Welles declaration edit
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I would like to bring this article to the GA status one day, therefore I would like to receive a feedback on areas, which are in the need of the improvement. Thanks, M.K. (talk) 20:11, 4 June 2009 (UTC)
Ruhrfisch comments: This looks pretty good to me, here are some suggestions for improvement with an eye towards the WP:MOS and WP:WIAGA.
- The lead needs to follow WP:LEAD. The first sentence does not really summarize the article. I think combining the first two sentences might work better - imagine trying to summarize what this was in one sentence: The Welles declaration was issued on July 23, 1940 by United States Under Secretary of State Sumner Welles, acting as Secretary of State, which condemned what the U.S. saw as the USSR’s forcible incorporation of the Baltic states (Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania) and initiated its refusal to recognize the legitimacy of Soviet control of the three states.[1]:3 I might even just call him Acting Secretary of State in the lead (which is true) and explain the rest in the text. My rule of thumb is to include every header in the lead in some way but the Background does not seem to be in the lead, for example.
- Per WP:OVERLINK common terms like United States do not need to be linked.
- Per WP:MOS#Images, images should be set to thumb width to allow reader preferences to take over. For portrait format images, "upright" can be used to make the image narrower.
- Also do not sandwich text between two images
- The article uses {{cquote}} but according the documentation at Template:Cquote this is for pull quotes only, and this should probably use {{blockquote}} instead.
- Refs look good and this is well cited.
- Impact seems like it could be expanded - what did the citiziens of the Baltic states think of the declaration? What role if any did it play in their eventual resumption of full independence?
Hope this helps. If my comments are useful, please consider peer reviewing an article, especially one at Wikipedia:Peer review/backlog (which is how I found this article). Yours, Ruhrfisch ><>°° 21:03, 11 June 2009 (UTC)
- Thanks for the comments will try to address them in the near future. M.K. (talk) 08:43, 13 June 2009 (UTC)
- Second the thanks. I've ordered a book from interlibrary loan and would like to do some more research over the next week or two while waiting for it. One comment - how did the citizenry perceive it (as opposed to emigres) - that would be, um, a serious challenge under the circumstances. There are probably some regional news items from the time, but I fear they would be hard to find - do you think this lack would impede the article's progress? Sincerely, Novickas (talk) 20:16, 15 June 2009 (UTC)