Talk:Fox Terrier/GA1

GA Review

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Reviewer: Anna ^talk 16:16, 12 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Hi, I'll be starting this review shortly.

Fixed three disambiguation links.
Updated urls for two dead links.

Anna ^talk 16:16, 12 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]

GA review – see WP:WIAGA for criteria

Thanks for your patience; I lost the almost-complete review and had to start from scratch. Overall, everything looks good and the main issues are matters of presentation, not content.

Is it reasonably well written?
A. Prose quality:

The opening sentence is quite long. Can it be split?
"In addition, a number of breeds have diverged from these two main breeds and have been recognised separately in a number of countries around the world, including the Jack Russell Terrier, Miniature Fox Terrier and Rat Terrier." -- Remove "around the world" as it's redundant. Sentence as it's worded right now seems to be listing the countries, not the breeds, so could be shuffled a bit. Somewhat repetitive since the word "breed" is used twice.
"The Wire and Smooth Fox Terriers share similar characteristics with the main differences being in the coat and markings of each breed." -- Insert comma after "characteristics", remove "with", remove "of each breed".
"They have been successful in conformation shows, although are more successful in America than in their homeland." -- "Successful" used twice.
Last sentence in lead could be removed since it's a bit of a given.
"Small dogs were observed by the Romans in England in 54 B.C. being used by hunters to chase quarry into burrows and dens, describing the instinctive terrier behaviour of "going to earth"." -- Seems to say the small dogs were describing terrier behavior.
"The earliest record of any white terrier named Pitch, who was owned by Colonel Thomas Thornton in 1790." -- This isn't a complete sentence.
"An engraving prior to 1810 was made of a painting by Sawrey Gilpin, who painted the dog from life." -- Slightly clunky.
"During the early part of the 19th century, not much is known of the breeding practices that came to create the modern Fox Terrier." -- Restructure: "Not much is known of early 19th century breeding practices..."
"Three dogs are where most of the modern strains of white terriers have descended from. These three dogs were known as Old Jock, Trap and Tartar." -- Condense: "Three dogs, known as Old Jock, Trap and Tartar, are the ancestors of most modern strains of white terrier."
"Used in hunting packs and kept in kennels along with English Foxhounds, they were used to hunt foxes. Bred at this time for ability rather than to a modern show standard, they were used to drive the fox out of its den." -- These can be combined for clarity.
"There are two originating breeds of Fox Terrier, Smooth and Wire, both of which originate in England." -- Repetitive (originate, originating).
"In addition, there are several descendant breeds which have been developed in a variety of countries, which have included one or the other originating breeds in their development." -- Second clause is redundant. If they're descendant breeds, we already know that a main breed was used in development.
"Markings on either types can appear black at birth on the head, but may change color in later adult life, the most common colors for the markings are either black or tan." Comma splice, typo, redundancy, some repetition. If this doesn't alter the meaning, I suggest: "Markings on either type can appear black at birth on the head, but may lighten in adult life, the most common colors being tan and black."
"This is where the annual registrations with The Kennel Club (UK) is less than 300 per breed." -- Change to something like: "This is when there are fewer than 300 annual registrations with The Kennel Club."
Best in Show should be capitalized.
"it is yet to win again since" -- Awkward. Could be changed to something like "it has not won since".
"In a survey conducted by The Kennel Club, the primary cause of death for Fox Terriers was old age, causing 31.8% of reported deaths; with a median age at death of thirteen years and two months." -- Change semicolon to period and move the last clause, modified, to the end of the paragraph (before last sentence) for better continuity. I'm assuming that median is not limited to old age deaths.
I'd remove "thought to be" in the last sentence if that's not placing too much confidence in the source, since I suspect it may be tagged with ^[who?] later.
Make sure British English is used consistently throughout.

B. MoS compliance for lead, layout, words to watch, fiction, and lists:
Is it factually accurate and verifiable?
A. References to sources:

B. Citation of reliable sources where necessary:
Look good for the most part. I've seen several websites (like breed clubs) and hits in Google Books that could replace instances of Sarah's Dogs, and it would be ideal to use those. Let me know if I can help by giving more info. For example, I believe Cunliffe has an entry on the Brazilian Terrier.

C. No original research:
Is it broad in its coverage?
A. Major aspects:

B. Focused:
Is it neutral?
Fair representation without bias:
Is it stable?
No edit wars, etc:
Does it contain images to illustrate the topic?
A. Images are copyright tagged, and non-free images have fair use rationales:

B. Images are provided where possible and appropriate, with suitable captions:
Overall:
Pass or Fail:
I'll pass this as soon as the issues mentioned are addressed; it'll be On hold until then. Anna ^talk 22:58, 14 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]

I'll place my comments down here - had tried to insert them directly after yours but for whatever reason they weren't showing. They're in exactly the same order as your comments.

Reworded it and dropped the world/countries bit entirely. Once I read your comment I couldn't help but think that the countries were about to be listed when I read the original prose.
Reworded to "They have been successful in conformation shows, although more prominently in America than in their homeland."
Dropped that sentence and merged the second paragraph into the first as it was otherwise a bit short.
That would have been quite clever of them! :) Changed to "demonstrating".
That's my brain thinking faster than I can type. Changed to "The earliest record of any white terrier was a dog named Pitch, who was owned by Colonel Thomas Thornton in 1790."
Reworded it quite a bit.
Done.

Completed up until ""There are two originating breeds of Fox Terrier, Smooth and Wire, both of which originate in England." -- Repetitive (originate, originating)." Will fix everything else once I'm back home tonight (the joys of a lunch break!). Miyagawa (talk) 13:40, 15 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Ok, here we go again.

Replaced originate with main.
Removed second part of sentence as suggested.
Changed as suggested.
Changed as suggested.
Best in Show is now capitalised throughout.
Changed as suggested.
Changed as suggested.
Done.

Addressing the Sarah's Dogs replacements at the moment. Will add a note once they're replaced. Miyagawa (talk) 18:18, 15 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Ok, cleared out the last of the Sarah's Dogs references. I think everything is covered now. :) Miyagawa (talk) 18:39, 15 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]

All looks good now. I've just gone through and changed everything to British English where possible as some areas were using American spellings. I'm not familiar with every intricacy there, so I hope I didn't miss anything -- could you verify? Everything looks great otherwise; thanks for your prompt replies. :) Anna ^talk 17:12, 17 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Put it through the Microsoft Word UK spellcheck and nothing else came up - forgot the browser one was in US English. Also added the British English template to the talk page. Miyagawa (talk) 11:51, 18 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Sounds good. I've now passed it -- congrats and nice job. Anna ^talk 15:04, 18 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]