Talk:Helen Keller/GA1

GA Review

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Reviewer: SNUGGUMS (talk · contribs) 14:21, 22 April 2017 (UTC)

Not missing this opportunity! I should have initial comments up within a week or two. Snuggums (talk / edits) 14:21, 22 April 2017 (UTC)

Let's begin with the infobox and lead:

Infobox

• Please don't pipe away state portions of town/city links followed by a state link; that very needlessly takes up article space and goes against WP:NOPIPE as well as WP:SPECIFICLINK. Just use the one singular link in this case. In other words, [[Tuscumbia, Alabama|Tuscumbia]], [[Alabama]] should just be [[Tuscumbia, Alabama]], and [[Easton, Connecticut|Easton]], [[Connecticut]] should just be [[Easton, Connecticut]].
• When Radcliffe College is already cited within article body, you don't need to include a citation for it in the infobox

Lead

• Occupations tend not to be linked per WP:OVERLINK, especially when commonly recognized terms, so unlink "political activist" and "lecturer"
• Like with the infobox, content already cited in the article body doesn't need citations in the lead
• "Helen" in "Helen proved to the world" should be "Keller" per WP:SURNAME
• It seems a bit repetitive to have two consecutive sentences start with "she"
• "she is an idol to many deaf people in the world" is totally true, but seems rather promotional for the lead, and is probably better for the article body

I'll be back with more later..... Snuggums (talk / edits) 02:39, 23 April 2017 (UTC)

Early childhood and illness

• "Helen Adams Keller was born on June 27, 1880, in Tuscumbia, Alabama." is going to need its own citation since the URL provided doesn't mention such detail, which I thankfully found here
• The given link doesn't mention whether her siblings were older or younger, and also only names a half-brother as "Simpson" instead of "William Simpson" without even specifying whether this was from an earlier or later marriage, though I did find this notes the half-brothers were born first
• "was the second cousin of"..... try "was second cousins with", which is more concise and avoids the likely misleading implication of "only second cousin"
• "an acute congestion of the stomach and the brain" isn't mentioned here at all, though it does speculate rubella/scarlet fever. Anyway, let's try something like "Helen Keller could see and hear until contracting an unknown illness at 19 months old", maybe with "suspected to be rubella or scarlet fever" at the end.
• "Chisholm referred the Kellers to Alexander Graham Bell, who was working with deaf children at the time. Bell advised them to contact the Perkins Institute for the Blind, the school where Bridgman had been educated, which was then located in South Boston. Michael Anagnos, the school's director, asked 20-year-old former student Anne Sullivan, herself visually impaired, to become Keller's instructor. It was the beginning of a 49-year-long relationship during which Sullivan evolved into Keller's governess and eventually her companion." is missing a citation
• "Helen Keller was viewed as isolated but she was in fact, very in touch with the outside world" reads awkwardly, and I don't think it's appropriate to use phrases like "in fact"
• Not sure if "big" in "Keller's big breakthrough" is appropriate tone
• "She was delayed at picking up language, but that did not stop her from having a voice"..... try something like "She could speak after a delay in understanding language"

More to come..... Snuggums (talk / edits) 22:23, 26 April 2017 (UTC)

Formal education

• "Starting in May 1888, Keller attended the Perkins Institute for the Blind" → "Keller began attending the Perkins Institute for the Blind in May 1888"
• "In 1894, Helen Keller and Anne Sullivan"..... we've already established what their first names are
• "spent much of her life giving speeches and lectures"..... I see you have a section on lectures below, but what did she speak about in those speeches
• I'm not sure "subtle" is a fitting word choice in "her sense of touch had become extremely subtle", maybe "sensitive", "heightened", or "enhanced" would be better
• " Shortly before World War I, with the assistance of the Zoellner Quartet she determined" seems like it's missing a comma after "Quartet"

Another section complete. Snuggums (talk / edits) 15:17, 29 April 2017 (UTC)

Example of her lectures

• "On January 22, 1916, Helen Keller and her companion, Anne Sullivan Macy, traveled to the small town"..... Keller and Sullivan traveled to the small town
• I'm not sure the indented quotes here need to be repeated so much verbatim; try trimming and/or paraphrasing these

Companions

• "Anne" in "Anne married John Macy in 1905" should be "Sullivan" per WP:SURNAME
• "together with Anne and John"..... Sullivan and Macy..... again, WP:SURNAME
• What happened between Keller and Peter Fagan after their engagement?
• Boston Herald is a newspaper's name and should be italicized, and perhaps linked in this case when there's no prior mention in the article
• What did Anne Sullivan die from?

Let's see how the rest of the article looks..... Snuggums (talk / edits) 15:30, 29 April 2017 (UTC)

Political activities

• "In 1915 she and George Kessler" should have a comma after "1915"
• I don't see support for "The Deaf community was widely impacted by her. She traveled to twenty-five different countries giving motivational speeches about Deaf people's conditions." in the given citation
• This doesn't mention anything about Progress and Poverty or Eugene V. Debs
• If we're including full portions of quotes, then don't just jump from "Oh, ridiculous Brooklyn Eagle!" to "Socially blind and deaf" to suggest that follows right afterwards when she in fact also states "What an ungallant bird it is!" in between those sentences
• I do see "sinking in the political bog" here, but that doesn't specify when she was with IWW
• The "I was appointed on a commission" quote as well as "The last sentence refers to prostitution and syphilis, the former a frequent cause of the latter, and the latter a leading cause of blindness. In the same interview, Keller also cited the 1912 strike of textile workers in Lawrence, Massachusetts for instigating her support of socialism." need citations, and can be found in the link provided for "sinking in the political bog", though I don't see anything in that suggesting prostitution or syphilis, which would need its own reference (if including that bit at all)
• I would include quotes on her beliefs regarding eugenics and overpopulation, and since both citations for overpopulation have the same quote, just one reference or the other is enough in this case for that bit

Not too bad so far..... Snuggums (talk / edits) 16:07, 29 April 2017 (UTC)

Writings

• "Keller wrote a total of 12 published books and several articles" doesn't have much support when you only list five different works (six if counting a reissue) in this section, though I'm not sure it's really needed anyway when the works are elaborated on afterwards
• Unless Margaret Canby is likely to warrant an article, I would unlink her
• "At age 22, Keller published her autobiography, The Story of My Life (1903), with help from Sullivan and Sullivan's husband, John Macy. It recounts the story of her life up to age 21 and was written during her time in college." needs to be cited
• "Out of the Dark, a series of essays on socialism, was published in 1913." is also missing a citation
• "he" and "his" from "I always knew He was there, but I didn't know His name!" shouldn't be capitalized
• "was published in 1927 and then in 1994 extensively revised and re-issued under the title Light in My Darkness. It advocates the teachings of Emanuel Swedenborg, the Christian revelator and theologian who gives a spiritual interpretation of the teachings of the Bible and who claims that the second coming of Jesus Christ has already taken place. Adherents use several names to describe themselves, including Second Advent Christian, Swedenborgian, and New Church." is all unreferenced
• Try not to have so many short paragraphs; it disrupts the flow and makes the text look choppy. Adding more detail on her writings could help with this.

Later life

• Again, overly short paragraphs look choppy and disrupt the flow of text. I'd at least combine the first two paragraphs into one.
• What did Keller die from?

Unfortunately, I'm becoming pessimistic about the overall article quality..... Snuggums (talk / edits) 03:59, 4 May 2017 (UTC)

Portrayals

• I've said this before and I'll repeat it here as the point still applies; having paragraphs that are too short disrupt the text's flow and make it look choppy
• I don't think "Keller's life has been interpreted many times" is really needed when you subsequently elaborate on various portrayals
• You'd need a much better source than IMDb for the bits on Deliverance and The Miracle Continues; this isn't a good reference to use at all
• The entire second and third paragraphs are uncited
• "This film that entailed the semi-sequel to The Miracle Worker recounts her college years and her early adult life. None of the early movies hint at the social activism that would become the hallmark of Keller's later life, although a Disney version produced in 2000 states in the credits that she became an activist for social equality." needs a reference
• The bit on Shining Soul: Helen Keller's Spiritual Life and Legacy is (quite rightly) tagged as needing a reference; please source it
• The 1888 photograph, the H.J. Kaeser biography, and the painting don't belong in this section; they're not really portrayals (at least not in the sense that movies, television, and theater are)

Things sadly aren't getting much better..... Snuggums (talk / edits) 04:52, 7 May 2017 (UTC)

Posthumous honors

• See my above comments on overly short paragraphs
• The first and fifth paragraphs are entirely uncited
• I think "first" would be better than "only circulating" in case more coins feature braille later on
• Please provide a source for the street in Caen, France, named for her

Archival material

• Does this really warrant its own section with only two sentences (which shouldn't be separate paragraphs)? Try to flesh this out some more or merge with another section.

References

• Dead links need fixing
• Try to find something better than "Find a Grave", Huffington Post, IMDb, or Daily Mail
• Don't italicize CBS News or CNN

Overall

• Prose: Way too many short, choppy paragraphs, and some text could use copyediting
• Referencing: Some citations aren't properly formatted, and there's a number of instances where text is unsourced or not supported by its attached citations
• Coverage: Certain parts could use more elaboration
• Neutrality: I'm not so sure about including "she is an idol to many deaf people in the world" as it comes off as promotional
• Stability: All good
• Media: Everything is appropriately licensed and beneficial to the article
• Verdict: Failing this without putting it on hold as there are too many issues with prose and referencing. Please work on these extensively before renominating. Before renomination, it would probably help to list the article at WP:WikiProject Guild of Copy Editors/Requests so someone can help go through and improve the prose quality. Snuggums (talk / edits) 00:05, 8 May 2017 (UTC)