Talk:Spokane, Washington/GA1

GA Review

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I'm starting a GAN review of the article.   Will Beback  talk  09:47, 4 January 2009 (UTC)

Review findings:

• Intro
  • The introduction should summarize the article and without anything that isn't in the body of the text. For example: However, when combined with the nearby Coeur d'Alene, Idaho metropolitan area in Kootenai County, the Spokane-Coeur d'Alene area consists of over 500,000 people. That isn't in the text.

Removed the sentence. Not important to Spokane article. --Bobblehead ^(rants) 00:12, 6 January 2009 (UTC)

The Lead has been summarized also. Anon134 (talk) 20:38, 8 January 2009 (UTC)

• Grammar
  • Beginning a sentence with "there", when "there" doesn't stand for anything, leads to wordy prose, e.g. There are ten houses in the village → The village has ten houses. The same applies to "it".

Should be fixed now. --Bobblehead ^(rants) 00:34, 6 January 2009 (UTC)

• • Avoid Peacock Terms, such as "beautiful", "famous", "popular", "well-known", "significant", "important" and "obvious". (GA criteria)

Removed most of the peacock terms.. Will have to go through and remove more probably. Left two uses of "important" as those seem to be applicable to how they were used in the article. --Bobblehead ^(rants) 00:53, 6 January 2009 (UTC)

There are places where those terms are appropriate. But it's easy to fall into the habit of using them.   Will Beback  talk  03:02, 6 January 2009 (UTC)

• • Watch qualifiers at the start of sentences. However, In regards to,

Should be fixed. --Bobblehead ^(rants) 00:40, 6 January 2009 (UTC)

• Other dashes
  • These are avoided on Wikipedia, notably the double-hyphen (--).

Removed the double hyphens will check for other issues with dashes later. --Bobblehead ^(rants) 18:52, 5 January 2009 (UTC)

• Quotes and apostrophes
  • Grave and acute accents or backticks (`text´) are neither quotation marks nor apostrophes, and must not be used in their place. ... The exclusive use of straight quotes and apostrophes is recommended.

This should be fixed now. --Bobblehead ^(rants) 00:12, 6 January 2009 (UTC)

• Headings
  • Should be in sentence case.

Fixed the headings. --Bobblehead ^(rants) 18:52, 5 January 2009 (UTC)

• Images
  • Do not place left-aligned images directly below a subsection-level heading (=== or lower), as this sometimes disconnects the heading from the text that follows it. This can often be avoided by shifting left-aligned images down a paragraph or two.
  • It is recommended not to specify the size of images. The sizes should be what readers have specified in their user preferences.

Shifted left aligned images that were below level three headers around and removed the forced image sizes. --Bobblehead ^(rants) 23:22, 5 January 2009 (UTC)

• External links
  • External links should not normally be used in the body of an article. Instead, include appropriate external links in an "External links" section at the end and/or in the appropriate location within an infobox or navbox.

Removed external links from body. --Bobblehead ^(rants) 23:22, 5 January 2009 (UTC)

• • There are a couple of dead links: [1]

Looks like this was fixed when the external links were removed from the body. --Bobblehead ^(rants) 00:34, 6 January 2009 (UTC)

• • The external links section contains some commercial sites that would typically be deleted.

Removed commercial sites from external links section. --Bobblehead ^(rants) 23:22, 5 January 2009 (UTC)

• Decades
  • Decades as such contain no apostrophe (the 1980s, not the 1980's). The two-digit form is never used in reference to the decade as a time span per se.

Fixed. --Bobblehead ^(rants) 00:12, 6 January 2009 (UTC)

• Layout
  • "See also" should come bvefore references. "Further reading" comes after the references.

Moved See also to before references, so everything should be in order now. --Bobblehead ^(rants) 23:22, 5 January 2009 (UTC)

• • Links already included in the body of the text are generally not repeated in "See also"; however, whether a link belongs in the "See also" section is ultimately a matter of editorial judgment and common sense.

Trimmed down the external links section. --Bobblehead ^(rants) 23:22, 5 January 2009 (UTC)

• Sources
  • "Kendall Yards" section has no sources

Somewhat fixed as the section has been merged into another section. --Bobblehead ^(rants) 00:12, 6 January 2009 (UTC)

Cited facts and figures from the site. Anon134 (talk) 20:34, 8 January 2009 (UTC)

• • Skating analyst Dick Button said that Spokane should host that event in the future. Direct quotes, or even paraphrased quotes, should be sourced.

Spiked the comment. I couldn't find any sources for him saying it, but if any sources are found, the comment can be re-added. --Bobblehead ^(rants) 00:46, 6 January 2009 (UTC)

• Misc:
  • The project was funded by local entrepreneur Walt Worthy, who also added a Safari-themed 20-story tower to the hotel in 2007. - Is "Safari" a proper noun?

Fixed --Bobblehead ^(rants) 00:12, 6 January 2009 (UTC)

• • ...and ample views of the Spokane falls... Isn't "Spokane falls" a proper noun?

Fixed --Bobblehead ^(rants) 00:12, 6 January 2009 (UTC)

• • Also, the Spokane Convention Center just finished a major expansion which helped host the 2007 US Figure Skating Championships. ... Recently, a local developer (Rob Brewster) has proposed building the new VOX Tower which, if approved, will become the tallest building in Spokane. "Just finished" is like "recently". They before become dated over time. An actual date should be used instead.

Just removed the words. --Bobblehead ^(rants) 00:12, 6 January 2009 (UTC)

• • The recently re-opened Fox Theater, which has been restored to its original 1931 art deco state, hosts a full season of concerts as the home of the Spokane Symphony. "Art Deco" is a proper name.

Fixed --Bobblehead ^(rants) 00:12, 6 January 2009 (UTC)

• • In addition to being an outdoorsy city, Spokane, being a medium sized city is big enough to support urban culture (such as Broadway performances, museums, shopping, and dining, etc.) that compares to larger cities, but at the same time is small enough to support annual events and traditions that have a hometown feel attached to them. This needs to be copy-edited, and perhaps split into two sentences.

Reworded a bit, let me know what you think. --Bobblehead ^(rants) 00:38, 6 January 2009 (UTC)

• • With the split of the 'B' classification in 2006, beginning in 2007 the city will be host to the State 2B (the state's second smallest class) Basketball Championships. 2007 has past, so the tense should change.

Fixed --Bobblehead ^(rants) 00:12, 6 January 2009 (UTC)

• • Hession became mayor on December 16, 2005 after the recall of the late Jim West. "Late" is used in the first year after someone's death to inform readers of the person's demise. It's no longer necessary here, and further implies that West died before being recalled.

Fixed --Bobblehead ^(rants) 00:12, 6 January 2009 (UTC)

• • Among these National Historic Landmarks, is a hand-carved carousel created in 1909 by Charles I. D. Looff as a wedding present for his daughter. The carousel still operates in Riverfront Park, downtown, where riders can participate in an old-time ring toss. The carousel continues to offer a free ride to the rider who grabs the brass ring. The first comma is unnecessary. The material is in the "Neighborhoods" section - would it better in the "Parks and Recreation" section?

Moved to Parks and recreation section and removed the comma. --Bobblehead ^(rants) 00:34, 6 January 2009 (UTC)

I'll place a hold on the review so that these can be addressed, and check back in a week.   Will Beback  talk  10:20, 5 January 2009 (UTC)

Due to an intervening vacation, I wasn't able to complete this review as quickly as I'd hoped. However the article has continued to improve and I'm happy to now declare it to be a "good article" according to the appropriate criteria.   Will Beback  talk  04:10, 24 January 2009 (UTC)