Talk:Headlines (Friendship Never Ends)/GA1

GA Review

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Reviewer: IndianBio (talk · contribs) 07:07, 6 June 2015 (UTC)

Starting the review

• It was also announced it would be the last single from the group until the finishing of their world tour The Return of the Spice Girls ---> A bit too much usage of "it was". Change the beginning to something else
• Same as the next sentences which begin consecutively with "The song"
• From the infobox, you can move that music video to the EL section using the {{YouTube}} template. No need to elongate it further.
• The first sentence of the Background does not make one understand who we are talking about. I think you need to mentione the word "Spice Girls"
• That image of the live performance is suited for the live performance section only. And remove the music video image, it fails WP:NFCC#8 since it can be easily replaced by a free image.
• Nowadays references do not require the publisher parameter. Please remove from all
• en-dash in the track listing and credits
• I see that you have used the {{singlechart}} format but the not the actual template. Please use the template because that reduces so much code jargon and size of the article too, plus there is no need to auto update for dead links.

Over all a good article. On hold awaiting improvements. —Indian:BIO ^{[ ChitChat ]} 11:50, 16 June 2015 (UTC)

Other comments

It seems to me that there are more significant issues with the first of the good article criteria than have been listed above. "Well-written" has two components, and I'm seeing issues in both:

• 1a. "the prose is clear and concise, it respects copyright laws, and the spelling and grammar are correct" has problems both in "clear and concise" and "grammar". The prose needs work, and I'd recommend a full copyedit—you might want to request one of the Guild of Copy Editors. Examples of issues include:

• "It was also announced it would be the last single from the group until the finishing of their world tour The Return of the Spice Girls." This was cited by IndianBio because it's one of three sentences in a row starting with "It was"; what drew my attention was "until the finishing of their world tour", which is not phrased well, and there should be a "that" after "announced".
• The first sentence under "Background" is problematic in a number of ways: media speculation isn't really relevant, and "its planned release" should refer to the Spice Girls (noted by IndianBio) and also the album itself ("greatest hits" is not a noun)
• Calling Mel B's comments in June 2005 a confirmation is a stretch, since nothing further was announced for two years.
• "Another group member, Chisholm in her 2008 appearance on Never Mind The Buzzcocks," needs to be fixed; there are similar constructions elsewhere in the article that also need fixing.
• First sentence of "Composition", "was initially written by Bunton and Halliwell with help from producers, with the other three girls adding later on" is problematic in structure and grammar, and also because it makes completely unsourced claims (see the second of the GA criteria, verifiability).
• Under "Critical response", the second paragraph's first sentence, containing the NME comments, is not a complete sentence, and the second sentence also has grammatical issues.
• Worse, the second sentence, based on the AllMusic review by Erlewine, has a made-up quote: "forgetable and a sleeper hit" is not in the review at all, doesn't even summarize what Erlewine says, and unfortunately calls into question every other quote in the article, which should now be checked by the GA reviewer to ensure this hasn't happened elsewhere in the article.
• In general, reviews should be referred to in past tense: "said" or "commented", not "saying" or "stating". Avoid present tense here.
• The "Chart performance" section has some repetitive or just odd phrasing; the US Billboard Hot 100 material is one example, which uses both "peak" and "peaking" in the same sentence, and there are others.

• 1b. "it complies with the manual of style guidelines for lead sections, layout, words to watch, fiction, and list incorporation"

• Among other things, lead sections should not contain any significant information that is not also in the body of the article. This lead section does, including that it's the first single with the original lineup since Halliwell left in 1998, that it was the only single from the album, and that there was an announcement that this would be the last single until the tour was finished. (According to the infobox, this was their last single ever. If true, that fact should certainly be in the body of the article, not the announcement.) Most of these assertions are unsourced, and need to have citations. It also disagrees with the body: while the lead says that some critics called the song a "classic", which I read as being a song that's a classic in general, the only critic to use that word in the article gives it a far more restrictive meaning—"a classic Spice ballad" just means it's typical of their ballads. Halliwell herself may be more enthusiastic in her use of "classic", but she's one of the Spice Girls, and also one of the song's authors, so she doesn't count in this context.

Note that this is not a complete list; I've been giving examples of issues, some quite serious, all of which ought to be addressed before this review is concluded.

I have to take issue with the initial review summary of "over all a good article": I frankly agree with the article's current talk-page rating of C-class, and think it needs significant work to reach GA status, or even B-class. I'm not saying it's impossible to attain during this review, but a great deal will be needed to meet the GA criteria referenced above. BlueMoonset (talk) 18:46, 16 June 2015 (UTC)

 Fixed many of the non-reviewer comments and also the reviewer's ones. Alex ^{talk page!} 22:36, 24 June 2015 (UTC)