Edward G Ellis

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Hello, Edward G Ellis. I replied to your request for feedback.
Best regards, Tkotc (talk) 05:39, 7 January 2011 (UTC).

Hi. Thanks for your note on my talk page. I don't want to be a pain in the butt, don't get me wrong. I just don't want to see you go through all the work of writing an article and seeing it deleted. Here is the possible problem. You need to establish that your subject is "notable" in the Wikipedia sense. (And of course when you establish notability by saying, "X did such and such...", you need to provide a reliable source as reference.) Especially lately, the powers that be in Wikipedia seem to be very sensitive to this issue, especially with respect to living people, and especially in the entertainment industry.

So, what is "notability" as Wikipedia uses it? The overall article that discusses this is Wikipedia:Notability (people), and a special section of that article, WP:CREATIVE deals with creative people, such as filmmakers. I think your guy might fit under No. 3 or No. 4(c). You might have another angle.

How do you document this notability with reliable sources? It's probably easy to show the screenwriting credit. But how do you show that the work for which he received the credit is "significant or well known". There's a certain amount of "fudge factor" in these words, but ideally, something like a review (or possibly a statistic showing the work was number 1 (or some number) judged by number of viewers. Be creative and imaginative. Make your case. After all, the guy had his stuff broadcast! See my comment about the Nugent review below.

If he was a writer on Last Rites etc, don't say "worked closely with" because then a reader wonders what he did exactly. If he wrote (was one of the writers), just say so.

I don't know how much the Writers Guild award "counts", but can you find an article announcing the fact that he got it so that you can reference it? Same thing for the Orange prize, at least try to find a reference so that someone who doesn't know what that prize is and its significance can find out.

IMDB is not considered a "reliable source" of any critical comment. That is, you can't use a great review on IMDB to establish "significance". But IMDB is good for the basic facts and credits. Just so you know. Your use in your article seems ok.

Notice that right now nothing shows up in the section titled "References". This is like waving a red flag in front of a bull. Maybe the review of City of Vice can be leveraged as establishing that the work was "well regarded" or some buzzword that will help with notability. If so, you could use it as in inline reference rather than just an external link. Voila ... a reference!

I hope this helps. I'd like to see your article succeed. Let me know if you want to discuss more or have any further questions. I left your latest request for feedback unanswered in the hopes that someone else would take a look. A second opinion never hurts. Good luck!Tkotc (talk) 01:15, 13 January 2011 (UTC)