Talk:Hazel Miner/GA2

GA Review

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Reviewer: –– Jezhotwells (talk) 23:49, 24 April 2010 (UTC)

I shall be reviewing this article against the Good Article criteria, following its nomination for Good Article status.

Disambiguations: none found

Linkrot: One dead link fixed.diff

Checking against GA criteria

GA review (see here for criteria)

1. It is reasonably well written.

   a (prose): b (MoS):

   On March 15, 1920, the first day of the blizzard,... Which blizzard is the question that springs to mind.

   Many of the country school students, like the Miner children, What children? only Hazel has been mentioned so far. In the lead yes, but not in the article proper.

   When the sled hit a coulee What is a coulee?

   When the sled hit a coulee, Hazel slid from the sled into waist-deep, mushy snow "the sled" - "the sled" She was on a horse and buggy earlier?

   In recent years, How recent, be specific, give dates.

   Needs a thorough copy-edit throughout, the tome is not encyclopaedic, and it does not meet the "reasonably well written" standard.

   The Lead does not fully and succinctly summarise the whole article as per WP:LEAD. It also contains material that is not expanded in the article, e.g. After her death, she became a national heroine. Her actions have been celebrated in a folk ballad and in newspaper and magazine articles for nearly 90 years. National heroine? folk ballad?

   My mistake, I was looking at a print copy and that para straddles the page. I would still like to see something that really supports the assertion that she became a "national heroine" The fact that a local artist was commissioned to supply two images for a house magazine is not evidence of that.

2. It is factually accurate and verifiable.

   a (references): b (citations to reliable sources): c (OR):

   I should assume good faith for off-line sources, but they seem to report a lot of detail that could only be surmise.

   ref #11 Suchy, Chuck, "The Story of Hazel Miner," Dakota Breezes, Flying Fish Records, 1991 is this a recording or a book, make this clear by using the correct template.

   Jackson, William, The Best of Dakota Mysteries and Oddities, Valley Star Books, Inc., 2003, ISBN 0-9677349-5-9 is listed in the references section, but not cited

   "With breathless haste we harried to the rig and will never forget the sight that met our eyes," said one of the men.; Her obituary described her as "quiet and loving," with a "sunny, cheerful nature" and having a liking for children. all quotations need a citation

3. It is broad in its coverage.

   a (major aspects): b (focused):

   Hazel was the daughter of William Miner, a farmer, and his wife Blanche. Whereabouts in North Dakota did she live? Some more background please.

   the Miner children's one-room school let out early to enable the students to reach their homes before the storm hit Where was this school?

4. It follows the neutral point of view policy.

   Fair representation without bias:

   Somewhat hagiographical.

5. It is stable.

   No edit wars, etc.:

6. It is illustrated by images, where possible and appropriate.

   a (images are tagged and non-free images have fair use rationales): b (appropriate use with suitable captions):

7. Overall:

   Pass/Fail:

   This article is in poor shape and was deservedly de-listed. It seems little has been done to address issues raised in the GAR. On hold for seven days for above issues to be addressed. –– Jezhotwells (talk) 03:12, 25 April 2010 (UTC)

   ASs no work has been done on the article in the last seven days, I shall not be listing at this time. –– Jezhotwells (talk) 15:57, 2 May 2010 (UTC)

I don't agree with some of the issues you've raised here. The folk ballad and news articles that describe her as a "national heroine" were mentioned in the body of the article as well as in the lead. Most of the information about this particular person is in material that is not online and the details in the article are taken from the news articles, ballad, etc. As for it being hagiographical, well, she has been cast as a kind of saint in the coverage of her. She died to save her brother and sister. This article passed muster as a Good Article in this format before hand. The quotes ARE all cited and I fixed what the previous reviewer had said needed to be fixed. A coulee is a body of water. Its use here is as in the Great Plains in the United States. This is the term used in contemporary news accounts. --Bookworm857158367 (talk) 03:36, 25 April 2010 (UTC)

Well there is nothing there to convey "national" importance, plenty to support the importance regionally. Much of what is reported by the off-line sources is clearly surmise, unless reporters were there alongside Hazel and her siblings in the blizzard. This leaves grave doubt about the reliability of these sources. An exhaustive search of LexisNexis extensive online news archive gives us a story by Curt and Jan Eriksmoen, reprinted in The Bismarck Tribune December 14, 2008.[1] This appears to be a close paraphrase of this article or vice versa. There are issues with the non-enclopaedic tone, poor writing, terms such as coulee (you may be intereseted to learn that the majority of Wikipedia readers are not in the United States). The original sources that I have consulted say sleigh, not sled or buggy. The hagiography, I mentioned was in the tone of the article and is not appropriate for an encycopaedia. The Good Article criteria have been raised since the originl pass of the artcile. There is enough material to produce a good article here, but it needs reworking to satisfy the criteria. Some online sources you may wish to look at include: [2], [3], –– Jezhotwells (talk) 11:14, 25 April 2010 (UTC)

This link [4] gives useful background information. It should be attributed to "Mrs. Robert (Anna) Dunn, as recorded in the office of the Register of Deeds, Oliver County, North Dakota, in Book N of Miscellaneous, page 130, as of July 15th, 1936". –– Jezhotwells (talk) 11:43, 25 April 2010 (UTC)