Wikipedia:Peer review/Elias Abraham Rosenberg/archive2

Elias Abraham Rosenberg

Previous peer review

This peer review discussion has been closed.
This article is currently a GA and has been peer reviewed once before. It has been a kind of tricky article to get well sourced and flow well, but I think it is basically in good shape. I'd like to nominate it at WP:FAC, but I'm not sure it is FA quality yet and would like another review before I try. Any help weeding out issues that might cause oppose votes at FAC would be greatly appreciated. Thanks, Mark Arsten (talk) 00:50, 3 March 2012 (UTC)

Comments by Nick-D This is an interesting article - you've made good use of the available references and the article is well paced and clear. My comments mainly relate to the article's wording:

• As a general comment, the article's prose is, while generally good, a bit repetitive and wordy at times. I've highlighted some examples below, but it would benefit from a more detailed copy edit.
• "He lived in San Francisco..." then "He worked there as a peddler" - starting two sentences with 'He' is repetitive
  • Changed the intro to second sentence.
• "and developed a reputation as an eccentric in the local Jewish community" - should this be "as an eccentric among the local Jewish community"?
  • Yes, changed.
• "This practice helped him become popular with locals; King Kalākaua learned of his popularity" - this is a bit awkward (use of both 'popular' and 'popularity' in the same sentence)
  • Good point, changed.
• "After Rosenberg began making predictions about the King's future, the King was impressed" - King is repeated
  • Changed, hopefully it's clear now.
• "A Torah and yad presented to the King by Rosenberg remained in the King's" - ditto
  • Rephrased.
• "and later may have lived in England and Australia, where he might have collected emu eggs" - you should specify that the eggs would have been collected in Australia
  • Ok, had to break up the sentence.
• For what it's worth, I searched for Rosenberg in the National Library of Australia's excellent Trove database of old newspapers, but it didn't find any references to him.
  • Thanks for doing that, I guess he kept a low profile at that time.
• "he served as a director for the Chebra Beth Abraham benevolent society in San Francisco" - I don't think that you need to specify that he was in San Francisco here
  • Removed.
• "He sold lottery tickets for a time, but ceased the practice after he attracted attention from the San Francisco Police Department." - what's meant by "he attracted attention from the San Francisco Police Department"? Was it illegal to sell lottery tickets?
  • Tried to clarify.
• "Some residents nicknamed him "Rosey",[1] while some believed" - the second 'some' could be replaced with 'others' to avoid repetition
  • Good catch, changed.
• "After Rosenberg became well known he came to the attention of King Kalākaua, who then met with him" - did the king really visit Rosenberg as this implies? Surely he would have been invited to meet the king?
  • Changed a bit, hope it works now.
• "At that time, the King had sought instruction from several people he regarded as prophets." - this is a bit unclear. Was the king consulting with several people at the time, or had this occurred before he appointed Rosenberg one of his soothsayers?
  • Clarified.
• "Rosenberg told him Bible stories,[15] read to him from the Talmud,[1] began to teach him basic Hebrew,[1][16] and also presented an ornate and well-crafted Torah[8] and yad,[10][B] that he had brought with him to Hawaii, as gifts to King Kalākaua." - this sentence is overlong and should be split into a couple of sentences (especially as who the 'him' is swaps around in the second half of the sentence). Also, try to cut down on the number of 'him's here as well as it's a bit repetitive.
  • Wow, that sentence was a quagmire. Gone to work on it.
• "This claim encouraged the King" - to do what?
  • Tried to clarify a bit.
• "Rosenberg then reported to Archibald Scott Cleghorn." - who was Cleghorn?
  • You don't know who Cleghorn is??? :)
• "In March, April, and May, Rosenberg was paid $100, ostensibly for working as a guard at the Customs Office" - was this $100 per month, or $100 in total?
  • I guess that wasn't clear, changed.
• Who is/was DeWitt Alexander?
  • Ahh, I had explained earlier but removed it while tightening.
• " In 1967, Honolulu reported that few Hawaiians believed Rosenberg was the source of Kalākaua's Torah" - you should specify what Honolulu is/was, and the current wording implies that Rosenberg was well known at the time and most Hawaiians had an opinion on the source of the Torah, which seems unlikely. Nick-D (talk) 03:28, 17 March 2012 (UTC)
  • Good point, that sentence was a bit of a mess.
  • Thanks for the comments, this was really helpful. Mark Arsten (talk) 16:40, 17 March 2012 (UTC)

Comments from Eisfbnore

• I see that Nick's comments have alleviated some of the worst repetitiousness in the article, but I still have a few quibbles! :)

• 'San Francisco' is mentioned four times in the lead paragraph. You could possibly slice one instance by making one of the sentences a parenthetical phrase inside another.

• Tried to cut down on some, hope I did Ok.

• Out of ten sentences in the San Fran section, you have six starting with 'He'. I repeat my advice regarding the parenthetical phrases.

• Down to four now.

• In the Hawaii sect., the three last paras all start with 'someone (subject) did something (predicate) to Rosenberg (object)'. Perhaps I am making myself scorned amongst Wikipedia's grammar ninjas, but I would perhaps let the passive voice sneak into some of the sentences.

• • Interesting, I took an initial try at it, will revisit. It is hoped that not much scorn is heaped upon you. :)
• "The reverse side of the medal featured a profile of the King; a gold crown on the rim attached to a blue ribbon." – the last part of the sentence is a syntactical-descriptive phrase; therefore, the semicolon should be a colon.
  • Good point, done.
• "This practice helped him become popular with locals; King Kalākaua learned of his reputation and met with him in 1886." – ditto
  • Also done.
• "In the mid-1880s, Rosenberg traveled to Hawaii, claimed to be a fortune teller, and began offering to tell fortunes." – perhaps you would disagree, but I would have written "In the mid-1880s, Rosenberg traveled to Hawaii where he claimed to be a fortune teller, and offered to tell fortunes."
  • Ok, changed.
• "In San Francisco, he worked as a peddler but encountered legal problems selling lottery tickets." – the flow might be enhanced if you put a 'with' or 'when' before 'selling'.
  • Ok, added "when".
• "Rosenberg left a will in which he requested that his body be cremated using quicklime." – no suggestion for amelioration, just wanted to commend your use of the subjunctive mood. :)
  • Thanks, I'm glad you noticed :)
• Check footnote B for erroneous use of 'due to'.
  • Ahh, well, only one this time, I'm getting better.
• Whilst the article is pretty well-written, its prose suffers from too short sentences. I would use some semicolons and em-dashes to tie the sentences better together; please have some: ;;;;;;;;;;;;;;—————————————————

Eisfbnore ^{(下さいて話し)} 21:37, 17 March 2012 (UTC)

So nice of you to share some with me :) Mark Arsten (talk) 23:48, 18 March 2012 (UTC)