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

Entry: Charlestown, Massachusetts - A764264
Author: Researcher XLII - U162596

This is my first attempt. Any and all comments are welcome!

Hi XLII!

Well done for putting an entry into Peer Review. It has a lot of potential, but I think you will have to do some work on it before it gets picked.

The first, most important thing is that Edited Entries are not supposed to have "I" or "me" in them. They should be written in the "third person", so instead of saying "I think", you should say "it seems likely". Don't say "I could say a lot more", say "A lot more could be said". And so on.

The general structure of your article needs a little work. One way to impose a structure on it is to break it up into sections with titles. If you know how to do GuideML, you can use and for the titles. If not, just put the title on a line on its own with a blank line before and after it. When the entry is picked, a subeditor will tidy this up and make the titles look nice.

The first section should be an introduction in a few sentences telling us where Charlestown is (OK, it's in Massachusetts, but where exactly?), how big it is and so on.

The next section can give the history of the town. I found the way you've phrased that very confusing, because although I've heard of the Battle of Bunker Hill, I don't know anything about it. Who was fighting? When did it happen? Remember that people reading the Guide are from all over the world and will not all know American History.

Researcher XLII,

Well done on your entry, there - you've made a good start. If you were to follow the sage advice from Gnoman, then I think we'd have a cracking entry on our hands, fit for the Guide. What do you reckon?

Sam.

Your Guide Entry has just been picked from Peer Review by one of our Scouts, and is now heading off into the Editorial Process, which ends with publication in the Edited Guide. We've therefore moved this Review Conversation out of Peer Review and to the entry itself.

If you'd like to know what happens now, check out the page on 'What Happens after your Entry has been Recommended?' at EditedGuide-Process. We hope this explains everything.

Thanks for contributing to the Edited Guide!

Yet another entry gets picked despite the author having completely ignored all suggestions in Peer Review.

Oh wow. I am so sorry that I haven't ben round to re-edit my own work, and now I really feel like a jerk for not having done so before it was accepted into the Guide. Is it possible that I can do some editing and resubmit?

XLII, don't feel too bad. It is normal to keep an eye on Peer Review after you submit something - that way you can improve the entry along with people's suggestions. It obviously slipped your mind in this case.

My criticism was really with the editors, who have been doing a lot of this picking things that are not really ready lately. But I've spoken severely to them about it in the last few days and I think we've come to an agreement.

Your entry is still being sub-edited by DogManStar U183422 so I suggest you contact him and talk to him about it.

I just happened to get this article regarding Charlestown, Massachusetts appear on my computer tonight by mistake. Through cruising, I found this website to be very well done and am crazy about it. The articles are absolutely wonderful. I beg to differ with the authors Townie vs. Toonie theory though, in his article regarding Charlestown, Massachusetts. I was born in Charlestown, Massachusetts, it's actually a neighborhood extension of Boston, Massachusetts, such as Clontarf is to Dublin, Ireland for example. In Boston and New England, I am considered a "Townie" because I was born in the town and my roots are there, still to this day, the "Townies" are very proud and loyal to their town! The authors description of the "Toonies" not getting along with the "Townies" and disliking them is absolutely false now a days. This is the year 2002 and he must be discussing the era of "Busing" due to desegregation in the early 70's when tensions were extremely high in the town. The Charlestown that every one in Boston knows now is completely different. A lot of people in the town didn't want to move away, but they were forced to back then, due to having small children and some of them didn't want their children in schools that they were forced to go to across the City, it was an extremely sad era in Boston's history for the whites and the blacks that didn't want this for their children at all. My parents had a lovely home near the Bunker Hill Monument and not too far from the famous U.S. Constitution a long the "Freedom Trail", in fact, it was considered to be one of the oldest homes in the City of Boston. A lot of friends and neighbors that we grew up with and knew all through the years are scattered across New England due to this situation. The "Toonies" were grabbing the homes left and right and getting good prices for them, I might add. The author states that the "Toonies" have 3.2 children? I think not, they were mostly Professionals with humongous salaries with absolutely no children because they wouldn't ever let their children go to school in Boston back then! If they did? They sent them to very private schools in the Greater Boston area close to the MBTA of course! For example, my Uncle sold his property to a Plastic Surgeon in Boston that turned around and sold it to some one else for an enormous amount and the cycle has been continuing ever since. A lot of us "Townies" would love for it to go back to the way it was, but unfortunately, life goes on and we have all moved forward with our lives and ourselves! The "Toonies" are all living in the town and they love it as much as we did when we were living there. The only thing is? They'll never have what we had in the town, ever! We have wonderful memories of growing up there and terrific friends, the "Toonies" could never take that away from the "Townies" and the "Townies" that are there now? They are just as proud as ever of their town, they're more proud of what the "Toonies" are doing to all the homes and businesses then they themselves are, trust me on that! I've often asked my parents if they regretted ever leaving Charlestown, Massachusetts for New Hampshire and it's really funny, my father has said many times, that he wouldn't go back there if you paid him a million dollars for one of those "bricks" around the Bunker Hill Monument! So times have changed and people change, but life goes on for all of us, no matter where we live!