Wikipedia:WikiProject Military history/Peer review/Battle of Mobile Bay

Battle of Mobile Bay

I have rewritten the text of this article extensively, have added some supporting materials, and have removed the Order of Battle section to another article. As I have no further plans to alter what is written, I now solicit comments on how it can be improved. PKKloeppel (talk) 18:39, 3 February 2009 (UTC)

Hal Jespersen

Very well written and detailed, as usual. My most significant comment would be that you are overusing primary sources when secondary ought to be available. By my count, 38 of your 63 citations are to ORA, ORN, or B&L. (On B&L, you're rather inconsistent on the style you use for citations.) You have Friend's Naval Institute Press book in your Refs, for instance, but don't cite it. I'm sure a number of the primary source claims have been distilled and verified there. On a minor note, why do you convert book titles to lowercase, such as Battle cry of freedom? Is there some academic style somewhere that favors that? Hal Jespersen (talk) 21:14, 3 February 2009 (UTC)

Concerning the lack of consistency of style: That was simply a blunder. I have corrected that.

Concerning my use of sentence-style capitalization in citations:

1. I know it is uncommon, but it is allowed by the Wikipedia Manual of Style, and I exploit that permission (for reasons I will state below).

2. Some academicians do use this style. I do not know that any professional societies allow it in their publications. In any case, it would be irrelevant for the American Physical Society, as the domain of the instruction would be the empty set; we physicists do not read books. For an example of a publication that uses this style, see Historical Studies in the Physical Sciences, (later Historical Studies in the Physical and Biological Sciences, but still abbreviated HSPS).

3. My real reason for using sentence capitalization is more profound — profound laziness. Like many if not most Wikipedia editors, I cut and paste (make that copy and paste) citations from a bibliography that I maintain in a file on my computer. Most of my bibliography in turn is copied and pasted directly from the Library of Congress online catalog, and that uses sentence capitalization. When one deals with titles like Scharf's History of the Confederate States Navy from its organization to the surrender of its last vessel; its stupendous struggle with the great Navy of the United States, the engagements fought in the rivers and harbors of the South and upon the high seas, blockade-running, first use of iron-clads and torpedos, and privateer history, (I am not making this up), one does as little editing as possible. I do not object if someone else finds this style objectionable, provided he then takes it upon himself to put the matter in the form he wants. (If I merely add a citation or two to an existing article, I do use the more conventional style, for reasons of consistency within the article; but if I am the original or primary author, I will continue to use sentence style caps until directly ordered to cease.)

[Hee-hee.] I see you're just as stubborn as I am about style. :-) I have a number of quirks about the way I code articles, but people don't often come behind me to "clean them up" to their individual standards. Let me know if I ever get too annoying. I think there is a modest benefit to having all the articles in a particular space share a common style. Hal Jespersen (talk) 17:25, 9 February 2009 (UTC)