Revision as of 18:35, 7 January 2011 edit205.172.16.103 (talk) →Comments from Xover← Previous edit | Revision as of 01:33, 8 January 2011 edit undoXover (talk | contribs)Extended confirmed users, Pending changes reviewers21,152 edits →Comments from Xover: correct section number. mea culpa.Next edit → | ||
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*My main and immediate concern is that the article has a weight issue. Not a ] issue; but a ] issue! The article, when printed out, is 39 pages; of which 14 pages are the references (i.e. 15 pages of article content). Even '']'' itself is only 27 pages (17/10 split of content vs. references). I think perhaps the content:cite ratio is appropriate for the article (since it is almost by definition a controversial subject), but the overall length concerns me; and given the ''extensive'' quotes in the references there may actually be a significant paucity of references if one were to (as I have not) study them in depth. I raise some points below that bear upon this issue. | *My main and immediate concern is that the article has a weight issue. Not a ] issue; but a ] issue! The article, when printed out, is 39 pages; of which 14 pages are the references (i.e. 15 pages of article content). Even '']'' itself is only 27 pages (17/10 split of content vs. references). I think perhaps the content:cite ratio is appropriate for the article (since it is almost by definition a controversial subject), but the overall length concerns me; and given the ''extensive'' quotes in the references there may actually be a significant paucity of references if one were to (as I have not) study them in depth. I raise some points below that bear upon this issue. | ||
*The note in the beginning of the first main body section (''Overview'') regarding the terms ''Stratfordian'' and ''anti-Stratfordian'' is inappropriate. Either the terms are accepted terms of art bearing on the article's subject—and thus should be discussed in the article text, not commented on in ]-content—or they are mere attempts to create a false dichotomy between two apparently equal points of view. As far as I know there is the mainstream academic and popular consensus, and then there is the various adherents of the fringe theory that is this article's subject, meaning a specific appellation for either group is here unnecessary and misleading. Reading on it appears the term “Stratfordian” is barely used and can easily be reformulated away; and the uses of “anti-Stratfordian” become much less relevant and can fairly easily (if with slightly more cumbersome results) be replaced by plain prose (rather than an invented and loaded term). | *The note in the beginning of the first main body section (''Overview'') regarding the terms ''Stratfordian'' and ''anti-Stratfordian'' is inappropriate. Either the terms are accepted terms of art bearing on the article's subject—and thus should be discussed in the article text, not commented on in ]-content—or they are mere attempts to create a false dichotomy between two apparently equal points of view. As far as I know there is the mainstream academic and popular consensus, and then there is the various adherents of the fringe theory that is this article's subject, meaning a specific appellation for either group is here unnecessary and misleading. Reading on it appears the term “Stratfordian” is barely used and can easily be reformulated away; and the uses of “anti-Stratfordian” become much less relevant and can fairly easily (if with slightly more cumbersome results) be replaced by plain prose (rather than an invented and loaded term). | ||
*The current section 2 (''Arguments against Shakespeare's authorship'') and section 3 (''Evidence for Shakespeare's authorship'') take on exactly the kind of point—counterpoint form that ] discourages. The mere heading itself suggest that “In this section we attempt to argue that Shakespeare didn't write Shakespeare”; and it would be better to recast the heading (and implicitly the focus of the section) as “Here are the main points brought forth by the SAQ supporters”. As for section |
*The current section 2 (''Arguments against Shakespeare's authorship'') and section 3 (''Evidence for Shakespeare's authorship'') take on exactly the kind of point—counterpoint form that ] discourages. The mere heading itself suggest that “In this section we attempt to argue that Shakespeare didn't write Shakespeare”; and it would be better to recast the heading (and implicitly the focus of the section) as “Here are the main points brought forth by the SAQ supporters”. As for section <small><s> 4 </s></small> '''3'''… | ||
*…I (very reluctantly) believe section 4 should be removed from this article entirely. I think it's great work, and I really hope it can be a separate article in its own right, but I think it is not appropriate as a section (much less such a huge section) of ''this'' article. The reason is that ''this'' article's subject is the ''Shakespeare Authorship Question''—its forms, believers, history, standing, &c.—while the entirety of section 4 is about mainstream scholarship and evidence, and hence ipso facto does not belong here. The only obvious exception is that a specific piece of evidence may appropriately be mentioned along with the ''Authorship'' view of or response to that piece of evidence. Given the great work done by {{u|Nishidani}} and {{u|Tom Reedy}} (I can't applaud your efforts here enough!) I don't think the section is needed either: the prose explaining the ''Authorship'' point of view does an admirable job of laying out ''their'' beliefs &c. without lending them ] credence. | *…I (very reluctantly) believe section <small><s> 4 </s></small> '''3''' should be removed from this article entirely. I think it's great work, and I really hope it can be a separate article in its own right, but I think it is not appropriate as a section (much less such a huge section) of ''this'' article. The reason is that ''this'' article's subject is the ''Shakespeare Authorship Question''—its forms, believers, history, standing, &c.—while the entirety of section <small><s> 4 </s></small> '''3''' is about mainstream scholarship and evidence, and hence ipso facto does not belong here. The only obvious exception is that a specific piece of evidence may appropriately be mentioned along with the ''Authorship'' view of or response to that piece of evidence. Given the great work done by {{u|Nishidani}} and {{u|Tom Reedy}} (I can't applaud your efforts here enough!) I don't think the section is needed either: the prose explaining the ''Authorship'' point of view does an admirable job of laying out ''their'' beliefs &c. without lending them ] credence. | ||
*Removing section 4 reduces the size of the article by 8 pages, to 31, and removing the quotes from the references reduces it by a further 2 pages, to 29. Incidentally, page count is obviously not an precise measure—e.g., removing 16 sources that are not actually cited in the article (listed below) once section 4 is deleted reduced the total size by a further page, down to a total of 28; or about the same size as ''William Shakespeare''—but it's a rough indicator. (As a further measure of its unreliability, removing the Google Books links—which are rendered in full as URLs when printed, reduced the total page count by another page). | *Removing section <small><s> 4 </s></small> '''3''' reduces the size of the article by 8 pages, to 31, and removing the quotes from the references reduces it by a further 2 pages, to 29. Incidentally, page count is obviously not an precise measure—e.g., removing 16 sources that are not actually cited in the article (listed below) once section 4 is deleted reduced the total size by a further page, down to a total of 28; or about the same size as ''William Shakespeare''—but it's a rough indicator. (As a further measure of its unreliability, removing the Google Books links—which are rendered in full as URLs when printed, reduced the total page count by another page). | ||
*The 16 sources that are not actually cited in the article after removing section 4 are: Chambers 1930, Claremont McKenna College 2010, Dawson 1953, Elliott 2004, Hammond 2004, Kathman (2), Kathman (3), Martin 1965, Montague 1963, Murphy 1964, Nelson 1998, Nelson 1999, Price 1997, Rosenbaum 2005, Simonton 2004, and Taylor 2002. I failed to check whether any of them are unused before removing section 4, so this may be worth checking before a FAC. | *The 16 sources that are not actually cited in the article after removing section 4 are: Chambers 1930, Claremont McKenna College 2010, Dawson 1953, Elliott 2004, Hammond 2004, Kathman (2), Kathman (3), Martin 1965, Montague 1963, Murphy 1964, Nelson 1998, Nelson 1999, Price 1997, Rosenbaum 2005, Simonton 2004, and Taylor 2002. I failed to check whether any of them are unused before removing section 4, so this may be worth checking before a FAC. | ||
*The article contains several instances where Misplaced Pages literally says “Someone found an encoded message in Shakespeare's plays.” or that something or other “raised a suspicion that Shakespeare wasn't the author of the plays”. These mostly scrape by with the context making clear that nobody ''actually'' found a coded message, they merely ''thought they'd found'' a coded message. I'm guessing this is because they stem from articles on the relevant fringe theory, or were written while consulting fringe sources. These sentences should be reviewed and recast to make clear that, e.g., the discoveries were alleged not actual and that a suspicion was not raised in general but that it was the grounds for a specific person's suspicions. | *The article contains several instances where Misplaced Pages literally says “Someone found an encoded message in Shakespeare's plays.” or that something or other “raised a suspicion that Shakespeare wasn't the author of the plays”. These mostly scrape by with the context making clear that nobody ''actually'' found a coded message, they merely ''thought they'd found'' a coded message. I'm guessing this is because they stem from articles on the relevant fringe theory, or were written while consulting fringe sources. These sentences should be reviewed and recast to make clear that, e.g., the discoveries were alleged not actual and that a suspicion was not raised in general but that it was the grounds for a specific person's suspicions. | ||
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Overall this is a monumental piece of work, and I am very awed and grateful for the job you've done here; certainly a potential Featured Article, and a year ago I would barely have believed that possible. Kudos! --] (]) 23:50, 3 January 2011 (UTC) | Overall this is a monumental piece of work, and I am very awed and grateful for the job you've done here; certainly a potential Featured Article, and a year ago I would barely have believed that possible. Kudos! --] (]) 23:50, 3 January 2011 (UTC) | ||
'''EDIT''': Edited to correct incorrect specification of section number; the title used were right (''Evidence for Shakespeare's authorship''), but an incorrect number slipped in. I've left the incorrect number in the text above just struck out and followed by the corrected number, like thus: <small><s> 4 </s></small> '''3''' --] (]) 01:33, 8 January 2011 (UTC) | |||
{{outdent}}Xover has suggested above that the very lengthy History of the Authorship section (Section 4) in the SAQ article should be deleted in its entirety: | {{outdent}}Xover has suggested above that the very lengthy History of the Authorship section (Section 4) in the SAQ article should be deleted in its entirety: |
Revision as of 01:33, 8 January 2011
Shakespeare authorship question
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- Article (edit | visual edit | history) · Article talk (edit | history) · Watch • Watch peer review
I've listed this article for peer review because it has been almost totally rewritten from a neutral POV using scholarly reliable sources only. In the past it has been a very contentious page and a POV battleground, and I want to try to take it to FA status, which I think would help stabilise it to keep its neutral POV.
Thanks, Tom Reedy (talk) 04:11, 6 December 2010 (UTC)
- I'll simply list anything which might be commented at at FAC or by MOS sticklers.
- Lead looks good and seems to comply with rules; however, the many footnotes might raise objections. On the other hand, this being a controversial subject, it is probably a good idea to present much of the case at the start.
- I am not sure about having book titles as external links in the article text. I always thought this was prohibited, but my look at WP:MOSLINK#Link titles proved inconclusive.
- Picture size should as a rule be at free scale. There is the possibility of the upright parameter, which reduces the free size automatically without a fixed value. Lead image is at 200px now, while the default was changed to 220px a while ago. Some of the smaller ones could perhaps use the upright instead of the very small pixel values?
- Very short paragraphs, especially one- or two-sentence paragraphs like the first in Unearthing proofs are discouraged. Quite a number might perhaps be combined, as in "Television, magazines, and the Internet", or the first two in Oxford (just examples).
- Shakespeare on trial, part 1: That the SAQ "has often been tested by recourse to the framework of trial by jury", shouldn't that rather say "mock trial", so it's clearer that these were unofficial show or fun events? The participation of real judges does not make them in any way official, or does it?
- Bacon: a)"The great number of legal allusions used by Shakespeare demonstrate his expertise in the law,"; wouldn't it be better to write "The great number of legal allusions used by Shakespeare demonstrate, Baconians say, his expertise in the law," or did S. really use expertise? b)The impression is first that Delia Bacon introduced Bacon, but then it says that Smith wrote a book in 1856 which did that; a bit confusing.
- Oxford section: a)Regarding the never/ever/every code, does "This veiled signature in the works of Marlowe, George Gascoigne, Sir John Harrington, Edmund Spenser" mean that Oxford wrote the works of these people as well? Or is it that he sometimes used their name, and they were still writing things themselves? b)"The publisher's dedication to Shakespeare's Sonnets", is that perhaps in S. Sonnets?
- Marlove: I think it would be good to explain briefly that Thomas Walsingham is some cousin of Francis Walsingham, lest people think the spymaster is meant (as I thought).
- Terry Ross ref should have some sort of publisher and a retrieval date if web-based.
- I think the article is especilly engaging in the earlier-middle parts and easy to understand for the non-specialist reader, although it gets a bit harder in the later part, especially in Bacon; but that's presumably because of the weird theories. Buchraeumer (talk) 22:06, 10 December 2010 (UTC)
I saw the question about the book title/external links on a different talk page. My inclination is to turn these into references. As many of them point to easily accessible source material via Google Books, I would be loathe to remove them. --GentlemanGhost (talk) 00:04, 11 December 2010 (UTC)
Comments from Nikkimaria
Lead is appropriately broad in scope, but reads as long-winded because of the consistently long sentence length. Consider splitting a few sentences to increase accessibilityDon't use contractions"Anti-Stratfordians often portray the town as an illiterate cultural backwater...and from the earliest days have often depicted him as greedy, stupid, and illiterate" - can the repetition of "illiterate" be avoided?"save for two signatures by Susanna that appear to be "drawn" and not written" - could you briefly clarify this distinction?"Of those 15 play editions, 13 are on the title pages of just three plays" - potentially confusing wording"The mainstream view, to which nearly all academic Shakespeareans subscribe, is that the author referred to as "Shakespeare" was the same William Shakespeare who was born in Stratford-upon-Avon in 1564, travelled to London and became an actor and sharer (part-owner) of the Lord Chamberlain's Men (later the King's Men) acting company that owned the Globe Theatre, the Blackfriars Theatre, and exclusive rights to produce Shakespeare's plays from 1594 to 1642, and who was allowed the use of the honorific "gentleman" after 1596 when his father, John Shakespeare, was granted a coat of arms, and who died in Stratford-upon-Avon in 1616."; "In contrast to the methods used by anti-Stratfordians, Shakespeare scholars employ the same methodology to attribute works to the poet and playwright William Shakespeare as they use for other writers of the period: the historical record and stylistic studies, and maintain that the methods used by many anti-Stratfordians to identify alternative candidates—such as reading the work as autobiography, finding coded messages and cryptograms embedded in the works, and concocting conspiracy theories to explain the lack of evidence for any writer but Shakespeare—are unreliable, unscholarly, and explain why more than 70 candidates have been nominated as the "true" author" - examples of very long sentences- You note that you intend to use the term "Stratfordian" for those who believe Shakespeare to have been the true author of the plays, yet that term appears only twice in the text, and is vastly outweighed by "Shakespearean" or synonyms. Could you clarify your position on this point?
You repeat a couple of points a few times, including the coat-of-arms and "This Star of England"- I echo the above commenter's point about one-sentence paragraphs
Why are quotations italicized in "Personal testimonies"?"Prominent English actor, playwright, and author Thomas Heywood." - not a complete sentence"proved 16 May 1605" - is "proved" a legal term in this context? Could you explain or link it?Philips or Phillips?"William Shakespeare of Stratford-upon-Avon’s will, executed 25 March 1616, bequeaths "to my ffellowes John Hemynge Richard Burbage & Henry Cundell xxvj s viij d A peece to buy them Ringes."...Shakespeare's will also includes monetary bequests to buy mourning rings for his fellow actors and theatrical entrepreneurs Heminges, Burbage and Condell" - why is this "also"? Aren't they the same thing?"The Latin curriculum began with William Lily’s Latin grammar Rudimenta Grammatices, which was by law the sole Latin grammar to be used in grammar schools" - repetitive"based on a quantitative comparison of Shakespeare’s stylistic habits (known as stylometrics) using computer programs to compare them to the works" - grammar"The emergence of the Shakespeare authorship question had to wait until he was regarded as the English national poet in a class by himself" - tone seems a bit off here"touching up" - meaning editing?- Be consistent in MoS details
, for example in the use of U. S. vs U.S. - Link terms on first appearance only, and don't link very common terms like United States. However, less common terms should be linked where possible
"Stewart monarchies" - the generally accepted spelling is "Stuart""De Vere was recognised as a playwright, one of the "best for comedy amongst us", by Francis Meres, as well as an important courtier poet" - meaning is unclear. Do you mean he was recognized as a playwright by Meres and an important courtier poet, or do you mean that Meres recognized him as a playwright and important courtier poet?"but was promoted to that of a single author in 1895" - what does the "that" refer to?Be consistent in referring to the Earl of Derby as either Stanley or Derby, as mixing the two is somewhat confusing"The evidence instead supports a career..." - source?"He praises Shakespeare as a person, writing "I lov'd the man, and doe honour his memory (on this side Idolatry) as much as any. Hee was (indeed) honest, and of an open, and free nature: had an excellent Phantsie, brave notions, and gentle expressions . . . . hee redeemed his vices, with his vertues. There was ever more in him to be praysed, then to be pardoned."" - source?"Anti-Stratfordians often try to cast suspicion on the bequests, which were interlined, saying that they were added later as part of the conspiracy, but the will was proved in the Prerogative Court of the Archbishop of Canterbury in London on 22 June 1616, and the original will was copied into the court register with the interlineations intact." - source?- "Shakespeare's are the most-studied secular works in history" - source?
- "Baconian cryptogram-hunting flourished well into the 20th century, and in 1905 Walt Whitman biographer Dr. Isaac Hull Platt discovered that the Latin word honorificabilitudinitatibus, found in Love's Labour's Lost, is an anagram of Hi ludi F. Baconis nati tuiti orbi ("These plays, the offspring of F. Bacon, are preserved for the world.")." - source?
- Missing bibliographic details for
Matus 1991, Montegue 1963, MCrea 2005 (might be a spelling problem),Johnson 1969, Potts 2002 Footnote 72: date?Dawson 1966, Dobson 2001, Vickers 2006 and Elliott 2004 should be cited using both authorsBrooks 1943, Kathman and Ross, Kathman (2), Lefranc 1919a, Looney 1920, May 1980, Symposium 2004, Wells 2006 are in Bibliography but not FootnotesNeed a consistent method to distinguish between sources with same author and datePendleton: formattingNon-print-based weblinks need publisher and retrieval dateCompare formatting of two Dobson referencesWhy are page titles bolded in External linksChange subheading from "Mainstream" to "Shakespearean" or "Stratfordian"- What are the sources for the images used in the lead collage? Those will likely be required at FAC (even if the images in question appear later in the article, the lead collage description page should still specify them)
File:Sonnets1609titlepage.jpg needs more information on the source (and check spelling)- Check licensing for File:Shakespeare-1747-1656.jpg - the monument is a 3D work and is subject to slightly different licensing rules. I'm not sure whether the plaque would also be considered 3D, so check on that also
File:Shakespear_ye_Player_coatofarms.gif - author name doesn't match that given in the sourceFile:Christopher_Marlowe.jpg - source link is deadFile:6thEarlOfDerby.jpg - tagged as lacking author information.Nikkimaria (talk) 21:48, 13 December 2010 (UTC)
- Issues are mostly fixed, except for those that remain unstruck. Note also that stability is a FAC criterion, and that you therefore should not nominate it unless/until the edit warring stops. Good luck! Nikkimaria (talk) 15:22, 5 January 2011 (UTC)
Comments from NinaGreen
The Misplaced Pages policy of neutrality is not maintained in the SAQ article.
Okay, this isn't really the place for this discussion - please see below |
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David Kathman has a degree in linguistics, works as a stock analyst, and has openly proselytized for more than a decade on the authorship controversy (see http://shakespeareauthorship.com/kathman.html). Kathman is anything but neutral on the SAQ. Yet on the sole authority of an outdated 2003 statement by Kathman, the SAQ article inaccurately labels the SAQ as a 'fringe theory'. Evidence that the SAQ is a minority view rather than a fringe theory is found in a 2007 New York Times survey. 17% of Shakespeare professors surveyed by the New York Times thought that there was either "good reason," or "possibly good reason," for doubt about the authorship of the Shakespeare canon, and 72% of professors said they address the authorship question in their classes. This constitutes evidence directly from academics teaching Shakespeare at universities that the SAQ is a minority view, not a fringe theory. See the survey at http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/22/education/shakespeare.html?_r=1. Moreover a graduate program in Shakespeare authorship studies is offered at Brunel University in England, and a program in Shakespeare authorship studies is offered at Concordia University in the United States. Two recent books by respected academics devoted to the authorship controversy, James Shapiro's Contested Will and Scott McCrae's The Case for Shakespeare, constitute further evidence that the SAQ is a minority view, not a fringe theory. Leading Shakespeare actors, including Mark Rylance and Sir Derek Jacobi, are openly sceptical of Shakespeare of Stratford's authorship of the plays (see http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/theatre/8196501/Sir-Derek-Jacobi-Bard-to-the-bone.html). A feature film on the authorship controversy, directed by Roland Emmerich, will be released next year. In anticipation of the film's release, Dr. Hardy Cook asked on his well known Shaksper list for suggestions for strategies which academics could use to deal with questions raised about the authorship of Shakespeare's works when the film is released, indicating clearly that the authorship controversy is much more than a 'fringe theory'. There are peer-reviewed journals on the authorship controversy, such as Brief Chronicles (see http://www.briefchronicles.com/ojs/index.php/bc/index.php), whose editorial boards are comprised of individuals with Ph.D.s who teach at universities in the United States and Great Britain. In its present state the SAQ article does not meet Misplaced Pages standards of neutrality, and does not reflect the current status of the authorship controversy, but rather reflects a point of view which is at best outdated and at worst biased, based solely on David Kathman's 2003 statement. For Tom Reedy's association with David Kathman in proselytizing on the authorship controversy, see http://shakespeareauthorship.com/howdowe.html.NinaGreen (talk) 05:38, 15 December 2010 (UTC)
The SAQ article lacks balance and is heavily weighted to the Stratfordian side. The language used, such as that non-Stratfordians "claim" and "assert" rather than "state" displays a strong Stratfordian bias and lack of neutrality. As Nina Green has demonstrated above, there is a wealth of evidence demonstrating that non-Stratfordians do not subscribe to a fringe theory, but are simply members of an acceptable minority group.Mizelmouse (talk) 12:48, 15 December 2010 (UTC)
Further bias in the SAQ article is found in the Stylometric Studies section, which reads:
No mention is made in the SAQ article of the fact that the flaws in Elliott and Valenza's methodology have been explicated in several articles by Richard Whalen and John Shahan.NinaGreen (talk) 16:11, 15 December 2010 (UTC)
Another example of deliberate bias in the SAQ article is found in this statement:
Shapiro is cited as a source (Shapiro 2010, pp. 221–2 (194–6)). However Shapiro names only a single example:
The bias and lack of neutrality in the SAQ article is obvious. Where Shapiro cites only a single obscure individual (who IS George Frisbee, anyway?), the SAQ article tars every Oxfordian with the same brush. The SAQ article is seriously flawed. Not only is it out of date on a number of major issues, but it is also written throughout from a biased point of view which is far from Misplaced Pages's standards of neutrality, as the foregoing examples demonstrate (and many more can be cited).NinaGreen (talk) 17:23, 15 December 2010 (UTC)
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This isn't really the best place for you to raise these types of issues. Possible avenues: WP:FRINGE/N, WP:RFC, WP:NPOV/N...take your pick, or discuss at article talk. Nikkimaria (talk) 18:44, 15 December 2010 (UTC)
Further comments regarding neutrality and POV, representing opinions from NinaGreen, Charles Darnay, and Ironhand41; also a meta-comment from Paul Barlow |
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the source materials cited in the article.
As this article is cluttered with similar sins of omission and commission,the simplest solution would require a minimum addition and deletion of perhaps fifty small items involving at least a dozen titles and footnotes and perhaps thirty-five alterations or deletions.The alternative,for example, would to expand the article to even more confusing length by explaining how the anti-biographical prejudice crept in as the result of growing Marxist and radical feminist elements in certain English departments which have a great deal with what happened in Maoist China in the 50's and what happened at Columbia and Berkeley,California, in the late 60's but which have nothing whatsoever to do with what did, or did not, happen in Elizabethan London.Charles Darnay (talk) 22:54, 15 December 2010 (UTC)
NinaGreen (talk) 22:09, 28 December 2010 (UTC)
NinaGreen (talk) 20:14, 4 January 2011 (UTC) Comments from Ironhand41This article is not written from a neutral point of view and therefore is not ready for peer review. First, it is biased rhetoric. For example, the authors of the article go to some length to make those who don't accept the traditional attribution look odd and quirky by using negative adjectives to describe them. Second, the article casts the dispute as between academics and non academics. But there are a few academics who agree with the doubters and their number is growing. Additionally, there is a significant list of non academic intellectuals who have looked into the controversy and decided that the academics have it all wrong. The "us-versus-them" framework of the article as presently written creates a false dichotomy. Good arguments don't rely on appeals to authority and the claim that scholars and academics are neutral is an insult to anyone who has attended a university. Third, there are those of us who don't have a large stake in the authorship controversy, but whose interest and participation has increased precisely because of the underhanded ways a few academics and traditionalists have attempted to skew the argument in their favor. It would seem that waving a hand and declaring there is no doubt about who wrote the Canon doesn’t work well anymore. This probably explains Plan B; the effort to dress the skeptics’ arguments in a Stratfordian pinafore and claim with a straight face that it represents a neutral point of view. This statement regarding anti-Strratfordian research is very misleading: "Anti-Stratfordians rely on what they designate as circumstantial evidence: similarities between the characters and events portrayed in the works and the biography of their preferred candidates; literary parallels between the works and the known literary works of their candidate, and hidden codes and cryptographic allusions in Shakespeare's own works or texts written by contemporaries." In point of fact, authorship research explores the issues of early dating ("Dating Shakespeare's Plays" - ed. Kevin Gilvary - 2010), Italian topicalities ("The Shakespeare Guide to Italy" - Richard Paul Roe - 2010), political allegory, Shakespeare and the Law, and untranslated Greek sources, a much wider scope of research than proposed by the existing article. A review of on-line articles published in the peer-reviewed authorship journals, "The Oxfordian" and "Brief Chronicles" will attest to these points. The omission of any mention of the work of Mark Anderson ("Shakespeare by Another Name" - 2005), William Farina ("De Vere as Shakespeare" - 2006), or Diana Price ("Shakespeare's Unorthodox Biography" - 2001) suggests the selected references are clearly prejudicial against the authorship challenge. Earl Showerman Comments from Paul BarlowI'm afraid this is what happens whever any attempt is made to improve this article using WP systems for peer review. New editors appear out of nowhere who write long, rambling, barely relevant screeds of consipracy theory that bury useful debate. Is there any way this content can be restricted to secture sensible debate about article improvement according to policy? We will, otherwise, never get anywhere - again. Paul B (talk) 18:23, 17 December 2010 (UTC) Paul, excuse me. Where on this page is there a 'long, rambling, barely relevant screeds of consipracy theory'? I haven't seen one. What I have seen is a number of very specific comments concerning factual inaccuracies and lack of neutrality in the article. Why don't you do some editing on the SAQ article to deal with those problems rather than ramble on here about non-existent 'screeds of conspiracy theory'?NinaGreen (talk) 19:33, 17 December 2010 (UTC)
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Comments from Xover
Working on review but won't be able to finish today. --Xover (talk) 22:18, 2 January 2011 (UTC)
Late to the party as usual. My apologies. I've been trying to keep up with the article talk page in order to understand the current major concerns, but given the state of the discussion there (not to mention the sheer volume!) I've since come to realize that this was a mistake. Here then follows my review based primarily on the article content itself, with only a marginal glance at the issues under contention at talk.
- My main and immediate concern is that the article has a weight issue. Not a WP:WEIGHT issue; but a overweight issue! The article, when printed out, is 39 pages; of which 14 pages are the references (i.e. 15 pages of article content). Even William Shakespeare itself is only 27 pages (17/10 split of content vs. references). I think perhaps the content:cite ratio is appropriate for the article (since it is almost by definition a controversial subject), but the overall length concerns me; and given the extensive quotes in the references there may actually be a significant paucity of references if one were to (as I have not) study them in depth. I raise some points below that bear upon this issue.
- The note in the beginning of the first main body section (Overview) regarding the terms Stratfordian and anti-Stratfordian is inappropriate. Either the terms are accepted terms of art bearing on the article's subject—and thus should be discussed in the article text, not commented on in meta-content—or they are mere attempts to create a false dichotomy between two apparently equal points of view. As far as I know there is the mainstream academic and popular consensus, and then there is the various adherents of the fringe theory that is this article's subject, meaning a specific appellation for either group is here unnecessary and misleading. Reading on it appears the term “Stratfordian” is barely used and can easily be reformulated away; and the uses of “anti-Stratfordian” become much less relevant and can fairly easily (if with slightly more cumbersome results) be replaced by plain prose (rather than an invented and loaded term).
- The current section 2 (Arguments against Shakespeare's authorship) and section 3 (Evidence for Shakespeare's authorship) take on exactly the kind of point—counterpoint form that WP:FRINGE discourages. The mere heading itself suggest that “In this section we attempt to argue that Shakespeare didn't write Shakespeare”; and it would be better to recast the heading (and implicitly the focus of the section) as “Here are the main points brought forth by the SAQ supporters”. As for section
43… - …I (very reluctantly) believe section
43 should be removed from this article entirely. I think it's great work, and I really hope it can be a separate article in its own right, but I think it is not appropriate as a section (much less such a huge section) of this article. The reason is that this article's subject is the Shakespeare Authorship Question—its forms, believers, history, standing, &c.—while the entirety of section43 is about mainstream scholarship and evidence, and hence ipso facto does not belong here. The only obvious exception is that a specific piece of evidence may appropriately be mentioned along with the Authorship view of or response to that piece of evidence. Given the great work done by Nishidani and Tom Reedy (I can't applaud your efforts here enough!) I don't think the section is needed either: the prose explaining the Authorship point of view does an admirable job of laying out their beliefs &c. without lending them undue credence. - Removing section
43 reduces the size of the article by 8 pages, to 31, and removing the quotes from the references reduces it by a further 2 pages, to 29. Incidentally, page count is obviously not an precise measure—e.g., removing 16 sources that are not actually cited in the article (listed below) once section 4 is deleted reduced the total size by a further page, down to a total of 28; or about the same size as William Shakespeare—but it's a rough indicator. (As a further measure of its unreliability, removing the Google Books links—which are rendered in full as URLs when printed, reduced the total page count by another page). - The 16 sources that are not actually cited in the article after removing section 4 are: Chambers 1930, Claremont McKenna College 2010, Dawson 1953, Elliott 2004, Hammond 2004, Kathman (2), Kathman (3), Martin 1965, Montague 1963, Murphy 1964, Nelson 1998, Nelson 1999, Price 1997, Rosenbaum 2005, Simonton 2004, and Taylor 2002. I failed to check whether any of them are unused before removing section 4, so this may be worth checking before a FAC.
- The article contains several instances where Misplaced Pages literally says “Someone found an encoded message in Shakespeare's plays.” or that something or other “raised a suspicion that Shakespeare wasn't the author of the plays”. These mostly scrape by with the context making clear that nobody actually found a coded message, they merely thought they'd found a coded message. I'm guessing this is because they stem from articles on the relevant fringe theory, or were written while consulting fringe sources. These sentences should be reviewed and recast to make clear that, e.g., the discoveries were alleged not actual and that a suspicion was not raised in general but that it was the grounds for a specific person's suspicions.
- The structure of the article is nice, and the prose is succinct without becoming dry. Some of the section headings wax a bit poetic, but, I think, not excessively so. I'm happy with the use of images to illustrate the article, even if a few too many of them are pictures of text to satisfy my sense of æstethics, but I've not got around to doing a proper image review (copyright, sources, etc.). There were a very few instances of awkward prose or some minor stray characters and such, but nothing worth calling out here (someone needs to do a read-through and fix these though, certainly before any FAC).
Overall this is a monumental piece of work, and I am very awed and grateful for the job you've done here; certainly a potential Featured Article, and a year ago I would barely have believed that possible. Kudos! --Xover (talk) 23:50, 3 January 2011 (UTC)
EDIT: Edited to correct incorrect specification of section number; the title used were right (Evidence for Shakespeare's authorship), but an incorrect number slipped in. I've left the incorrect number in the text above just struck out and followed by the corrected number, like thus: 4 3 --Xover (talk) 01:33, 8 January 2011 (UTC)
Xover has suggested above that the very lengthy History of the Authorship section (Section 4) in the SAQ article should be deleted in its entirety:
- I (very reluctantly) believe section 4 should be removed from this article entirely. I think it's great work, and I really hope it can be a separate article in its own right, but I think it is not appropriate as a section (much less such a huge section) of this article.
Xover may not be aware of it, but there already IS another separate Misplaced Pages article entitled History of the Shakespeare Authorship Question. It seems clear that the very lengthy Section 4 (History of the Authorship) should be deleted from the SAQ article and the content merged into the separate Misplaced Pages article entitled History of the Shakespeare Authorship.205.172.16.103 (talk) 18:35, 7 January 2011 (UTC)
Nina Green. Arguments on the neutrality of article should be reasoned, to point and not excuses for attacking either an author or wikipedia policy |
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I'm including my comments to Nikkimaria here because the entire section containing my comments was collapsed earlier, and any comment I add is automatically collapsed as well, so no editor on this page can see it, which constitutes censorship.
I see that my comments concerning the SAQ article have once more been collapsed before any editor on this page could see them, contrary to Misplaced Pages policy.NinaGreen (talk) 05:54, 5 January 2011 (UTC) |
Peer reviews are for comments on improving the article itself, not for discussing the actions of other editors. Ruhrfisch ><>° 06:17, 5 January 2011 (UTC)
Having said that, Ruhrisch, perhaps you can explain how all my comments on the lack of neutrality in the article and other issues with the article have been collapsed so that editors of this page don't see them?NinaGreen (talk) 19:39, 5 January 2011 (UTC)
- Having said that I note that English units (like miles) will need to also show conversions into metric units per the MOS. The {{convert}} template does this nicely. Ruhrfisch ><>° 14:07, 5 January 2011 (UTC)