Wikipedia talk:Requests for adminship/Acather96

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Is this close paraphrasing?

The following table shows the source and the article text that I allege is a close paraphrase. Tryptofish has challenged it as an "unreasonable complaint", or I would not have done this. Let editors make up their own minds. The table quotes the two texts exactly, though it omits the italicization and wikilinking in the article text.

Source	article, older version
Perennials c. 20–30 cm tall,	Luzula wahlenbergii is a perennial and herbaceous plant around 15–35cm high
subglabrous,
caespitose,	in a loosely caespitose fashion.[1]
sometimes with short ascending vegetative shoots.
Stem with several basal and 1–2 cauline flat leaves;	The stem has 1–2 cauline leaves which are flat,
basal leaves 5–10 cm × 3–5 mm;	as well basal leaves which are 5–10 cm × 3–5 mm in size;
upper leaves up to 3–5 cm × 2–4 mm;	the upper leaves of L. wahlenbergii are smaller, sized at 3–5 cm × 2–4 mm.[1]
leaf margins papillose-serrulate;	The leaf margins of L. wahlenbergii are papillose-serrulate
leaf tip acute.	with an acutely-shaped leaf tip.[1]
Inflorescence a lax nodding ‘panicle’	The inflorescence of Luzula wahlenbergii is lax, and could be described as a 'nodding panicle',
of 10–30 flowers, c. 4 cm long and 3 cm wide;	having 10-30 flowers which are 4 cm in length and 3 cm in width -	*
flowers borne singly, pedunculate, or in 2(–3)-flowered clusters.	these flowers are pedunculated and borne singly in 2–3 clusters.[1]	*
Lower bract 4–10 mm long. Bracteoles up to 2.0 mm long, fimbriate-ciliate near apex.	The bracteoles of L. wahlenbergii are fimbriate-ciliate near their apex and up to 2.0 mm long, whilst the lower bract is 4−10 mm long.[1]
Tepals equal, 2.0–2.8 mm long, ±acuminate, entire, ±brown.	L. wahlenbergii has equal tepals which are 2.0–2.8 mm long, entire, brown and acuminate,
Stamens 6; anthers 0.4–0.6 mm long,	along with six stamens and anthers which are 0.4–0.6 mm long.[1]
±equalling filaments;
style up to 0.5 mm long; stigmas c. 1 mm long.	L. wahlenbergii has a style and stigma 0.5 mm long and c.1 mm long respectively,
	the plant also has equaling filaments.[1]	*
Capsule ellipsoidal, ±subacuminate, ±exceeding tepals;	The seed capsule of Luzula wahlenbergii is ellipsoidal, subacuminate with exceeding tepals;	*
capsule segments brown, 2.0–2.4 × 1.1–1.5 mm.	the seed capsule is 2.0–2.4 × 1.1–1.5 mm in size and segments are brown in colour.[1]
Seeds narrowly ellipsoidal, 1.2–1.4 × c. 0.7 mm, dark castaneous brown, without appendage; base fibrillate.	The dark, castaneous brown seeds of L. wahlenbergii are 1.2–1.4 × c. 0.7 mm in size, narrowly ellipsoidal, lack an appendage and have a base which is fibrilate.[1]
2n=24 [BL], H.Nordenskiöld, Hereditas 37: 330–331 (1951).

--Stfg (talk) 16:53, 27 December 2013 (UTC)[reply]

This is difficult for a non-expert in this field to evaluate. If we were writing just a general description of this plant for everyday use, it might be a bit close. On the other hand, if botanical descriptions are conventionally prepared in a format enumerating these particular elements in this particular order, using a restrictive set of technical terms, then parallelism might be unavoidable. It might be of interest to look at other botanical descriptions of this plant apart from this source and the wiki article and see whether they too contain parallels in the descriptions. In any event, the candidate has indicated he will bear this concern in mind going forward, and I don't see it as an impediment to the RfA. Newyorkbrad (talk) 16:59, 27 December 2013 (UTC)[reply]

I think the paraphrasing is pretty close for most articles but I don't see there is any way to avoid it in technical articles like this. The terms are specific to the type of plant and organelles so without using the same technical scientific language it wouldn't give the topic the accuracy it should have in the project. I would be more concerned however if this was occurring in biographical articles or articles of a non technical/scientific nature.

talk) 17:04, 27 December 2013 (UTC)[reply

]

Many of the terms in botanical descriptions have precise, exact, definitions. You cannot simply substitute one for another. I think this was a pretty good job of changing the wording a much as possible without becoming inaccurate. --Randykitty (talk) 18:58, 27 December 2013 (UTC)[reply]

I agree with everything that Newyorkbrad, Kumioko, and Randykitty said here, and I don't really have anything further to add to it. --Tryptofish (talk) 19:41, 27 December 2013 (UTC)[reply]

(←) Thank you all for your comments. Please forgive me if I return to it one last time -- it's not to affect the RfA, but there are some things here you seem to have overlooked and there are some questions about what Wikipedia should be trying to do in articles like this. Please point me at a better place than an RfA talk page to raise these, if you like (or by all means tell me to drop it :))

@
Kumioko
: indeed, things like bracts and tepals and sepals need to be named as such; there's no getting away from that. But not all the language used in the source is like that. Some of it is simply obfuscation. Castaneous, for example, means nothing more precise than chestnut-coloured. There are more examples. Fancy words don't always imply fancy ideas. Did you have a look at the rewrite of the article I did yesterday? It omits some of the fine detail, but is it any less accurate?

@Randykitty: "without becoming inaccurate" just ain't so. I've added markers to the right of the table showing four places where the paraphrase changed the meaning from the original (which I've corrected in yesterday's rewrite).

Did anyone spot that the source bears a CC-BY-NC-SA tag and a statement allowing non-commercial use on condition of appropriate acknowledgement? So the source could have been used intact in a blockquote without introducing errors and poor prose. By contrast, presenting such a closely parallel text and citing that source for each separate statement (nine times in all) makes it look as if it's Wikipedia's assembly of the material, and that is not quite fair to the source. (I do assume good faith and I don't think the candidate meant to do that, but it's something we should learn not to do, and surely that's what close paraphrasing is all about.)

The real point I want to make, though, is why we want to have material like this in a Wikipedia article at all. Anyone who knows why subacuminate is better than tapering to a point (if it is) already knows enough that they won't be coming to Wikipedia to look up plants. Do we believe in

WP:NOTTEXTBOOK or not? Who are we writing for? --Stfg (talk) 14:51, 28 December 2013 (UTC)[reply

]

Huh? The NC license isn't incompatible with Wikipedia's CC-BY-SA so a quotation would require the same fair use claim as a copyrighted source, and use of the entire section would almost certainly not be considered fair use (not to mention its terseness making it unsuitable). For what it's worth, I too do not see a close-paraphrasing issue benmoore 22:03, 28 December 2013 (UTC)[reply]