Wikipedia:Peer review/Black Arrow/archive1

Black Arrow

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A script has been used to generate a semi-automated review of the article for issues relating to grammar and house style; it can be found on the automated peer review page for June 2009.

This peer review discussion has been closed.
I've listed this article for peer review because I am trying to bring it up to Good Article standard, but I have not done this before, and would like some advice regarding the quality of the article, and improvements that can be made, before I nominate it.

Thanks, --G W… 16:10, 3 June 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Finetooth comments: This is an interesting and well-illustrated article. I have a few suggestions about prose and Manual of Style issues that should not take long to address except perhaps for re-working the lede. I noticed a tendency to use passive voice even when it would be easy to use active voice. Usually active is more punchy and direct.

Lede

WP:LEAD defines the lede as a summary or abstract of the whole article. A good rule of thumb is to include at least a mention of each of the main text sections and not to include anything in the lede that is not developed in the main text. The existing lede doesn't mention "Cancellation", and it's pretty thin on "Development" and "Vehicle". Also, nothing about the naming conventions appears in the main text.

Development

"The first and second stage engines were built by Bristol Siddeley in Ansty." - Suggestion: "Bristol Siddeley in Ansty built the first- and second-stage engines." This switch is to active voice and to hyphens on the compound adjectives.

"The third stage was built in Somerset by Bristol Aerojet, whilst the solid propellent was produced by the Explosives Research and Development Establishment in Waltham Abbey." - Flip passive to active? Also, the Manual of Style suggests replacing "whilst" with "while".

"The stage was designed and integrated by the Rocket Propulsion Establishment in Westcott." - Flip to active voice?

Vehicle

Wikilink oxidiser?
Wikilink Specific energy?
Wikilink centre of gravity?
"Attitude control on the first two stages was provided by thrust vectoring." - Flip to active voice?
"The eight first stage combustion chambers were arranged in pairs... " - "first-stage" rather than "first stage"?
"During the coast, the attitude control system was used to maintain the correct attitude for third stage separation." - "third-stage separation"? Ditto for similar constructions in which X-stage is used later in the article as an adjective to modify a noun? I'm also itching for this sentence to be active voice and for "attitude" not to be repeated. Perhaps "During the coast, a control system maintained the correct attitude for third-stage separation"?
"Despite this, the upper stage of R3 collided with Prospero after the spacecraft had separated, resulting to damage to one of the spacecraft's communications antennae... " - Suggestion: "Despite this, after the spacecraft had separated, the upper stage of R3 collided with Prospero and damaged one of the spacecraft's communications antennae... ".
"Although none were ever built, several derivatives..." - Subject-verb agreement. "Although none was ever built... "
"Another suggestion was to mount the entire rocket atop a Blue Streak missile, whilst a... " - Replace "whilst" with "while"?

Launches

"The launch site at Uist was rejected as it was too inaccessible, and it was determined that there was a risk of a rocket launched from Norfolk dropping spent stages on an oil rig in the North Sea." - Suggestion: "The launch sites at Uist and Norfolk were rejected because the former was too remote, while a rocket launch from the latter might drop spent stages on an oil rig in the North Sea."
Why was the launch site in Barbados rejected?

Cancellation

"The cancellation of the Black Arrow project was announced in the House of Commons on 29 July 1971 by Minister of State for Trade and Industry Frederick Corfield." - Flip to active voice?
"As the R3 rocket had already been shipped to the launch site, with the second stage having arrived three days earlier, permission was given for it to be launched." - Delete "with"?

References

Page ranges take en dashes rather than hyphens. For example the range in citation 2 should be pp. 155–188 rather than pp. 155-188.

Images

The last two images in the article create a partial text sandwich on my monitor. This could be fixed by moving Image:Black Arrow R3 Stage 1.JPG down about three lines.

I hope these suggestions prove helpful. If so, please consider reviewing another article, especially one from the PR backlog. That is where I found this one. Finetooth (talk) 03:56, 12 June 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I have edited the article to try to address most of your concerns:

I have mentioned the development and cancellation in the lead, and moved the naming conventions out of the lead.
I know that I have a tendency towards using passive voice. I have switched the sentences that you pointed out to active voice.
I have added the three links you suggested.
I have not hyphenated the stage names, as although they could be seen as compound adjectives, stage numbers in rocketry are generally not hyphenated.
I have corrected the subject-verb agreement issue that you raised.
I have replaced "whilst" with "while" in both the instances that you raised.
I have partially modified the sentence on UK launch sites per your suggestion, but I opted to leave the word "risk" in, as I feel that without it, the sentence seemed to slightly overstate the chance of it happening.
I could not find any information on why Barbados was ruled out. My guess would be that it was because there was already infrastructure at Woomera, but since this is essentially OR, it has no place in the article.
I have removed the word "with" as you suggested.
I have hyphens with dashes in two references.
I have relocated the second image to the next paragraph.

Thank you very much for your detailed review. I had a quick look at the backlog, but couldn't find anything that I knew enough about to provide a good review of. I will keep an eye on it, and as soon as something that I can help with comes up, then I will try to review it. --G W… 09:52, 12 June 2009 (UTC)[reply]

It appears none of the refs with urls incorporated have them archived. It isn't required, but useful if the links go dead.--Rockfang (talk) 02:54, 12 June 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I have added archive links to all references using the {{cite web}} template. I am currently trying to archive the FLV video, and if that works, I will add an archive URL for that as well. I have commented out the archive URLs for now, to avoid them interfering with the normal links, with the exception of links hosted by a service which is scheduled to shut down at some point in the next few months. --G W… 09:52, 12 June 2009 (UTC)[reply]

How would they interfere? Both the archive url and the normal would show up. (An example)--Rockfang (talk) 18:55, 12 June 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I didn't like the way that the archive link took precedence over the normal one. Sometimes some quality is lost in the archiving process. --G W… 19:48, 12 June 2009 (UTC)[reply]