Talk:Blood on the Forge

Notable?

Is this notable enough?--Kanata Kid (talk) 14:16, 31 October 2008 (UTC)

You betcha. Only two novels by African Americans were published that year, this book and one by Richard Wright.Rudowsky (talk) 14:50, 31 October 2008 (UTC)

Review

Review for Thursday's assignment: I love how you guys are organizing your page. I like how you put information about the Great Migration to start off your page. Livringo (talk) 18:43, 25 October 2011 (UTC)

Review for Thursday's assignment: The layout looks great. Viewing your guys' article has given some pointers on how to approach my group's article. Rrivas27 (talk) 06:38, 27 October 2011 (UTC)

Organizing class project of expanding article

hey group, we need a plan. (also, i think there may be too many of us in this group?) Most pages seem to be set up with these categories: Michaela M (talk)

Background

• Kristingoch (talk · contribs)
• Caitlinannee (talk · contribs)
• Zoesharpe (talk · contribs)
  • Great Migration History

Publishing history (can be a separate section or can go with "background")

Plot summary

• RMarchetti (talk · contribs)

Characters

• Ivannalq (talk · contribs)
  • minor characters
• Mikaylarosemoore (talk · contribs)
  • Moss Brothers character description

Genres/Styles

• Caitlinannee (talk · contribs)
• Katiemcellistrim (talk · contribs)

Themes

• Michaelam315 (talk · contribs)
• Shannagrier (talk · contribs)
  • individualism vs mass

Critical reception

• Katiemcellistrim (talk · contribs)

Discussion

we can add more categories, or take ones out later. Any other suggestions for how to organize the page? Also we need to figure out who wants to do what parts. Michaela M (talk) 10:32, 12 October 2011 (UTC)

Maybe we can just have everyone type their name next to each section so we know who is doing what. I can start to work on characters.

Sure. I can help with themes and characters (unless we should each just do one section? not sure how many of us there are...) I don't have a huge preference... - Michaela

I can do the genres/styles section. - Caitlin E

Shannagrier (talk) 04:43, 13 October 2011 (UTC)Michaela- i think that works. We also need everyone in the group to add their names on the page so we know how many of us there are.

I added this article next to your names at Wikipedia:WikiProject Classroom coordination/SFSU Class Project. If you have classmates who haven't signed up for an article there yet please remind them. Doing that will let other Wikipedia editors help you all with some of the technical stuff. Cloveapple (talk) 04:06, 15 October 2011 (UTC)

I found a some good journal articles on JSTOR while starting to think of themes. I'll update what I have so far later, in regards to theme categories. -Michaela — Preceding unsigned comment added by Michaelam315 (talk • contribs) 18:28, 18 October 2011 (UTC)

Shannagrier (talk) 18:40, 18 October 2011 (UTC)

You are probably already planning on this, but a suggestion for characters: for minor characters I would include Anna and Sugar Mama too, maybe even Rosie and "the deputies" from the end. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Michaelam315 (talk • contribs) 20:19, 24 October 2011 (UTC)

The blueprint for your page has great organization, something that I hope our group will look at to allow us to communicate our goals more clearly on our own discussion page. MattHeitland (talk) 02:20, 25 October 2011 (UTC)

style section: Melody isn't really the narrator, is he? the narration never takes place in first person, from what i remember... — Preceding unsigned comment added by Michaelam315 (talk • contribs) 18:17, 26 October 2011 (UTC)

also, Characters section: i found an article that will probably be great for you to use, good journal publication that critiques the three main characters, how they change, etc... it is available on JSTOR, called "William Attaway's Blood on the Forge: The Death of the Blues" http://www.jstor.org/stable/3041207 — Preceding unsigned comment added by Michaelam315 (talk • contribs) 22:11, 26 October 2011 (UTC) Michaelam315 (talk —Preceding undated comment added 18:31, 26 October 2011 (UTC).

another article that may be useful to various sections is called, "From Black Marxism to Industrial Ecosystem: Racial and Ecological Crisis in William Attaway's Blood on the Forge," and i found it on the Literature Online site. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Michaelam315 (talk • contribs) 22:25, 26 October 2011 (UTC)

I tried to cut down on what I wrote for the Plot Summary section, but it's still pretty long. If anybody sees something in it that they feel is unnecessary, please take it out! Also, if I missed anything important please add it or let me know. Thanks! RMarchetti (talk) 05:25, 27 October 2011 (UTC)

I cut it down a bunch but it may still be too long. Once it is the proper summary length I'll work on making it a smoother summary; right now it's very choppy. RMarchetti (talk) 05:22, 28 October 2011 (UTC)

There is a lot to write about the Great Migration. Any ideas of what to include that might be relevant to the book and its plot? There are many issues, but all of which might take up too much room....also, anyone need help on another section? I have time now to contribute, if need be. Zoesharpe (talk) 20:05, 31 October 2011 (UTC)

Hey Zoe, I'd say just work on any section that looks like it needs it! Michaela M (talk) 10:31, 11 November 2011 (UTC)

So for the minor characters, for some of them, someone should add a sentence or two about their importance (from critical articles, etc…). For example, I added a few sentences on Smothers. I have a bunch of critical articles. I am happy to email them to anyone working on the characters section, or any other section. Michaela M (talk) 10:31, 11 November 2011 (UTC)

References

I took a look at the reference section and right now it's actually a list of published fiction by Attaway. So I'll take that list out of the reference section.

The article will need reliable independent secondary sources to support any theories, views, interpretations, or facts beyond the bare plot. You can't base the article on your own reading of the book. This means you'll want to back up what is written with references to specific sources. For example you might use books that discuss the novel or book reviews that discuss the novel. Sources might include newspaper, magazine, or academic journal articles.

If you need help formatting actual citations and inserting them in the text I'd be glad to help. Cloveapple (talk) 20:57, 17 October 2011 (UTC)

in the lead section, can someone fix the sentence that needs a citation? add where you found that info, or anyone can just edit it/make it more clear... Michaela M (talk) 15:00, 13 November 2011 (UTC)

also, the references aren't numbered any more, can someone help fix this? i can't figure out what happened...thanks. Michaela M (talk) 08:50, 14 November 2011 (UTC)

Genre or Plot Summary?

Your genre sections seems to be a plot summary. Perhaps it would be better to add a section called "Plot Summary" and reserve the Genre section for discussion of the proletarian genre. See our example article on novels and for the proletarian "genre" - - see Walter Rideout's Radical Novel in the United States or the Encyclopedia of the American Left. Profhanley (talk) 15:25, 21 October 2011 (UTC)

Don't add empty sections

Per best practice, please don't add empty sections. For further information, please consult: Help:Wikipedia: The Missing Manual/Formatting and Illustrating Articles/Article Sections and Tables of Contents.

I've placed a backup copy of the empty sections here below. Please add them when you are ready to add prose. Alternatively, you can keep the text hidden inside the article using hidden text. Viriditas (talk) 08:24, 26 October 2011 (UTC)

Themes

Individuals vs Mass Culture

North vs South

Mechanization

Labor vs Leisure

Myth of the American Dream & the Working Class

Genre and reception

First, the page is really starting to shape up! Congrats! A few minor things - - keep researching. You will need more sources to fill out some of your sections - - in particular you might look for book reviews from the 1940s of BotF. A helpful source should also be Robert Bone's Negro Novel in America. For migration narratives, you will need to look at Farah Griffin's book, Who Set You Flowin? Just the introduction will help sharpen up your migration narrative discussion. The reception section needs more work - - BotF did garner a fair bit of attention when it was published; how did it get republished later on? e.g. who helped to pull it back into the light? Style section needs major investment - - for this, you might want to look to Bernard Bell's work The Afro-American Novel and Its Tradition. If some of you are digging up critical articles on JSTOR - -share the wealth - - what do lit critics say about Attaway's style? etc. Profhanley (talk) 15:04, 27 October 2011 (UTC)

I found a lot more information on genre/style, and everything I found talks about these two aspects together. I haven't put anything up on the page yet because I'm going to finalize it on Word first, but I am going to be talking about these two sections together. caitlinannee (talk) —Preceding undated comment added 21:18, 7 November 2011 (UTC).

Feedback/reviewing other pages

Hey. I looked at the Life In The Iron Mills page and they seem to have a good reception section so far, background too, and they seem to be doing a good job with using citations in those sections. Michaela M (talk) 10:35, 27 October 2011 (UTC)

I like the background section of the page; More background information about the time of when the novel was written could help beef up the section. Erikar345 (talk) 18:51, 27 October 2011 (UTC)

I look at Blanche on the Lamb's page. What i like was how they stepped outside the box when looking at critical reception. However, I don't know if will help us because our book is a bit older, but we should definitely take a look at magazines of the time and see what kind of reception was out there. Shannagrier (talk) 06:51, 27 October 2011 (UTC)shannagrier

I looked at Life in the Iron Mills' page, and their style section is making me reconsider my take on our style section. They seem to have merged style and genre, and since I am working on both sections (and having some trouble finding information on style), I am going to see what I can do to relate the style to the genre. caitlinannee (talk) —Preceding undated comment added 21:15, 31 October 2011 (UTC).

I looked at the 'What Work Is' page and liked the direction they were taking with the "themes" section. Maybe we could talk a bit more about the Proletariat idea (as there seems to be a couple different types/genres of Proletariat literature) and see where B.O.T.F. falls. I can also look into some Critical Reception sources. Zoesharpe (talk) 02:27, 3 November 2011 (UTC)

I really enjoyed reading the Life in the Iron Mills page. The group has done a superb job citing reliable sources and footnoting them. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Ivannalq (talk • contribs) 00:56, 7 November 2011 (UTC)

Hey group, I was doing a review of the What Work Is page and noticed that their Style section could use some support. Looking back at our page, the same could be said of ours. Maybe we can explore the vernacular used within Attaway's dialogue? Mikayla Moore —Preceding undated comment added 22:17, 10 November 2011 (UTC).

Plot summary length

Please see Wikipedia:How to write a plot summary and Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Writing about fiction. The plot summary is too long. Viriditas (talk) 23:09, 27 October 2011 (UTC)

Rise of the proletariat

The novel showcases the political fervor in the 1920's specifically the rise of the proletariat

According to our sourced article on the labor history of the United States:

The 1920s marked a period of decline for the labor movement. In 1919, more than 4 million workers (or 21 percent of the labor force) participated in about 3,600 strikes. In contrast, 1929 witnessed about 289,000 workers (or 1.2 percent of the labor force) stage only 900 strikes.[38] Union membership and activities fell sharply in the face of economic prosperity, a lack of leadership within the movement, and anti-union sentiments from both employers and the government.

Perhaps you meant to say something else or refer to different dates? Viriditas (talk) 23:16, 27 October 2011 (UTC)

Lead section

Per WP:LEAD, the lead section should summarize the most important points in the article. This may include:

• Genre Y
• Author Y
• Setting Y
• Plot Y
• Primary themes
• Critical reception
• Literary analysis
• Influence or impact
• Legacy

Two to three paragraphs is acceptable for an article of this size. Viriditas (talk) 23:27, 27 October 2011 (UTC)

Suggestions

You've got lots of good stuff here - - time to polish it up. Rewrite and clean up that lead/intro - - including refs etc. Compress plot summary, especially Part Three. Your Genre section looks good - - though you need to explain/contextualize the "proletarian literature" part - - e.g. this was a literary movement of the 1930s, how is Attaway's novel related?, other black writers w/i movement? "Migration narrative" section needs to be tightened up and cleaned up. Your "Style" section needs work: I'd work on the second paragraph of the "migration narrative" section - - where you outline Griffin's narrative sequence in relation to BoF - - seems very helpful, e.g. eliminate or reduce first paragraph and expand second. The "Dialogue" section needs more work as well as more references. Major characters: reduce/compress these descriptions; they are too long and wordy. I like your themes section - - though it needs to be formatted properly. I'd eliminate the tiny paragraph on Individuals vs. Mass Culture and focus on cleaning up the other much more interesting sections on Mechanization, North v. South, etc. Profhanley (talk) 17:22, 15 November 2011 (UTC)

GA Review

The following discussion is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

---

This review is transcluded from Talk:Blood on the Forge/GA1. The edit link for this section can be used to add comments to the review.

Reviewer: Jezhotwells (talk · contribs) 11:00, 13 December 2011 (UTC)

I shall be reviewing this article against the Good Article criteria, following its nomination for Good Article status.

Disambiguations: two found and fixed.[1] Jezhotwells (talk) 11:04, 13 December 2011 (UTC)

Linkrot:

Checking against GA criteria

GA review (see here for what the criteria are, and here for what they are not)

1. It is reasonably well written.

   a (prose): b (MoS for lead, layout, word choice, fiction, and lists):

   The novel follows the Moss brothers as they escape the inequality of sharecropping in the South for the inequality of mill working in the North. The novel illustrates the tragedy and hardships many Black Americans faced during the Great Migration. Attaway's novel mimics his family's migration from North to South when he was a child, and could be the inspiration for the novel. The novel showcases the political fervor in the 1920's, specifically the rise of the proletariat in America and the oppression and racism Black Americans faced in the United States. Please try and show a little originality in the way you commence sentences.

   From 1910 to 1930, approximately six million African-Americans; the majority of the migrating African Americans. Please be consistent with hyphenation.

   Factors motivating blacks to migrate north included job opportunities, many of which involved industrialized labour, and escaping the harsh racial climate of the south, deadly lynch mobs, low wages and poverty. Over complex sentences such as this do not aid readability.

   harlem renaissance. Should be capitalized as per the article name.

   ''In Blood on the Forge, the Moss Brothers work in the iron mills in the North, and the book describes the tough conditions iron workers faced working in the blazing hot conditions where the blast furnaces would reach up to 2000°C in order to smelt the iron. Do we really need the word "iron" three times in the sentence?

   The Moss brothers were escaping the post-reconstruction era of the South where they faced racism, lynchings and the ineffectual life many African-Americans faced in the South as sharecroppers. We had most of this a few sentences earlier.

   The Plot summary reads like a list. Please try and rewrite.

   "emerging black proletariat(s)." Why has proletariat been pluralized?

   Attaway's novels were not a major attraction to critics at the time, which may have been caused by Richard Wright, another African American author who published his novels around the same time. Extremely clumsy.

   This needs a thorough copy-edit, line by line. It is distressing to see an article about literature written so badly. Have you looked at the good article criteria? Whatever made you think that it was "reasonably well written"?

   The lead needs to fully summarize the article, please see WP:LEAD.

   The character list should be more of a summary.

   Although some attempts have been made to copy-edit, they really haven't improved things much. A competent copy-edtior should be recruited. Find some article that are well written and have achieved good article status. Check out the article history to identify who did the copy-editing - note many articles are collaborative efforts.

   ('forty acres and a mule') We don't wikilink within quotations. Not done

2. It is factually accurate and verifiable.

   a (references): b (citations to reliable sources): c (OR):

   There are a number of bare urls which need to be formatted. Links to journals and JSTOR where a subscription is required should note that. Not done Sources appear reliable and statements are adequately cited, except for those where I have placed citation needed tags..

   Confusing use of MLA citations in the dialogue section.

3. It is broad in its coverage.

   a (major aspects): b (focused):

   Critical reception could do with some more recent criticism that that or the lack of that around the date of publication. there are plenty of links to journals which have analysed the book. Has it been republished recently?

   There has been no response to this.

4. It follows the neutral point of view policy.

   Fair representation without bias:

   NPOV

5. It is stable.

   No edit wars, etc.:

   Stable

6. It is illustrated by images, where possible and appropriate.

   a (images are tagged and non-free images have fair use rationales): b (appropriate use with suitable captions):

   One image used with suitable non-free use rationale and caption.

7. Overall:

   Pass/Fail:

   On hold for above issues to be addressed. The major failing is the rather poor prose. Please get it copy-edited. Seven days. Jezhotwells (talk) 11:34, 13 December 2011 (UTC)

   OK, the prose is still not "reasonably good". There are still a few unresolved minor issues so I shall not be listing at this time. This definitely has the makings of a good article though. I suggest that after thorough copy-editing you take this to peer review to iron out wrinkled before re-submitted at WP:GAN. Jezhotwells (talk) 13:58, 22 December 2011 (UTC)

The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

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