[WikiEN-l] semi-new essay

[Charles Matthews]

"David Goodman" wrote
> 
> My view is that it would be a good idea to find all such text and
> remove it, replacing it by something modern. 

It is actually more wiki-like to proceed piecemeal, editing old encyclopedia text into shape in numerous passes. There is certainly a serious process of "digestion" to be done. My experience of the typical old article - say a biography - is that the basic steps are

- create sections and address logical flow;
- tighten up where verbose (a common issue for old material);
- correct obvious POV;
- use more contemporary language.

This gives a good base. Then, if possible, update quite lightly - a recent book as reference, some links to contemporary scholarship. The combined effect is usually to give an acceptable article.

For reasons of scale - there are thousands upon thousands of missing topics for which an acceptable article is what is required first - I'm an eventualist about replacing the old stuff. And as usual, one should remember that creating an article that is well linked in to the rest of WP promotes people's interest, leading to others working on the text.

Charles

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