Talk:John Ewel

Page Proposed for Deletion

The subject of this article has requested that the page be deleted; the page was the outcome of an interview conducted as an assignment in an undergraduate course, but they have informed me that they did not consent to have a wikipedia page created as a result of the interview. They have contacted me (the instructor of the course) and requested that the page be removed. The Wikipedia:Biographies of living persons guidelines state that "Biographies of living persons ("BLPs") must be written...with regard for the subject's privacy." They go on to say that "... the possibility of harm to living subjects must always be considered when exercising editorial judgment." The subject is very distressed that this page is up; in light of that request and the circumstances under which the page was created I feel that this is a reasonable request, especially given that the page was a summary of the persons professional accomplishments and a list of some of their publications. Embruna (talk) 21:00, 28 October 2021 (UTC)

Feedback

@Samantha.valdes: Nice start on this draft, but as DGG mentioned, this doesn't read enough like an encyclopedia article. I also think that it doesn't do a good enough job of capturing Ewel's contributions.

Some simple things

• Wikipedia articles don't use honorifics - so no "Dr", not "Professor", just "John Ewel" or "Ewel" ("Jack" is probably too informal).
• As far as publications go, the big ones are probably the Ecological Life Zones of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands, the life zones of Venezuela book (Zonas de vida de Venezuela: Memoria explicativa sobre el mapa ecológico) and the Ecosystems of Florida. Those are standard texts for anyone working in any of those three regions. Adding them in among a host of other publications actually dilutes their importance. The other three books don't rise up to that level.
• As far as what others to list, you need to be able to answer the question "what makes them notable". A list of publications isn't all that useful to readers - the average reader may not be able to access them, and if they can, they are likely to have a really hard time fitting the pieces together.
• Instead of listing publications, you should discuss what Ewel has done, and what the impact of his work has been. For example, you mention that he "to examine the effects of irradiation on a tropical forest", but you don't mention that he was part of HT Odum's classic study, that resulted in Odum and Pigeon's book "A Tropical Rainforest". Similarly, you list several publications on succession, but you omit what's probably the most widely-cited of the group ("Tropical succession: manifold routes to maturity", Biotropica 1980) and say nothing of his impact on the field. You have a section on publications related to novel ecosystems, but again, readers would be left knowing nothing about what that is, or why he's important in that context.

You also need to link to other articles, so that readers can learn more. Ian (Wiki Ed) (talk) 20:16, 24 October 2018 (UTC)

One more thing, when you include a citation, make sure it supports what you're talking about. You have a link to the IITF website, but that doesn't support the statements you made about Jack Ewel's work in Puerto Rico. Ian (Wiki Ed) (talk) 20:18, 24 October 2018 (UTC)