Talk:Lincoln, Nebraska/GA1

GA Review

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Reviewer: Designate (talk · contribs) 16:24, 11 August 2014 (UTC)

GA review – see WP:WIAGA for criteria

1. Is it reasonably well written?

   A. Prose is "clear and concise", without copyvios, or spelling and grammar errors:

   B. MoS compliance for lead, layout, words to watch, fiction, and lists:

   The lead is meant to summarize every section of the article. Currently the lead in this article contains a history of the city which is not found in the article. It should be moved into a "History" section and the lead should be rewritten from scratch to cover the entire article.

   The layout needs work. There are far too many lists. It's better to have prose with independent assessments of a few major points in each section than to have 30 items listed with no description whatsoever. Wikipedia's not an indiscriminate collection of data. It's meant to read like an encyclopedia entry. There's also a handful of very short paragraphs as well as two top-level headings with no text whatsoever ("Notable people" and "See also"). If you're not going to list any notable people in this article, just get rid of the section and put the link under "See also".

   Check out the manual of style entry on lists in articles. Lists are not forbidden but articles should not rely heavily on them.

2. Is it factually accurate and verifiable?

   A. Has an appropriate reference section:

   B. Citation to reliable sources where necessary:

   C. No original research:

   Are the following arguments supported outside of Wikipedia? They should be cited.

   "Lincoln has very little development outside its city limits and has no contiguous suburbs (the largest town that can be considered a suburb of Lincoln is Waverly). This is due primarily to the fact that most land that would otherwise be developed as a suburban town has already been annexed by the city of Lincoln itself."

   "Some neighborhoods in Lincoln were formerly small towns that Lincoln later annexed, including University Place, Belmont, Bethany, College View, Havelock, and Hartley."

   "Lincoln's economy is fairly typical of a mid-sized American city; most economic activity is derived from service industries."

   "The Pla-Mor Ballroom is a staple of Lincoln's music and dance scene, featuring its house band, the award-winning Sandy Creek Band."

   "Lincoln is best known for the university's football team, the Nebraska Cornhuskers." — Personally, I know Lincoln as the capital of Nebraska.

3. Is it broad in its coverage?

   A. Major aspects:

   All the typical city sections are there, but this isn't very well researched yet. There are many links to independent assessments of Lincoln but it's not folded into the article in any way.

   "More recently, Lincoln was named one of the "Top Ten most Welcoming Cities in America" by Welcoming America."

   "In 2013, Lincoln ranked No. 4 on Forbes' list of the Best Places for Business and Careers."

   "In 2012, the city was listed among the 10 best places to retire in the United States by U.S. News & World Report."

   Just listing the award doesn't do much for the article. Use these stories as an opportunity to flesh out the sections. What was it given these honors? What specific aspects of Lincoln are important according to these sources?

   The article isn't very conscious of history. It says "The Lincoln Journal Star is the city's major daily newspaper" as part of a bulleted list. How long has it been the major newspaper? Were there any major newspapers in the 19th and 20th centuries? Write the article as though you wanted it to be useful to somebody in 2030. Wouldn't they want more than a list of which television and radio stations existed in 2014? You describe the government; were there any mayors who had a big impact?

   B. Focused:

   There's a lot of detailed lists and the vast majority of it is just cited to self-published sources. For example, you list the London Children's Zoo and cite the London Children's Zoo website. This is fine in small quantities but when the majority of the article is bulleted lists cited to self-published (official) websites it's not encyclopedic. I encourage you to write as much of the article as possible using independent sources talking about Lincoln. This will help keep the article summary-style and make it easier to write prose instead of lists. Right now the article reads like a travel guide, or a search result of "things to do in Lincoln".

4. Is it neutral?

   Fair representation without bias:

   See above. It's undue weight to list so many attractions without giving much independent assessment of them.

5. Is it stable?

   No edit wars, etc:

6. Does it contain images to illustrate the topic?

   A. Images are tagged with their copyright status, and valid fair use rationales are provided for non-free content:

   B. Images are provided if possible and are relevant to the topic, and have suitable captions:

7. Overall:

   Pass or Fail:

   This article is pretty informative and clean but it still needs writing. Find some independent sources talking about the aspects of Lincoln you want to write about rather than focusing so much on comprehensive lists. Make a history section and rewrite the lead.