The article was not promoted 04:34, 30 March 2007.
I was the one who created this article over two years ago. Over the moth of November and December of last, however, I revisited and completely rewrote the article. I've been making the occasional edit ever since, but today I finished various odds and ends and I now feel it is ready to be submitted here for review. It is of course a self nomination. Circeus 23:52, 7 March 2007 (UTC) reply
I've copied below Noah's comments and my answers, for reference:
Nice article. This sentence in the lead paragraphs is awkward and confusing: "While not an issue for most cultures, it hosts many insects that can be harmful to other plants, such as the tarnished plant bug, and although individuals are easy to destroy by hand, it is difficult to destroy a population permanently." What do you mean by "not an issue for most cultures"? Also, the sentence has too many phrases and would ideally be broken up into two sentences. -- NoahElhardt 15:46, 9 February 2007 (UTC) reply
I'm assuming you are working toward FA, so I'll be picky. Some of these I could fix myself, but I'll just explain here so you can make changes as you see fit:
Comment: I couldn't knock this page for detail and information, but I didn't find it a lucid read. Small language errors crop up here and there and require a copy-edit, though I can probably sort those myself. The problem that leaps out at me the most is the over-use of reference tags, which in places makes the article semi-unreadable, in my opinion. Take this part:
V. thapsus is known by a variety of names. "Common mullein" is the usual name in North America, [1] [2] but "Great Mullein" is the one used in the UK. [3] [4] Vernacular names include innumerable references to the plant's hairiness: "Woolly," [5] "Velvet" or "Blanket Mullein," [4] [4] "Beggar's," "Moses'," "Poor Man's," "Our Lady's" or "Old Man's Blanket," [2] [3] [6] [7] and so on ("Flannel" is another generic name).
Some names refer to the plant's size and shape: "Shepherd's Club(s)" or "Staff," " Aaron's Rod" (a name it shares with a number of other plants with tall, yellow inflorescences), and a plethora of other "X's Staff" and "X's Rod." [8] [3] [2] [9] [10] The plant is still called "Velvet" or "Mullein Dock"—"Dock" is a British name applied to any broad-leaved plant. [11]
The specific epithet thapsus was first used by Theophrastus (as θάψος, "thapsos") [12] for an unspecified herb from the Ancient Greek settlement of Thapsos, near modern Syracuse, Sicily, [13] [12] though it is often assimilated to the ancient Tunisian city of Thapsus. [14]
<note: my example above has been improved by circeus so that it no longer fully relates to the following comment qp10qp 18:34, 8 March 2007 (UTC)> Surely all this tagging isn't necessary. The edit-page version of this is a nightmare to try and copy-edit (and it needs a copy-edit, for phrases such as ""Dock" being appliable to any broad-leaved plant" or "though it is often assimilated to the ancient Tunisian city of Thapsus"). Surely a better approach here would be to cite a page or page range of a book or books which give all the various names and leave it at that (something like: Mabey, 329-40; Grieve, 75-84, or whatever, at the end of the section), rather than cite for every single name in this intrusive fashion. qp10qp 17:15, 8 March 2007 (UTC) reply
How about (put "ref" instead of "noref"):
V. thapsus is known by a variety of names. "Common mullein" is the usual name in North America, but "Great Mullein" is the one used in the UK. Vernacular names include innumerable references to the plant's hairiness: "Woolly," "Velvet" or "Blanket Mullein," "Beggar's," "Moses'," "Poor Man's," "Our Lady's" or "Old Man's Blanket," and so on ("Flannel" is another generic name).<noref>Niering, 798; Rickett, 389; Grieve, Mullein, Great; Watts, 108, 369, 633-634; Brako, 189.</noref>
Some names refer to the plant's size and shape: "Shepherd's Club(s)" or "Staff," "Aaron's Rod" (a name it shares with a number of other plants with tall, yellow inflorescences), and a plethora of other "X's Staff" and "X's Rod." The plant is still called "Velvet" or "Mullein Dock"—"Dock" is a British name applied to any broad-leaved plant.<noref>Rickett, 389; Grieve, Mullein, Great; Watts, 302, 634, 774-775, 819-820, 866.</noref>
That's what I meant by combining refs, rather than just grouping tags together. (If you wanted to tell the reader precisely which name came from which book, you could do it in the notes: just list the names before the particular pages.)
qp10qp 18:27, 8 March 2007 (UTC) reply
Object - 1a. Bloopers like this at the top don't augur well:
And more:
Needs a good run-throught by a copy-editor before promotion. Tony 21:27, 26 March 2007 (UTC) reply
References
{{
cite encyclopedia}}
: |volume=
has extra text (
help)
grieve
was invoked but never defined (see the
help page).{{
cite book}}
: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (
link)
{{
cite book}}
: Unknown parameter |coauthors=
ignored (|author=
suggested) (
help)
The article was not promoted 04:34, 30 March 2007.
I was the one who created this article over two years ago. Over the moth of November and December of last, however, I revisited and completely rewrote the article. I've been making the occasional edit ever since, but today I finished various odds and ends and I now feel it is ready to be submitted here for review. It is of course a self nomination. Circeus 23:52, 7 March 2007 (UTC) reply
I've copied below Noah's comments and my answers, for reference:
Nice article. This sentence in the lead paragraphs is awkward and confusing: "While not an issue for most cultures, it hosts many insects that can be harmful to other plants, such as the tarnished plant bug, and although individuals are easy to destroy by hand, it is difficult to destroy a population permanently." What do you mean by "not an issue for most cultures"? Also, the sentence has too many phrases and would ideally be broken up into two sentences. -- NoahElhardt 15:46, 9 February 2007 (UTC) reply
I'm assuming you are working toward FA, so I'll be picky. Some of these I could fix myself, but I'll just explain here so you can make changes as you see fit:
Comment: I couldn't knock this page for detail and information, but I didn't find it a lucid read. Small language errors crop up here and there and require a copy-edit, though I can probably sort those myself. The problem that leaps out at me the most is the over-use of reference tags, which in places makes the article semi-unreadable, in my opinion. Take this part:
V. thapsus is known by a variety of names. "Common mullein" is the usual name in North America, [1] [2] but "Great Mullein" is the one used in the UK. [3] [4] Vernacular names include innumerable references to the plant's hairiness: "Woolly," [5] "Velvet" or "Blanket Mullein," [4] [4] "Beggar's," "Moses'," "Poor Man's," "Our Lady's" or "Old Man's Blanket," [2] [3] [6] [7] and so on ("Flannel" is another generic name).
Some names refer to the plant's size and shape: "Shepherd's Club(s)" or "Staff," " Aaron's Rod" (a name it shares with a number of other plants with tall, yellow inflorescences), and a plethora of other "X's Staff" and "X's Rod." [8] [3] [2] [9] [10] The plant is still called "Velvet" or "Mullein Dock"—"Dock" is a British name applied to any broad-leaved plant. [11]
The specific epithet thapsus was first used by Theophrastus (as θάψος, "thapsos") [12] for an unspecified herb from the Ancient Greek settlement of Thapsos, near modern Syracuse, Sicily, [13] [12] though it is often assimilated to the ancient Tunisian city of Thapsus. [14]
<note: my example above has been improved by circeus so that it no longer fully relates to the following comment qp10qp 18:34, 8 March 2007 (UTC)> Surely all this tagging isn't necessary. The edit-page version of this is a nightmare to try and copy-edit (and it needs a copy-edit, for phrases such as ""Dock" being appliable to any broad-leaved plant" or "though it is often assimilated to the ancient Tunisian city of Thapsus"). Surely a better approach here would be to cite a page or page range of a book or books which give all the various names and leave it at that (something like: Mabey, 329-40; Grieve, 75-84, or whatever, at the end of the section), rather than cite for every single name in this intrusive fashion. qp10qp 17:15, 8 March 2007 (UTC) reply
How about (put "ref" instead of "noref"):
V. thapsus is known by a variety of names. "Common mullein" is the usual name in North America, but "Great Mullein" is the one used in the UK. Vernacular names include innumerable references to the plant's hairiness: "Woolly," "Velvet" or "Blanket Mullein," "Beggar's," "Moses'," "Poor Man's," "Our Lady's" or "Old Man's Blanket," and so on ("Flannel" is another generic name).<noref>Niering, 798; Rickett, 389; Grieve, Mullein, Great; Watts, 108, 369, 633-634; Brako, 189.</noref>
Some names refer to the plant's size and shape: "Shepherd's Club(s)" or "Staff," "Aaron's Rod" (a name it shares with a number of other plants with tall, yellow inflorescences), and a plethora of other "X's Staff" and "X's Rod." The plant is still called "Velvet" or "Mullein Dock"—"Dock" is a British name applied to any broad-leaved plant.<noref>Rickett, 389; Grieve, Mullein, Great; Watts, 302, 634, 774-775, 819-820, 866.</noref>
That's what I meant by combining refs, rather than just grouping tags together. (If you wanted to tell the reader precisely which name came from which book, you could do it in the notes: just list the names before the particular pages.)
qp10qp 18:27, 8 March 2007 (UTC) reply
Object - 1a. Bloopers like this at the top don't augur well:
And more:
Needs a good run-throught by a copy-editor before promotion. Tony 21:27, 26 March 2007 (UTC) reply
References
{{
cite encyclopedia}}
: |volume=
has extra text (
help)
grieve
was invoked but never defined (see the
help page).{{
cite book}}
: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (
link)
{{
cite book}}
: Unknown parameter |coauthors=
ignored (|author=
suggested) (
help)