h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

http://www.h2g2.com/A395589

http://www.h2g2.com/A495001

(the original link was to the Peer Review page, rather than the article itself)

An interesting overview of the problems of the US electoral system. You manage to avoid the pitfall of tying it too closely to current events, which would have dated the piece very quickly. The first section, on the reasons for the establishment of the system, is particularly good. However, the second half seems a little unbalanced. It is more a question of tone than anything else. Few people would quibble with the need for reform, but rather than arguing your own point of view, it might be better just to outline the alternatives and let the readers judge for themselves. You might break it up into sections: "Arguments for maintaining the current system"; "alternative systems"; "problems with alternative systems" etc. The content would be the same, but it would less your own (very reasonable) argument and more a balanced assessment of the alternatives.


MDS

Ahh - something I'm very interested in myself... though my interests are somewhat broader - election systems in general.

I'd like to see how this entry turns out after you've done the edits suggested by MDS - it's very promising, and I think it'd be *great* to have this in the guide - hopefully it'll make more people stop to think about the purpose of the college.

Personally, I'd simply call this entry "USA's Electoral College", or something like that - you already effectively cover it completely, talking about the history - so why limit the scope of the article to merely reform. That way the entry will be valuable as an entry about history when the college is just a rather ugly memory.

There appear to be Peer Reviews for this entry going on. The other is at http://www.h2g2.com/F48874?thread=94241&latest=1 and contains a host of criticism (all constructive of course ;-) )

That interfering busybody, Gnomon, started the other one because this one was set up wrong.

Thanks a lot for the suggestions. I'll give them some thought and try editing.

Proboscis

Then I guess some other interfering busybody will move this thread to the sinbin...

Sinbinning seconded. The reason is fairly clear: Better to gather all information in one thread.

Jeremy FS JBB

Editorial Note: This conversation has been moved from 'Peer Review Sin Bin' to 'Reform in the Electoral College'.

Back to Entry. This eventually became Edited Entry: A44719798 The US Electoral College
via: A11213182 and A2896842