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Wikipedia:Featured article candidates/Edward Wright (mathematician)

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The following is an archived discussion of a featured article nomination. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the article's talk page or in Wikipedia talk:Featured article candidates. No further edits should be made to this page.

The article was promoted by User:SandyGeorgia 01:58, 19 June 2008 (UTC).[reply]

Edward Wright (mathematician)

[edit]

— Cheers, JackLee –talk– 16:39, 11 June 2008 (UTC) (nominator; article created by Jheald and expanded by both of us)[reply]

Comments

Gary King (talk) 18:00, 12 June 2008 (UTC)[reply]
  • Several pages from the same book are used as references multiple times. Perhaps merge them together using WP:REFNAME?
    • Comment: I have tried to do that, but I feel it is more useful to state the page or paragraph where a fact is mentioned wherever possible. — JackLee, 01:00, 12 June 2008 (UTC)[reply]
      • Then I don't think you understand the concept of reference names? Please read the linked article; the references will stay exactly the same – only the Reference section will shrink, making it easier to read through. Gary King (talk) 03:44, 12 June 2008 (UTC)[reply]
        • Comment: I think we're not understanding each other. I've used reference names where I can, but sometimes a footnote may contain text additional to the reference, in which case the reference needs to be stated at the end. Footnote 14 is an example of this: "Parish register, London, St. Michael Cornhill, 8 August 1595, GL [marriage]: see Apt, "Wright, Edward", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography." Other times, I've indicated "Parsons & Morris, p. 71" rather than using a reference name as I want to indicate that the information in the article comes from a specific page of the source. Can you point out some examples where you think reference names might be used? — JackLee, 12:11, 12 June 2008 (UTC)[reply]
          • I'm pretty sure we are not understanding each other, then. References like the following can be merged using reference names so they don't appear twice or more—it doesn't change any of the meaning in your referencing because they are the exact same references: "Parsons & Morris, p. 61." (appears at least five times); "Parsons & Morris, p. 71." (appears at least twice); "Parsons & Morris, p. 69." (appears at least three times); and "Parsons & Morris. p. 70." (appears at least three times). These references that appear multiple times can be merged using reference names. Gary King (talk) 15:14, 12 June 2008 (UTC)[reply]
  • Use an en dash for " pp. 550-551" per WP:DASH
  • "per kilometre)." → "per kilometer)." if you are going to use American spelling

Gary King (talk) 17:25, 11 June 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Support - prose is generally excellent, some things below:

  • Non-breaking space between unit and measurement in the Surveying section, not a hyphen or space, please.
  • In the same section, since the measurements are in the main text, the units should be spelled out, not abbreviated.
  • Same British/American thing as Gary King - change "organise" to "organize".
  • Redundancy: "Wright was prompted to publish the book after two incidents of his text, which had been prepared some years earlier"
  • Same as above: "Apart from a number of other books and pamphlets [...]"
  • Same as above: "it corrected a number of errors in the earlier work"
  • "The stoppage has been attributed to a number of factors, including Myddelton facing difficulties in raising fund" -> "The stoppage has been attributed to factors such as...."
  • The first sentence is a fragment.
  • "Apart from other books and pamphlets, Wright translated into English John Napier's 1614 Latin work which introduced the idea of logarithms." - awkward. Suggest rephrasing as "Apart from other books and pamphlets, Wright translated John Napier's 1614 work on logarithms from Latin to English."
    • But that loses the important point about 1614 work - before the book introduced them in 1614, nobody imagined logarithms might exist; it was a revolutionary step forward. Jheald (talk) 21:38, 11 June 2008 (UTC)[reply]
      • How about "Apart from other books and pamphlets, Wright translated John Napier's 1614 pioneer work on logarithms from Latin to English." Or you could substitute "revolutionary" for pioneer. I highly disliked the current wording. Nousernamesleftcopper, not wood 19:44, 12 June 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Nousernamesleftcopper, not wood 18:04, 11 June 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Comments

Otherwise sources look okay. Links all checked out with the link checker tool. (Is there REALLY a book called Trigonometric Delights???? Gah... I hated hated hated trigonometry... delights is NOT the word i'd use to describe it!) Ealdgyth - Talk 19:34, 11 June 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Actually, I think I was quite good at trigonometry when I did it at A-levels – but not having touched it for about 20 years I can't remember any of it! — Cheers, JackLee –talk– 23:49, 11 June 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Support - I think it's great,is well written and meets the FA criteria, but have a few comments/questions on (minor) things:

  • "..on 8 December 1576[2] as a sizar.[4]" - Shouldn't [2] be after punctuation?
  • "admitted as a sizar[4] at Caius on 7 July 1612.[10]" - again
  • "Wright was requested by Elizabeth I to carry out navigational studies with a raiding expedition" Should navigation be linked here for a second time when Elizabeth I isn't? You may want to check on your linking, some things are linked more then once and others are not. I'm not fussed if things are linked only once in the article, or only once in each section, as long as it's consistent.
    • Comment: My practice is to ignore links that appear only in the introductory paragraphs. Therefore, the link at "navigational" is the first time "navigation" has been linked in the main article. — Cheers, JackLee 19:32, 15 June 2008 (UTC)[reply]
  • "one writer has called him" - Any reason not to state the writer's name?

Anyway those things above are minor, and I wouldn't oppose this FAC because of them. - Shudde talk 12:02, 15 June 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Support - — Rlevse • Talk • 16:11, 15 June 2008 (UTC)[reply]

The above discussion is preserved as an archive. Please do not modify it. No further edits should be made to this page.
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