Talk:Jon Favreau (speechwriter)/GA1

GA Review

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This is a reasonably good article that should be relatively easy to get up to GA status. I'm placing it on hold to allow for this to happen. Sarcasticidealist (talk) 02:30, 14 February 2009 (UTC)

Is it well-written?

Not bad, but room for improvement. Specifics:

• Favreau's name is overused throughout the article; don't be afraid of pronouns. Sarcasticidealist (talk) 17:20, 12 February 2009 (UTC)
• "...is United States President Barack Obama's Director of Speechwriting and a White House staff member." Does it not go without saying that the President's Director of Speechwriting is a White House Staff Member? Sarcasticidealist (talk) 17:20, 12 February 2009 (UTC)
• "...accumulated a variety of scholastic honors, and took part in and directed a variety of community and civic programs." Avoid repeating "a variety of" twice in the same sentence. Sarcasticidealist (talk) 17:20, 12 February 2009 (UTC)
• "Favreau was soon hired as Obama's own speechwriter, and went to work for him shortly after Obama's election to the United States Senate." This is temporally confusing; does "went to work" for Obama refer to a capacity other than speechwriter? If not, why not just word it "Favreau was hired as Obama's speechwriter shortly after Obama's election to the United States Senate."? Sarcasticidealist (talk) 17:20, 12 February 2009 (UTC)
• "...to Favreau, his speechwriter..." "his speechwriter" can probably go. Sarcasticidealist (talk) 17:20, 12 February 2009 (UTC)
• "...successful Presidential election process." "Process" makes it sound very mechanical. "...successful Presidential bid"? "...successful run for President"? Sarcasticidealist (talk) 17:20, 12 February 2009 (UTC)
• "In 2009, Favreau was named as a White House staff member, as Director of Speechwriting." How about "...named to the White House staff as Director of Speechwriting"? Sarcasticidealist (talk) 17:20, 12 February 2009 (UTC)
• I'm not sure that the "Biography" heading is necessary, since really this whole article is his biography. Consider eliminating it, and just bumping the subheadings up a level. Sarcasticidealist (talk) 17:20, 12 February 2009 (UTC)
• "At the College of the Holy Cross..." The College is named in the preceding sentence. How about just going with "At college" here? Sarcasticidealist (talk) 17:20, 12 February 2009 (UTC)
• "Favreau worked with Habitat for Humanity and a University of Massachusetts program to bring visitors to cancer patients." This reads as though Habitat for Humanity brought visitors to cancer patients. Not sure of the best fix; a comma after "Humanity" might help. Sarcasticidealist (talk) 17:20, 12 February 2009 (UTC)
• "...including the Vanicelli Award; being named the 2001 Charles A. Dana Scholar; memberships in the Political Science Honor Society, Alpha Kappa Delta, the College Honors Program, the Sociology Honor Society, Pi Sigma Alpha, and being named a Truman Scholar." I'd reword - the parallelism's clunky, and it's ebst to avoid using semi-colons to separate list items (though it's not incorrect). How about "...received the Vancicelli Award, was named a Truman Scholar and the 2001 Charles A. Dana Scholar, and was admitted to the Political Science Honor Society, Alpha Kappa Delta, the College Honors Program, the Sociology Honor Society, and Pi Alpha Sigma."? This could also be a good sentence for some wikilinks. Sarcasticidealist (talk) 17:20, 12 February 2009 (UTC)
• "He was an editor on his college newspaper, and during summers in college, Favreau earned extra incoming selling newspapers as a telemarketer, while also interning in John Kerry's offices." The commas don't work here (among other things, they halfway treat "during summers in college" as a parenthetical. What about splitting it up, to "He was also an editor on his college newspaper. During summers, he earned extra income selling newspapers as a telemarketer while also interning in John Kerry's offices"? Also, by "offices" do you mean both his constituency office and his Washington D.C. office? Or do U.S. Senators have multiple offices around the states that they represent? Sarcasticidealist (talk) 17:20, 12 February 2009 (UTC)
• "...soon after graduation from the College of the Holy Cross." Again, I think you can assume a sufficient attention span on the reader's part to make this repetition of the college's name unnecessary. Sarcasticidealist (talk) 15:23, 13 February 2009 (UTC)
• "While working for the Kerry campaign, his job was to assemble..." Could be tightened. For example, "His job with the campaign was to assemble..." or, better yet, just delete everything before the comma. Sarcasticidealist (talk) 15:23, 13 February 2009 (UTC)
• "...for the Kerry camp to review..." I think it's implied that the Kerry Camp is doing the reviewing (I mean, are they going to send the assembled video clips to Howard Dean?). If you don't know exactly who was reviewing them, what about just "for review"? Sarcasticidealist (talk) 15:23, 13 February 2009 (UTC)
• "When the Kerry campaign began to falter at one point, they found themselves without a speechwriter..." My first thought was that "at one point" should be removed, but on rereading I see the usefulness of that. What about "At one point, the Kerry campaign began to falter and they found themselves without a speechwriter; Favreau was promoted..." or similar? Sarcasticidealist (talk) 15:23, 13 February 2009 (UTC)
• "Obama communications aide Robert Gibbs, who had worked for Kerry's campaign, recommended Favreau to Obama as an excellent writer, and in 2005 he began working for Barack Obama in his United States Senate office, before joining Obama's presidential campaign as chief speechwriter in 2007." That's exactly the kind of sentence I might have written which, as you'd know if you followed the GAC/PR/FACs of my articles, isn't a good thing. Split 'er up. Sarcasticidealist (talk) 01:17, 14 February 2009 (UTC)
• "Favreau's interview with Obama was on the Senator's first day as a Senator, and Obama was uninterested in Favreau's resume, questioning him instead on what motivated him to work in politics, and what his theory of writing was." A few things. I'd recommend splitting this one up too, after the word Senator. I'd suggest replacing "as a Senator" with "in office" to reduce repetition. I'd also change the end parallelism to "...on his motivation for working in politics and his theory of writing". Sarcasticidealist (talk) 01:17, 14 February 2009 (UTC)
• "How do you say to the average person that's been hurting: 'I hear you. I'm there. Even though you've been so disappointed and cynical about politics in the past, and with good reason, we can move in the right direction. Just give me a chance.'"" This is part of a direct quote, but shouldn't there be a question mark after the closing ' but before the closing "? Sarcasticidealist (talk) 01:17, 14 February 2009 (UTC)
• "...to play the video game Rock Band." Given the italicization and the wikilink, I think you can lose "the video game"; it sounds kind of fogeyish to have that in there. Sarcasticidealist (talk) 01:17, 14 February 2009 (UTC)
• "Favreau's leadership style among the other Obama speechwriters is very informal. They would often meet in a small conference room..." I'd change to "Favreau's leadership style was very informal. The speechwriters would often meet..." Sarcasticidealist (talk) 01:17, 14 February 2009 (UTC)
• "...ordering take out and discussing their work late into the evening over take-out food." Repetition. Sarcasticidealist (talk) 01:17, 14 February 2009 (UTC)
• "According to Rhodes, another of the speechwriters..." We met Rhodes just a few sentences ago; no need to announce who he is again. Sarcasticidealist (talk) 01:17, 14 February 2009 (UTC)
• "Favreau is planning to hire more speechwriters to assist him, but concedes he is unsure of how to manage them." Is this sentence out of date? The tense seems wrong. Sarcasticidealist (talk) 01:17, 14 February 2009 (UTC)
• "According to Favreau, "My biggest strength isn't the organization thing."" If the previous sentence is eliminated, this needs to be either removed or re-integrated. Sarcasticidealist (talk) 01:17, 14 February 2009 (UTC)
• "In Obama's own words..." I'd remove "own", but that might be personal preference. Sarcasticidealist (talk) 01:17, 14 February 2009 (UTC)
• "Favreau and Obama share a fierce sports rivalry, between the Boston Red Sox, favored by Favreau, and the Chicago White Sox, favored by Obama." Something about this sentence doesn't quite work, but I can't put my finger on what. I'll think about it some more. Sarcasticidealist (talk) 01:17, 14 February 2009 (UTC)
• "...Obama swept off Favreau's desk with a small broom." I understand the reference, but I'm not sure all readers will; this might need some explanation or a link to Sweep#Sports. Sarcasticidealist (talk) 01:17, 14 February 2009 (UTC)
• "At points during the campaign..." The preceding sentence already said "during the campaigns"; try to rework this. Sarcasticidealist (talk) 01:17, 14 February 2009 (UTC)
• "...grabbing a breast..." I can't quite put my finger on why, because she has two, but I can't shake the impression that this should be "the breast". Sarcasticidealist (talk) 01:17, 14 February 2009 (UTC)
• "White House Aide" I'm not sure "Aide" should be capitalized. Sarcasticidealist (talk) 02:30, 14 February 2009 (UTC)
• Not a GA issue, but I noticed a couple of places that I thought could use some wikilinks. Hilary Clinton was one, and the inaugural address (don't know if the address itself has an article, but the inauguration does) was another. Sarcasticidealist (talk) 02:30, 14 February 2009 (UTC)

Is it factually accurate and verifiable?

All sources look good, all cites look good, and all material looks cited. Pass. Sarcasticidealist (talk) 02:30, 14 February 2009 (UTC)

Is it neutral?

Disclaimer: I'm probably unconsciously being harder on you than I would on other editors because of my subconscious assumption that you love everybody affiliated with Barack Obama (because of that WR avatar of yours, in my head you actually look like Barack Obama). That said, I occasionally can't shake the feeling that I'm reading a profile of this guy in a teen magazine: who his influences are, his nickname, his fear of flying, etc. There's nothing that I'd actually suggest that you remove, since I found it all interesting (maybe I should read more teen magazines), but even the one negative bit sounds like a giant forgiveness-fest. Was he the subject of any negative external commentary as a result of the Hilary incident? I don't expect that a guy in his position has been the subject of a lot of critical commentary, so there might not be a lot to balance the article out (maybe something about the critical reception to his speeches, especially the inaugural address?), but I just get the sense that this is too positive. If you tell me there's nothing to be done, I'll accept your word and pass the article, but I'd like for you to take another look at it before I do so. Sarcasticidealist (talk) 02:30, 14 February 2009 (UTC)

Is it broad?

Mostly. As I said above, I wouldn't mind seeing something about critical reaction to his speeches (I know from my own off-wiki interests that Paul Wells didn't think much of the inaugural address, and if he's ventured an opinion I have to assume that dozens of American commentators have done so). Other that, just a few minor things:

• "After graduation, Favreau went to work for the John Kerry Presidential campaign in 2004..." As a non-essential point of interest, was this during primary season or not until the election itself? The answer to that question could tell us whether he's a just a Democrat (in the second case) or a John Kerry Democrat (in the first). This information possibly shouldn't go in the lead (where I pulled the preceding quote from) but it would be nice to have it later on. Sarcasticidealist (talk) 17:20, 12 February 2009 (UTC)
• "A former resident of North Reading, Massachusetts..." We have his date of birth; do we know his place of birth? I ask because calling somebody "a former resident" doesn't really seem all that relevant. "Born in North Reading" would be significant, as would "He grew up in North Reading", but just saying that he lived somewhere at some unspecified point isn't all that helpful. Still, we go with the sources we have, I guess. Sarcasticidealist (talk) 17:20, 12 February 2009 (UTC)
• "Favreau served on the Welfare Solidarity Project..." Since it doesn't appear to have a Wikipedia article, maybe there could be a brief description in this article of what the project is. Without that, knowing that Favreau was its director doesn't tell us much. Sarcasticidealist (talk) 17:20, 12 February 2009 (UTC)

Is it stable?

Pass. Nothing that could be desribed as edit-warring, and no major changes since February 2. There was some trouble with I.P. editors on the tenth, but that stopped after a strong, courageous, and no doubt ruggedly-handsome administrator semi-protected it. Sarcasticidealist (talk) 16:54, 12 February 2009 (UTC)

Is it illustrated, if appropriate, by images?

I gather from the comments on the article talk page that no free image of this fellow has yet been found, which I obviously won't hold against you. It occurs to me that there may be a fair use case for the Favreau-Clinton cutout picture to be used in the appropriate section; I'll leave that up to the article's editors. In any event, pass. Sarcasticidealist (talk) 16:54, 12 February 2009 (UTC)