the Transcript. I don't know if you still would prefer the word "received" in light of this. Libertybison (talk) 19:00, 10 July 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Meeting with Adjutant General Schouler

When did Schouler mention that Bixby visited him?

Done - clarified that it was in his initial letter to Gov. Andrew about the Newhall discharge request. Libertybison (talk) 08:12, 10 July 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Military record of the Bixby sons

Add "her" before "son George".

Done Libertybison (talk) 08:12, 10 July 2016 (UTC)[reply]

I've made a slight change to the improvement you made to the first sentence that I feel improves the transition between sections. Libertybison (talk) 00:24, 11 July 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Questions of character

"Mrs George M. Towers"-Add a period after "Mrs". You may also want to include her actual name as opposed to her husband's name so that she can be more easily identified.

Period added; I wanted to include her actual name but the original newspaper article only referred to her that way. The two subsequent sources that I used that mention her, Bullard's book and Burlingame's 1995 article, still call her "Mrs. George Towers". If you're curious, I checked and genealogical records available online give her full name as Sylvia Elizabeth Towers. But I can't include that in the article since that's original research.

Replace although with "however".

Done Libertybison (talk) 08:12, 10 July 2016 (UTC) (both above)[reply]

The original

What caused Bixby to become angry?

Added Towers's speculation given in her 1925 Boston Herarld article as to why she was angry after receiving the letter. Also, I changed the word to "resenting" because "highly indignant" and "resented" were the actual descriptions used by Towers in the article Libertybison (talk) 21:01, 10 July 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Authorship

What "hints" are there that Lincoln may have delegated the task, besides those mentioned further down in the section? If there are none, I suggest replacing that portion of the sentence with something that would give a brief generalization as to why Hay might have written it before going into greater detail.

I've removed the problematic sentence. I've also added a sentence about a possible reason given in the sources as to why Hay might have been asked to write the letter. Libertybison (talk) 19:55, 10 July 2016 (UTC)[reply]

That should be all for now. Thank you for your work on the article. Display name 99 (talk) 00:28, 10 July 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you for taking up this review. I've made some of the fixes you suggested and responded to some of your points. But I only have a cell phone right now and may not be able to get to a desktop until tomorrow for the others. I've dated my responses above for your convenience. Libertybison (talk) 08:12, 10 July 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Display name 99, I hope the changes to the article have met with your satisfaction and I await any responses and more suggestions for improvement. I also want to thank John Foxe for his improvements to the wording of the article and also his previous work on the article without which it would not have been able to have been nominated as a Good Article. Libertybison (talk) 21:19, 10 July 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Libertybison and John Foxe, I am promoting the article. I made some changes based on things that I noticed after listing my original concerns. I added "believed to have been" for the first sentence to acknowledge the theory that Hay wrote the letter. Overall, the article looks good and I thank you two for working on it. I am pleased to promote this to good article status. Display name 99 (talk) 03:42, 11 July 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Also, I feel obligated to inform you that, as I was preparing to list the article under "Warfare", I could not find any subtopic there under which this would fit. Therefore, I chose instead to list it under "Language and Literature". Display name 99 (talk) 03:49, 11 July 2016 (UTC)[reply]