Talk:James Parker (publisher)/GA1

GA Review

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Reviewer: Trainsandotherthings (talk · contribs) 18:50, 19 October 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Hi there, I'll be reviewing this article. As a Connecticut resident, I'm glad to see an article involving my state at GAN. Comments to come soon. Trainsandotherthings (talk) 18:50, 19 October 2021 (UTC)[reply]

General comments

Lead section

"He published newspapers, official government documents, magazines, poetry, fiction, history, science, almanacs, and religious material." I suggest reducing the number of items listed here. Maybe reword as "He published a wide variety of materials, including newspapers, government documents, magazines, and almanacs." You don't have to use that exact wording, but I believe the number of different items listed here is excessive.
Done

In the first paragraph, some of the sentences could be merged together. Consider merging " He was a journalist in the colonies of New Jersey, New York, and Connecticut. He owned several printing businesses in his lifetime." together as "He was a journalist in the colonies of New Jersey, New York, and Connecticut, and owned several printing businesses in his lifetime."
Done

"Parker was considered a better printer than William Bradford or Benjamin Franklin in the American Thirteen Colonies at the time." While claims in the lead normally do not require citations, and this claim is cited in the body, I'd consider this a claim that could be challenged, and would thus justify a citation.
Done

Province of New Jersey is wikilinked twice in the lead section (the first is linked to Colony of New Jersey, a redirect to the other name), the second instance should not have a wikilink. In general, stick with either Colony of New Jersey or Province of New Jersey for the name throughout the article.
Done

"Parker worked closely with Benjamin Franklin in the printing trade and Franklin even financed some of Parker's businesses as a silent partner." I suggest adding a comma after the word "trade".
Done

"Parker was the general manager of the first public library organized in New York City" I suggest adding the word "also" after his name here, to fit better with the previous sentences.
Done

Early life

"Parker was born around 1714 in Woodbridge Township, New Jersey." Change "around" to "in", unless there is uncertainty about his birth date. The tombstone does say 1714.
Done

"He was the grandson of Elisha Parker of Barnstable, Massachusetts, who moved to New Jersey and his wife Elizabeth Hinckley, sister of Governor Thomas Hinckley." This sentence is a bit confusing, what exactly is James Parker's relation to Thomas Hinckley? If the only relation is that his grandmother was the sister of Hinckley, I'm uncertain if that's sufficiently important to include in the article.
Done

"He apprenticed himself on a servant indenture on January 1, 1727, for eight years to William Bradford, the colonial printer in New York City." I suggest mentioning how old he was when he became an indentured servant. Also, change "the colonial printer" to "a colonial printer".
Done

"Parker became a liability instead of an asset for Bradford when there was little printing work available. Bradford decided in April 1733 to sell the remaining 21 months left on Parker's servant indenture and advertised the sale of his indenture.[5] Parker ran away on May 17 before Bradford had a chance to sell the remaining indenture.[5] Parker became a fugitive and Bradford advertised a reward for his capture in his New-York Gazette newspaper." There's a lot of use of the two people's names here. I know some repetition is necessary to distinguish between them, but look for any places where names can be replaced by pronouns if possible.
Done

"A reward was offered, which was doubled a short time later." ~~I would mention that the ultimate outcome was that Parker was never caught. This is implied in the following section, but never stated outright.~~ This is fine actually, I should have read the following section more closely.
Done

Mid-life

"Parker ultimately went to Philadelphia and started working for Benjamin Franklin. He worked for Franklin as a journeyman." Combine these sentences to "Parker ultimately went to Philadelphia and started working for Benjamin Franklin as a journeyman." Also consider mentioning when he started working for Franklin.
Done

"Franklin saw talent in Parker and in 1741 he financed Parker, as a silent partner, in setting up his own printing business in New York City with a six-year franchise agreement." Wikilink the term "silent partner" to Partnership#Silent_partners.
Done

"Franklin provided printing equipment, a press, an assortment of types, and a third of the maintenance costs, in exchange for a third share of the profits." Reword this as "Franklin provided printing equipment, a press, and an assortment of types, and also agreed to cover a third of the company's maintenance cost, in exchange for a third of the profits."
Done

"Parker saw his new print shop as an opportunity to take over the business monopoly of the aging seventy year old Bradford in the Province of New York." Remove the word aging, stating his age is enough to convey the message that Bradford was close to retiring.
Done

"His new newspaper was called the New-York Gazette and Weekly Post-Boy and the twenty-eight-year-old started publishing it on January 4, 1743." Add a comma after the end of the newspaper's name. Also, was the newspaper actually called "the New-York Gazette and Weekly Post-Boy", or are those two different papers?
Done = ONE newspaper.

"As the circulation grew, the third newspaper in New York City gained a good share of Bradford's subscribers." It is unclear what newspaper this is referring to. If Parker's newspaper was the third in the city, that information should be stated before this sentence.
Done

"Parker eventually became the official printer for both the King of England and the government of New York province, succeeding Bradford on December 1, 1743." "King of England" can be wikilinked here, either to the office in general or to the king who was on the throne at the time.
Done

"Parker wished to expand his business opportunities, so in February 1745 requested from the Common Council of New York City to become Keeper of the Library." The library in question can be wikilinked here.
Done

"The Council agreed with his terms and he became then the general manager of the first public library in New York City." Add a comma after "terms".
Done

"In the autumn of 1746 as the library director he established a system of circulation and fines." Add a comma after "1746", and another after "director".
Done

"He printed a catalogue of the library books that could be borrowed by the public." Change to "He also printed a catalogue..."
Done

"Parker printed an enlarged version of the Conductor Generals in 1749 which was originally published in Philadelphia by Andrew Bradford in 1722. The work of outlining government officials duties and powers of justices of the peace, Sheriffs, and coroners was popular for many years among these government employees." Rearrange these sentences to explain what the Conductor Generals is, before mentioning it was originally published by Bradford. Additionally, I don't believe sheriffs should be capitalized here.
Done

"It was reprinted five times after Parker's death and popular to the end of the century." Add the word "until" after "popular".
Done

"In the 1751 Parker decided to go back to Woodbridge to set up a print shop." Remove the word "the".
Done

"At the time the colony of New Jersey had two capitals." Add a comma after "time".
Done

"Parker's new Woodbridge printing office was close to Perth Amboy, so he offered his printing services to those in the eastern part of the New Jersey province and western part of the New York province. Parker's Woodbridge printing office became the first permanent print shop in New Jersey." Earlier, New York is referred to as a colony. Be consistent with either calling it a colony or a province.
Done

"Parker's Woodbridge printing office became the first permanent print shop in New Jersey." At the end of this sentence, swap the order of the inline citations so that citation 3 is listed before citation 5.
Done

Works

"At that time he took William Goddard as an apprentice for a six year period of time." Add a comma after "time".
Done

"He hired at his expense a post rider to deliver the newspaper to outlying areas that traveled between New Haven and Hartford delivering newspapers to Wallingford, Durham, Middletown and Wethersfield, Connecticut." Remove "at his expense", the word hired already conveys that Parker was paying the post rider. Additionally, remove "that traveled" and replace "delivering newspapers" with "including".
Done

"He was in journalism in the colonies of New Jersey, New York, and Connecticut." Replace "in journalism" with "was a journalist". New York and Connecticut should not be wikilinked here, they appear earlier in the body of the article and should be linked there instead.
Done

"He was in journalism in the colonies of New Jersey, New York, and Connecticut. He had several printing businesses in his lifetime." Combine these sentences as "He was a journalist in the colonies of New Jersey, New York, and Connecticut, and had several printing businesses in his lifetime."
Done

"One of the first works for them was ordered in December 1754 of the laws of the college in Latin." This sentence needs to be rewritten for syntax and grammar. I suggest "One of his first works for them, ordered in December 1754, was the laws of the college, written in Latin."
Done

"He printed in New York City the Independent Reflector in 1752, a weekly magazine with moral and political essays. He printed in 1753 another similar magazine titled the Occasional Reverberator and another in 1754 titled the Instructor. In 1755 he printed a political magazine titled John Englishman." The words "he printed" appear three times in a row. At least one of those mentions should be worded differently.
Done

Personal life

"He was a captain of a troop of horse guards in Woodbridge, a church member lay reader, comptroller of the general post-offices of the British colonies and postmaster with John Holt." Change "a captain" to "the captain". Also, what was he postmaster of? If it is the same general post-offices of the British colonies, that should be worded differently. For instance, "and both comptroller and postmaster of the general post-offices of the British colonies, the latter jointly with John Holt."
Done

"He also became judge of the court of common pleas of Middlesex County, New Jersey." When did this happen, and how long was he judge for?
Done

"In his day Parker was considered a better printer than William Bradford or Benjamin Franklin in the American Thirteen Colonies." Add a comma after "day".
Done

"Parker married Mary Ballareau and they had two children, Samuel Franklin and Jane Ballareau." When did he marry Ballareau?
Done = of the eight library books I have that speaks of his marriage NONE give a date. None of the Google book references either. They just say he married a French lady.

"Samuel took over his father's print business when be became of age." "be" is a typo and should be "he".
Done

Later life and death

"Parker took over Bradford's position as the official government public printer for the province New York on December 1, 1743." The previous sections brought the reader to the 1750s. Why is this section going back to the 1740s again? Additionally, the word "of" is missing before "New York". Again, make sure you are consistent about either using the term colony or province throughout the article.
Done

"He was the government public printer for the province of New Jersey in 1758." Was this only during that one year? If not, it should instead say "He became the government public printer..." As mentioned above, decide on either province or colony and stick with one or the other throughout the article.
Done

"Parker had several controversial issues during the tenure as the government public printer of New York and New Jersey." Can you name a few examples?
Done

"His clients included many of New York City's elite." Name some examples here.
Done = removed.

"Holt was the manager of the Connecticut Gazette that Parker started as the first newspaper in that colony." No need to mention that the Connecticut Gazette was the colony's first newspaper, that was already mentioned earlier. Rewrite this as "Holt was also the manager of the Connecticut Gazette." Also consider merging this sentence with the one before it.
Done

"In 1770, Parker printed a controversial paper by Sons of Liberty leader Alexander McDougall for which he was arrested, however he died shortly thereafter before the settling of the case." Elaborate on what was controversial about the paper, and what he was charged with.
Done

"Towards the end of Parker's life, many of his business partners took advantage of his poor health and directed most of the profits of the business into their own pockets without sharing with him as they should have." This sentence is quite long without any commas, and isn't very neutral. Rewrite this to have a more neutral tone, as right now it feels like the article is taking sides.
Done

"Parker suffered many years from gout and died at a friend's house in Burlington, New Jersey, July 2, 1770." Add a comma after gout.
Done

"He was Episcopalian although he was buried near his parents in the First Presbyterian churchyard in Woodbridge.[23]" Reword as "Although he was Episcopalian, he was buried near..."
Done

Miscellaneous

There are too many photos included of printing. Just one photo of the printing process is sufficient. The article should focus on Parker, not printing. Consider instead adding a photo of one of the words he printed.
Done

In the infobox, capitalize publisher in "publisher in colonial America" for consistency with the rest of the infobox.
Done

GA review – see WP:WIAGA for criteria

Is it well written?
A. The prose is clear and concise, and the spelling and grammar are correct:
All concerns addressed.

B. It complies with the manual of style guidelines for lead sections, layout, words to watch, fiction, and list incorporation:
No remaining issues.
Is it verifiable with no original research?
A. It contains a list of all references (sources of information), presented in accordance with the layout style guideline:
No issues here. Nearly all sources are offline, but I am assuming good faith that that are properly cited.

B. All in-line citations are from reliable sources, including those for direct quotations, statistics, published opinion, counter-intuitive or controversial statements that are challenged or likely to be challenged, and contentious material relating to living persons—science-based articles should follow the scientific citation guidelines:
All are either books or newspaper articles.

C. It contains no original research:
Everything is cited that needs to be.

D. It contains no copyright violations nor plagiarism:
No issues, Earwig came back clean.
Is it broad in its coverage?
A. It addresses the main aspects of the topic:
This is a thorough biography.

B. It stays focused on the topic without going into unnecessary detail (see summary style):
No issues, the prose stays on topic well.
Is it neutral?
It represents viewpoints fairly and without editorial bias, giving due weight to each:
The one issue identified has been addressed.
Is it stable?
It does not change significantly from day to day because of an ongoing edit war or content dispute:
Article is stable.
Is it illustrated, if possible, by images?
A. Images are tagged with their copyright status, and valid fair use rationales are provided for non-free content:
Printing images are properly licensed, as is the tombstone photo. The other images are works from the 1700s and are public domain.

B. Images are relevant to the topic, and have suitable captions:
No issues.

Done

Overall:
Pass or Fail:
This article is well done, but needs a bit of work before it can be promoted to GA. Placing on hold for now.

Thanks for taking the review. I see some initial comments for the Lead section and will start addressing those issues. --Doug Coldwell (talk) 19:12, 19 October 2021 (UTC)[reply]
Working Will continue tomorrow (10/21/2021) on issues. --Doug Coldwell (talk) 20:17, 20 October 2021 (UTC)[reply]
@Trainsandotherthings: All issues have been addressed. Can you take another look. Thanks.--Doug Coldwell (talk) 20:51, 21 October 2021 (UTC)[reply]

I've read through the article again, and I have no further suggestions or issues. As such, I'll promote this article to GA. Congratulations! Thanks also to Gwillhickers who provided some feedback and added to the article. Trainsandotherthings (talk) 23:02, 21 October 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Outside Comments

As the reviewer, Trainsandotherthings, points out, claiming that Parker was a better printer than Benjamin Franklin, of all people, aside from being a bold claim, seems like something that begs to be challenged. Though the statement in question is well sourced, it might do well for the article to add a comprehensive explanation as to why and how Parker was better. -- Gwillhickers (talk) 20:51, 20 October 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Other sources to consider

Below are two sources that cover Parker extensively. Might do well in the Bibliography, or maybe in a Further reading section.

Schlesinger, Arthur M. (1958). Prelude To Independence The Newspaper War On Britain 1764 1776. Alfred A.Knopf.

Bailyn, Bernard; Hench, John B., eds. (1981) [1980]. The Press & the American Revolution. Boston: Northeastern University Press (Originally published: Worcester, Mass.: American Antiquarian Society). ISBN 978-0-9303-50307. (Google book)

-- Gwillhickers (talk) 22:51, 20 October 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Prompted by an important event that reveals Parker's strong feelings about freedom of the press, I went ahead and added Schlesinger, 1958, to the Bibliography, and cited the statement covering the event. -- Gwillhickers (talk) 23:48, 20 October 2021 (UTC)[reply]