Talk:Cecelia Holland

This article must adhere to the biographies of living persons (BLP) policy, even if it is not a biography, because it contains material about living persons. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately from the article and its talk page, especially if potentially libellous. If such material is repeatedly inserted, or if you have other concerns, please report the issue to this noticeboard.

If you are a subject of this article, or acting on behalf of one, and you need help, please see this help page.

Biography: Arts and Entertainment

	Biography portal This article is within the scope of WikiProject Biography, a collaborative effort to create, develop and organize Wikipedia's articles about people. All interested editors are invited to join the project and contribute to the discussion. For instructions on how to use this banner, please refer to the documentation.BiographyWikipedia:WikiProject BiographyTemplate:WikiProject Biographybiography articles
	This article is supported by the arts and entertainment work group (assessed as Low-importance).

Children's literature Low‑importance

This article is within the scope of WikiProject Children's literature, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of Children's literature on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.Children's literatureWikipedia:WikiProject Children's literatureTemplate:WikiProject Children's literaturechildren and young adult literature articles

Low

This article has been rated as Low-importance on the project's importance scale.

Tasks you can do:

Here are some open tasks for WikiProject Children's literature, an attempt to create and standardize articles related to children's literature. Feel free to help with any of the following tasks.

Add {{Portal|Children's literature}} to the See also section of related articles.
Tag the talk pages of related articles with {{WikiProject Children's literature}}
Join WikiProject Children's literature and list yourself as a Participant in the project.
Cleanup: A cleanup listing for this project is available. See also the list by category, the tool's wiki page and the index of WikiProjects.
Deletion discussions: listed at Wikipedia:WikiProject Deletion sorting/Literature
Notability: Articles with notability concerns, listed at WikiProject Notability
Rate the Unassessed articles in the Children's literature WikiProject.
References: Add references to Unreferenced BLPs.
Requested articles: Create a requested article on literature
Stubs: Improve a stub-class article

edit

Women writers Low‑importance

	This article is within the scope of WikiProject Women writers, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of women writers on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.Women writersWikipedia:WikiProject Women writersTemplate:WikiProject Women writersWomen writers articles
Low	This article has been rated as Low-importance on the project's importance scale.

Nevada (inactive)

This article is within the scope of WikiProject Nevada, a project which is currently considered to be inactive.NevadaWikipedia:WikiProject NevadaTemplate:WikiProject NevadaNevada articles

Untitled

Okay. I've done a bunch of copyediting on other folks' pages, I've added to and enhanced other pages, but this is the first (major) article I've posted from scratch.

I know a lot about this author, both personally and critically, and I need some guidance regarding how much interpretative criticism is "allowed" without seeming to lose the NPOV. My comments are a distillation of reading a very large number of reviews over several decades (I'm a librarian in a large urban system with a major involvement in collection development); for that reason, I would be hard put to attribute a particular critique to a particular source. But I've tried to exclude my own personal tastes and favorites. At the same time, simply saying "American author, wrote these books" doesn't seem to do any service to the reader.

I haven't been able to find a discussion anywhere on the subject of "averaged out" literary criticism vs. NPOV. Any suggestions?

Michael K. Smith 17:31, 24 Jun 2004 (UTC)

I'd suggest that 'her style is impeccable' is transparently not encyclopaedic or NPOV. "Simply saying "American author, wrote these books" doesn't seem to do any service to the reader." Perhaps, but that is not an excuse to then insert some of your personal views. It is not a choice between your personal praise and having not evaluative material whatsoever. Rather, if what you say about her style is correct, it stands to reason she will have received similar praise from other sources (reviews) and these sources may be quoted with the correct citations along with any dissenting opinions. As it stands this article is a hymn to a certain author by Michael K Smith, not an encyclopedic entry upon the author and what praise, if any, she has received from significant literary figures. 94.193.220.27 (talk) 02:33, 5 January 2012 (UTC)[reply]

I have attempted to improve the neutrality of the article, by the removal of the most grossly non-encyclopedic words and phrases. Really, what it needs, if any comment on her style is to be made, is some quotations from proper literary critics. I have seen articles DELETED for less blatant bias. oh, and I LIKE her work a lot.

IceDragon64 (talk) 00:14, 24 January 2012 (UTC)[reply]