User:Malkinann/Good article review essay

Although Good Article review can be nerve-wracking for some editors, it can be effectively used as a tool for improvement of the article. Many Good Articles that have had a review and been kept have later gone on to Featured Article.

Step 1. Don't Panic. Staying cool and being civil can only help make the review process more pleasant for everyone.

Step 2. Read WP:WIAGA and Reviewing good articles to understand the criteria against which an article is measured. You may also wish to look at other, similar, GA-class articles to see how they do things.

Step 3. Ask (politely) for clarification if you don't understand any comments in the review. Ask at the WP:GA/R page, not the comment on the talk page - the article will be looked over by others at the GA/R page, and sometimes, other issues with an article will crop up there. Most reviewers will be very happy that you've asked - hopefully this means that you're interested in improving the article so that it doesn't have to be de-listed. Asking for clarification is like saying to the reviewer, yes, you may just have a point here, and I'm interested in doing something to fix it.

Step 4. Ask for help - relevant wikiprojects may be able to help with referencing, and reviewers may, if politely asked, fix up some formatting issues. Referring wikiprojects here may help them understand the process.

Step 5. the most common reason an article is brought to review is due to referencing problems. This essentially means inline, full citations from reliable sources. If you're not sure where to put them, look for specific phrases (quotes, numbers) and controversial phrases. Each section should have at least one reference in them, and preferably more.

Step 6. Research the topic. Google it. Google Scholar it. Hie thee to the library and borrow a few books, even! Reviewers can't really help with this step, because they are probably less familiar with the subject than you are. Mentioning at the review that you are doing some library-research will probably help spark interest in the review and lead to more comments.

Step 7. Add your research into the article, using inline references. Once you've added in many citations, including any references for statements mentioned at the review, say so, and ask reviewers to look again at the article.

Step 8. Rinse and repeat.

If consensus is reached quickly, and it's not in favour of keeping the article, just take a deep breath. It's not the end of the world. Better luck next time. You may wish to put points from the review into a To do list on the talk page for future reference.