Wikipedia:Peer review/Davenport, Iowa/archive1

Davenport, Iowa

• A script has been used to generate a semi-automated review of the article for issues relating to grammar and house style; it can be found on the automated peer review page for September 2008.

This peer review discussion has been closed.
I've listed this article for peer review because I worked hard to get this article to GA back in March, and would like to get it to an FA by the end of the year. Any help on making that possible is appreciated!

Thanks, Ctjf83Talk 02:18, 14 September 2008 (UTC)

Finetooth comments: Davenport sounds like an interesting place, and this is a reasonably good article that seems to cover most aspects of the city. Here are a few suggestions for further improvement.

• The lead needs to be re-worked to include at least a mention of the content of the lower sections. As it stands, it says nothing about the economy, sports, government, or infrastructure. An ideal lead is a brief summary or abstract of all that follows. To keep your lead from getting too long, I'd suggest removing the long final paragraph about the livability award to make room. The lead should not include material that is not mentioned in the main text; thus the livability award needs to be mentioned elsewhere. Please see WP:LEAD.

• Image:Putnam Museum and IMAX.png, Image:Junge Park.png, Image:KWQC Building.png, Image:Davenport, Iowa City Hall.png, Image:Iowa American Water Company in Davenport, Iowa.png, Image:Genesis West in Davenport, Iowa.png and perhaps some others are in png format, but jpg is the recommended format for photos. Please see WP:IUP.

• Image:St. Ambrose University.jpg lacks a description, source, date of creation, and name of image creator. Image checkers will not find the information they need to verify the license. Please see WP:IUP.

• I recommend a copyedit by someone with fresh eyes. You might be able to find a copyeditor at WP:PRV, the peer-review volunteer list.

• It's important when using direct quotes to attribute them precisely. The quote "let mother nature take her course, we'll all be better off" is attributed to "Davenport's elected representatives". The quote should be attributed to Phil Yerington, the former mayor, and not to a generic group.

• Avoid weasel words such as "possibly" the oldest and "likely to be the second-oldest" in the lead. I see a few weasel words in the main text as well.

• References to "current" time are generally deprecated because they are ambiguous. The article mentions "the mayor-council form of local government consisting of a mayor, currently Bill Gluba... " A reader can't be sure what "currently" means. Instead, you can say something like "As of 2008, Bill Gluba... "

• Paragraphs consisting of only one or two sentences are generally deprecated. They can often be merged with other paragraphs, or in some cases they can be expanded.

• The term "mass mound" needs to be explained. Most readers will not know what it means. In fact, "Mass mound" might be the subject of a future article. Sounds interesting.

• The "Government" and "Education" sections could be compressed. I'd suggest reducing the technical explanations of the inner workings of the government. The article says, "The city administrator makes policy recommendations to the council, but the council may or may not adopt them and may modify the recommendations. The city administrator is bound by whatever action the council takes." I think the wiki-link to mayor-council government pretty well covers things like this. I have the same thoughts about the list of elementary schools. The dry legislative explanations and the school list probably edge into unnecessary detail. The WP:WikiProject Cities/Guideline specifically deprecates listing all the schools in a city unless the list is short.

• Include no-break codes between digits and the nouns they modify. An example from the article is "Davenport public schools serve nearly 17,000 students..." A no-break code is needed to keep "17,000" and "students" together on line-break (equivalent to carriage return). See WP:NBSP.

• Who won the Rock Island Railroad lawsuit?

• If Davenport is served by Amtrak, that should be mentioned in the transportation section. Ditto for the cross-country bus lines. Ditto for transportation by river. It occurs to me that Davenport is a river port, but I don't see much about that aspect of the city in the article. Barges, shipyards, sternwheelers for tourists, anything like that?

If you found these comments helpful, please consider reviewing another article, especially one from the PR backlog. If you have questions about my comments, please mention it here or send me a note. Finetooth (talk) 00:52, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

Comments from Dtbohrer: Interesting city, well written for the most part. I have provided some comments below. If I happen to spot anything later that could be improve I'll add it here as well.

• This is purely aesthetic, but all the images are aligned on the right side of the article. Changing it up a little by left aligning some of the would make it look better.
• "...granddaughter of a Sac chief.", Who are the "Sac"?
• "...for the army's Fort Armstrong.", Sounds awkward, I suggest "... for the U.S. Army garrisoned at Fort Armstrong."
• Did they catch the people who assaulted Col. Davenport?
• History is out chronlogical order. Col. Davenport dies at the end of the 2nd paragraph but is alive in the beginning of the 3rd.
• "...at a meager price of $100,000." Is the $100,000 in today's dollars or in 1895's?
• The info on Davenport being in Tornado Alley seems to relate more to climate than geography.
• Do we need to know the average home price in Davenport?
• Is there any reason Davenport has a lower cost of living than the national average?
• United States is abbrievated as both "US" and "U.S." in the article. A consistent format should be used throughtout the article. See WP:MOSABBR.

You may wish to look at other cities that are featured (for example: Seattle, Washington, Grand Forks, North Dakota, Erie, Pennsylvania) to get some ideas on how this article can be improved. --​​​​D.B.^{talk•contribs} 22:26, 15 September 2008 (UTC)

• Comments from User:Maclean25: This looks great. I believe it is comprehensive, well-illustrated, and uses appropriate references. However, I found its weakness to be some of the writing style which in parts relies upon laying out facts rather than carrying the reader through a narrative. For example, from Sister cities, Davenport has three sister cities.[64] Kaiserslautern, Germany is the first sister city of Davenport. They became sister cities on June 10, 1960.[64] Ilhéus in Bahia, Brazil became Davenport's sister city on January 31, 2005.[64] Davenport's newest sister city, Carlow County, Ireland, became a sister city on September 26, 2006.[64] Instead try: Davenport has three sister cities. On June 10, 1960, Kaiserslautern, Germany became Davenport's first sister city. The coastal city of Ilhéus in the Brazilian state of Bahia, became, on January 31, 2005, Davenport's second sister city. Davenport and Carlow County, Ireland, became a sister cities on September 26, 2006.[64] That is still pretty simple but, at least to me, it flows better. I can see a lot of work went into this and it does deserve to become an FA. But, to be prepared, before taking the article to FAC please would solicit the opinion of one of the regulars there to gauge whether a copyedit is required. --maclean 05:01, 17 September 2008 (UTC)

• Commments from Carcharoth: Not sure if this peer review is still open (the notice is still on the article talk page), but will comment here anyway.
  • Lead should mention the current mayor and possibly the current size (in terms of area) of the city. Both are in the infobox, but I think they should be in the lead as well.
  • I agree with the comment above that the lead should summarise more of the article. Ask for more specific advice if needed.
  • The "Livability Award" bit in the lead section should be a summary of something mentioned in the main body of the article. At the moment, it doesn't seem to be mentioned in the main body of the article, and is a bit long for the lead in any case (I see I'm repeating what others have said, but it is one of the more obvious things that can be said about the article, so it probably is worth the repetition).
  • More on the history in the lead, with only the last paragraph on current events and modern stuff.
  • The start of the main body of the article is a bit abrupt. Say who "Keokuk" is, rather than relying on people to click away from the article.
  • The paragraph on Davenport is a bit long. The whole "history" section, as the summary of a daughter article, could also be shortened somewhat, though it is important to have a comprehensive summary. The lawsuit bit is also a bit long. There is also more from History of Davenport, Iowa that could be mentioned. Try not to get bogged down in details.
  • Geography section: need a date for the Census data. I would also try and give the context within the USA. Say it is on a similar latitude to, and west of, Chicago and the southern edge of Lake Michigan. Say is is x kilometres from Chicago, x kilometres from the mouth of the Mississippi, and name three or four of the closest large towns and cities apart from the ones already mentioned. Also, is the surrounding countryside farmland, woods, grassy plains, rolling hills? I would also say how large the river is at this point - a good way to do this is to mention the longest bridge, or the length of the main bridge. If the river is very deep or shallow, that would be of interest as well. Also mention any nearby confluences (e.g. Rock River and Mississippi) and which direction they are in. Again, not too much, but just enough to give an idea of the geographical surroundings.
  • The link to Great Flood of 1993 was interesting. It seems that flooding is commonplace in Davenport because of the lack of levees. Is it possible to write a bit more about this, and talk about the history and about Davenport in relation to the biggest of the floods seen over the years on the Mississippi?
  • Mass mound bit should be mentioned in the history section as well. It is not clear that there was a hamlet in this location before the founding of Davenport - in fact, a brief paragraph on the history of the area (and the native American tribes in the area) before the founding of Davenport would help. Not too much, but just enough to set the scene.
  • Neighbourhoods - need more on downtown Davenport - the tallest buildings and skyscrapers. See here for mention of the "Wells Fargo bank building in downtown Davenport at 12 stories (17 including the clock tower) followed by the MidAmerican Building at 15 stories" - I think these are the two buildings dominating the main picture. See also here: "the 15 story MidAmerican Plaza Building" and " the ornate Wells Fargo Bank Building (formerly Davenport Bank and Trust Building)" - these two buildings need to be mentioned (the latter is also called the MidAmerican Energy Plaza, presumably to do with the MidAmerican Energy Company mentioned elsewhere in the article?).
  • Demographics and Crime sections are a little bit boring - any chance of finding a source that gives a narrative history rather than a whole load of statistics? How have the demographics changed over time, for example?
  • Three companies are mentioned under "Economy". Can you give brief details of what other companies there are in Davenport?
  • Culture section is good, as is the sports section, but some of the wording sounds like it is from a brochure or tourist website. Needs to be rewritten to be less "touristy".
  • Transportation section doesn't mention boats or any ports. If it doesn't have a port, that needs to be said, along with a section on industry (surely the city had a history of industry at some point, being on the river?). Ah, I see some of the industry is covered under "Economy".
  • Last few sections are a bit short. The article sort of runs out of steam and dribbles off at the end (sorry!). If possible, try and develop a strong forward-looking section (without having it date too much) looking at future plans and developments and forthcoming events. That also gives people a clue as to when the article was last updated.

That was a bit longer than I intended, but I hope it helps. Carcharoth (talk) 02:37, 1 October 2008 (UTC)