Talk:Ethan Allen/GA2

GA Review

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Reviewer: –Grondemar 21:52, 5 April 2010 (UTC)

 Working Will aim to complete this review in the next couple of days. –Grondemar 21:52, 5 April 2010 (UTC)

Sorry for taking so long, I'm still reviewing, but here are a couple of things I've found so far:

• The lead seems short for the length of the article; please expand to three or four thicker paragraphs. The first two paragraphs can be (and probably should be) combined into a single paragraph, as they together introduce Ethan Allen.
• The article talks about Allen defending cases in court; it might help to elaborate somewhere on how Allen gained his legal education (presumably self-taught, but when?).
  • Allen did not have any legal training; he hired a lawyer to the actual court work in the 1770. I will make this clear. Magic♪piano 20:55, 13 April 2010 (UTC)
  • I've expanded the lead, and added mention of Allen's legal advisor. Magic♪piano 15:07, 17 April 2010 (UTC)
    • Looks good, I've stuck both concerns above. –Grondemar 22:44, 20 April 2010 (UTC)

More to come. –Grondemar 03:35, 13 April 2010 (UTC)

OK, here's the rest of the review (finally!):

• In the Imprisonment section, Allen was first placed on the HMS Gaspée, but if you read the article this wikilinks to, that ship was burned in 1772. I assume these are two different ships of the same name?
• Later in the Imprisonment section, Allen was jailed for a parole violation that he admitted was "partly true": what exactly did he do?
• Death section: It would be nice, and more WP:NPOV to include some positive obituary quotes, rather than just list the negative ones. If "most" obituaries were positive, quoting only negative ones gives them WP:UNDUE weight.
• The overall article is highly dependent on one source: the Jellison book. I roughly estimate 75% of the citations are from this single book, and in fact many of the cites are in page number order. It would be desirable to include more citations from other works about Allen; this definitely will be needed if you intend to bring this article to WP:FAC.

I also made several copyedits to the article; make sure I didn't change anything of importance.

GA review (see here for criteria)

1. It is reasonably well written.

   a (prose): b (MoS):

2. It is factually accurate and verifiable.

   a (references): b (citations to reliable sources): c (OR):

3. It is broad in its coverage.

   a (major aspects): b (focused):

4. It follows the neutral point of view policy.

   Fair representation without bias:

   Due to heavy reliance on the Jellison book.

5. It is stable.

   No edit wars, etc.:

6. It is illustrated by images, where possible and appropriate.

   a (images are tagged and non-free images have fair use rationales): b (appropriate use with suitable captions):

7. Overall:

   Pass/Fail:

   This article will be on hold for seven days waiting closure of the above concerns.

Thanks. –Grondemar 22:44, 20 April 2010 (UTC)

Thanks for your comments. Some observations:

• HMS Gaspée does indeed currently redirect to Gaspée Affair; it is certainly true that the British reuse ship names. I'm not sure how to deal with this; the only action I find satisfactory (and not very) that doesn't involve delving into British naval records (not my strong point) is to delink the instance here. A brief survey indicates some disagreement among sources about exactly what type of ship Allen's Gaspée was (brig, schooner, or sloop), which might provide another point of disambiguation. I will make inquiries at the MILHIST and Ships projects to see if some Royal Navy record hounds can help out.
• Allen does not say why his parole was revoked; his narrative implies he was somehow framed. I may revisit this particular point, since I need to get a hold of some sources again. (I'm not inclined to trust Allen much on this point, and may just elaborate what he says a bit better and present as explicitly his claim.)
• Sources: Jellison's biography is fairly definitive. The only other useful modern biography is Bellesiles, although his focus is somewhat broader than Allen himself and sometimes lacks details. (There have also been issues with his scholarship: see his WP entry, although I'm not sure how much of an effect that controversy would have here.) Of other recent books, Hoyt (listed in Further reading) is essentially docudrama; it may be factually correct, but it also includes things clearly fictional, like significant exchanges of dialogue. As a result it is not a useful source (but it might be an entertaining read.) All other sources are older, and often lacking in detail; I use them when I can. I will pick up Bellesiles (and possibly Holbrook) to see what can be re-cited from them; this will take a while, but I should be able to get through it over the next week. This will also give me opportunity to address the legacy assessment in a more balanced manner. Magic♪piano 16:28, 21 April 2010 (UTC)

I've now cited about 1/2 the article to sources other than Jellison; is this sufficient to address your concern?

I've also corrected the Gaspée links; I located enough information to establish HMS Gaspée as a ship index page. I've also recast Allen's parole violation with some background and a likely cause. Magic♪piano 16:14, 27 April 2010 (UTC)

All of my concerns have been addressed. I am passing GA for this article. Thanks for all the hard work! –Grondemar 20:51, 27 April 2010 (UTC)

Thanks! Magic♪piano 21:20, 27 April 2010 (UTC)