Talk:Alaska/GA1

GA Review

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Reviewer: Arsenikk ^(talk) 16:22, 3 December 2010 (UTC)

This article does not meet the good article criteria, nor is it close enough that I am granting an "on hold". There are several major issues with the article which need to be addressed:

• For an article of this length, the lead is too short, see WP:LEAD. What is in the lead is good, but more should be added, such as culture, demographics, mention of pre-European history.
• Large parts of the article are unreferenced. More or less everything needs to be referenced with an inline citation.
• The references that are used look okay, though I have not taken a thorough look at it.
• Instead of making a bulleted list of region, take the time to explain them with prose.
• The prose could do with some polishing. Take for instance the start of the geography section. The information should be packaged into logical units. In the prose, the reader is forced to jump from one idea to the next, and then back to the old idea. Also, it seems unnatural to start with the coastline before the "basics", such as position and overall size. Here is a proposal for a new first (or perhaps split into two) paragraphs for the start of the geography:
  • Alaska is located on the north-western corner of North American. At 586,412 square miles (1,518,800 km2), Alaska is the largest U.S. state, at over twice the size of Texas, and larger than all but 18 sovereign countries. It does not border the rest of the United States; 500 miles (800 km) of British Columbia, Canada, separate Alaska from Washington State. The state is therefore not part of the Contiguous United States. The state is bordered by Yukon and British Columbia in Canada, to the east, the Gulf of Alaska and the Pacific Ocean to the south, the Bering Sea, Bering Strait, and Chukchi Sea to the west and the Arctic Ocean to the north. Alaska's territorial waters touch Russia's territorial waters in the Bering Strait, as the Russian Big Diomede Island and Alaskan Little Diomede Island are only 3 miles (5 km) apart. As it extends into the eastern hemisphere, it is technically both the westernmost and easternmost state in the United States, as well as also being the northernmost.
• The three first images are both maps of the whole or parts of the US. While the map in the infobox is okay, try instead to show geographical features or similar.
• The article is generally very under-imaged. Take time to look for high-quality images of various aspects (nature, cities, transport, art, culture) and find suitable images.
• There is little balance between the article's various sections. For instance, "transportation" is longer than "history". Of course there should be a transportation section, but it should be much shorter than the history. There are also other sections which seem out of balance, such as
• The history starts with the first European contact with Alaska. But surely the history is much older than that, starting with the aboriginals? This is clearly POV.
• The section "Public health and public safety" seems to be exclusively about alcohol abuse. There may be a section on this, but it would cover such issues as healthcare, police forces, how to deal with remote communities, etc.
• A subsection about libraries is not necessary, although the paragraph itself is okay, not every detail needs to be covered by a section header.
• A list of notable residents is not appropriate for an article of this scope.
• See also section is not formatted correctly.
• The number of external links is excessive.

There may also be other issues. I would recommend that more work be placed in the article before attempting a GA nomination again. Particularly referencing is lacking, but there needs to work on the balance between topics, and more images should be added. In addition, parts of the article need a copyedit. The overall length of the article is fine. Arsenikk ^(talk) 16:22, 3 December 2010 (UTC)

further comments

• I went after the one of the easiest fixes first, I have added numerous high quality free images to the article today, and I am working on creating a "mosaic" image for the lead section, but it is a very technical process that may take some time. Beeblebrox (talk) 00:35, 4 December 2010 (UTC)
• I've reformatted the see also section and converted the list of regions to prose. Beeblebrox (talk) 01:16, 4 December 2010 (UTC)
• Added a brief section about pre-contact distribution of Natives. Beeblebrox (talk) 00:15, 5 December 2010 (UTC)
• Public safety section re-written to focus more on the Troopers, unsourced content there removed. Beeblebrox (talk) 22:03, 27 December 2010 (UTC)