Wikipedia:Featured list candidates/Marshal Foch Professor of French Literature/archive1

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

The list was promoted by Giants2008 20:10, 18 June 2012 [1].

Marshal Foch Professor of French Literature

Featured list candidates/Marshal Foch Professor of French Literature/archive1

Nominator(s): Bencherlite ^Talk 01:42, 15 May 2012 (UTC)[reply]

A arms dealer endowing a university professorship in literature in honour of a war hero? A French politician trying to fix the election? Not stories you find every week in your university newspaper, I'm sure. "I am nominating this for featured list because..." it's about time I brought something here, after a two-year gap doing other things, and I think this now fits ths bill. In fact this is something I nearly finished polishing up in 2010, around the time that I was doing other Oxford University professorship lists such as Laudian Professor of Arabic (which has a much longer history, hence the reason that list is much longer), so I thought I'd finish it and give it a twirl to see what people thought. Thoughts / comments welcome. Zut alors! Bonne chance, mes amis! C'est tout. Au revoir et joyeux Noel (ok, I'm really running out of my French lesson memories now)... Bencherlite ^Talk 01:42, 15 May 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Resolved comments from Good raise 11:48, 15 May 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Comments from Good raise

"Although Zaharoff wanted the University of Paris to have a right of veto over the appointment, Oxford would not accept this." – The although irritates me a bit. It would appear to imply that Zaharoff's wanting it would make Oxford more likely to accept it. Would changing the sentence to read "Zaharoff wanted the University of Paris to have a right of veto over the appointment, but Oxford would not accept this" be acceptable to you?
"...who from April 1918 was was supreme commander of..." – was was?
"The French regarded the appointment..." – "If an entire sentence is quoted in such a way that it becomes a grammatical part of the larger sentence, the first letter loses its capitalization." (MOS:QUOTE)
"French Quarterly" – This strikes me as probably notable. Are you sure it shouldn't be redlinked?
"French Institute in Florence" – Could this (or part of it) be wikilinked somehow?
"Librarian of Brasenose College, Oxford" and "Master of Christ's College, Cambridge" – Could these titles be explained or wikilinked?
Some of the sources requiring a subscription are marked as such, but not all of them.

Good to see you back at FLC. Good raise 03:20, 15 May 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks for the swift review and for welcoming me back.

~~Although~~
~~was~~
Even as I put "The" in the sentence, I wondered whether I was right...
Hmm, not sure. I found one half-sentence in an obituary for its co-founder that the journal had done much in its day to widen knowledge of French life and journal, and a search on JSTOR for "French Quarterly + Rudler" only threw up seven hits, most in French, so I wouldn't necessarily be able to tell if they discuss the journal in terms that would pass the GNG. I'll link it for now and we'll see what happens. I don't have enough to write even a stub showing notability, alas.
Sadly, it isn't the Florence Institute! Wikilinked Florence but can't find a suitable article to link the institute to (we have no article on it, nor on the Palazzo Lenzi where it is based, and French Institute is wrong).
I'm not sure that I need explain "Librarian of Brasenose College" or can explain it without repetition. As for Christ's, I've added "(the head of the college)" and linked it to a rather bare list at List of Masters of Christ's College, Cambridge
Marked the rest with "|format=subscription required".

Hope this all meets with your approval. Bencherlite ^Talk 08:15, 15 May 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Image review. No complaints. Good raise 11:48, 15 May 2012 (UTC)[reply]
Support. Good work, as always. Good raise 11:48, 15 May 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Resolved comments from The Rambling Man (talk) 13:16, 28 May 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Comments from a 'tab

"Zaharoff wanted the University of Paris to have a right of veto over the appointment, Oxford would not accept this" picky, but I would prefer to see a "Although... " at the beginning or an "however" before Oxford or something... or perhaps a semi-colon rather than a comma...
"was that it should " mildly unclear as to what "it" is here.
Could (could) link French Foreign Minister?
Last three sentences of lead have "professor" overdose, could you say "As of 2012, the (post/position)* is held by..."?
"necessary changes to the university's statutes were made " followed by "during the debate". What debate?
Are you, like me, working under the understanding that capital letters don't take accents in French (e.g. Ecole?) while our own article thinks the opposite (École Normale Supérieure)?
"Cambridge University"?? You should be ashamed, but I suppose you did this deliberately.... "University of Cambridge" me old mucker.
Picky, but should the heading "Professor" really be "Professorship" or "Tenure" (bleugh)?
Gross Domestic Product doesn't need to be so capitalised.
Not entirely sure in the use of Category:French literature here, but open to being convinced...

The Rambling Man (talk) 08:24, 24 May 2012 (UTC)[reply]

", but" - would that do for you?
changed "it" to "Paris", trying to avoid repetition of "University of Paris"
added and linked the minister's name to the lead, put the position in brackets without a wikilink (on the basis that the individual is more relevant at that point than the office)
professor - chair - position
Clarified, I hope
École'd throughout
For you, m'dear, anything...
I'm sure we've had this discussion in the past; looking back, I see "in office" at Bodley's Librarian and "Professor" at Laudian Professor of Arabic - but what about a simple "years"? Will that do?
decapped, abbreviations for GDP and RPI introduced in note 1 and used instead of the full words in note 2
I wanted to get it into a French literature category of some sort, and that seemed as good as any...

Merci beaucoup pour votre review, L'Homme Randonnée... Bencherlite ^Talk 08:52, 24 May 2012 (UTC)[reply]

De rien mon ami. The Rambling Man (talk) 08:56, 24 May 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Support why not. As usual, not too dreary from my darker blue colleague. The Rambling Man (talk) 11:01, 14 June 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Support Dana boomer (talk) 23:49, 31 May 2012 (UTC) ~~Comments~~[reply]

History, "government to agree a common position with the University" - I think there might be something missing here...
History, "ambassador to agree him with the representative" - again, grammatically off.

Just a couple of minor comments on prose. Referencing and the sole image look good. Dana boomer (talk) 15:37, 31 May 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks for stopping by. I've rewritten that little section, which was getting a little complicated. Hopefully it fits the bill. Bencherlite ^Talk 15:54, 31 May 2012 (UTC)[reply]

I actually like the original version better. Nice long sentences are so rare on Wikipedia. I presume Dana's irritation with the passage stems from the use of the transitive form of agree, which I was so delighted to learn existed when I looked it up while reviewing this list. Good raise 16:36, 31 May 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Rock, meet hard place! I quite liked the second phrase that Dana boomer picked up on, but it was an unfortunate casualty of my need to rewrite the first. C'est la vie. Bencherlite ^Talk 16:50, 31 May 2012 (UTC)[reply]

I like the new version, but I won't scream (or revoke my support) if you change it back. Goodraise, that is exactly what I was objecting to - and the wording was so foreign to me that I didn't even think to look it up! After reading the wiktionary page, this appears to be a UK/Ireland form (I can definitely state that I have never seen it in writing in the US!). Although technically correct, I would think that the usage of a transitive form of "agree" would be foreign to so many readers as to make it better to use something like the wording currently in the article. YMMV Dana boomer (talk) 23:49, 31 May 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Gah, it's been a while since I faced the use of the word "transitive" in a discussion, whether in real life or here (if there's a difference). I'll stick with what's there now, I think, and thanks for your review and support. Bon soir, tout le monde. Bencherlite ^Talk 00:06, 1 June 2012 (UTC)[reply]

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