Talk:Virginia Woolf

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This article is written in British English, which has its own spelling conventions (colour, travelled, centre, defence, artefact, analyse) and some terms that are used in it may be different or absent from other varieties of English. According to the relevant style guide, this should not be changed without broad consensus.

A fact from this article was featured on Wikipedia's Main Page in the On this day section on January 25, 2018.

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It is requested that one or more audio files demonstrating correct pronunciation of this article's title be uploaded to Wikimedia Commons and included in this article to improve its quality.
Please see Wikipedia:Requested recordings for more on this request.

External Video

The link to the BBC website and a video of Woolf is effectively dead for many of us since it requires Flash. This should be removed or a warning placed on the page caption.

Note

It is necessary to add the word "antisemite" in the section "Attitudes toward Judaism, Christianity and fascism". The examples are already there, but someone shies away from the crucial word which describes her attitude (my guess is that has been censored/forbidden by Woolf's feminist fanboys/fangirls)

Wiki Education assignment: Technical and Professional Editing

This article is currently the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment, between 13 January 2025 and 6 May 2025. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Mala1027 (article contribs).

— Assignment last updated by Dr.ozkul (talk) 17:19, 11 February 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Editing Plan

Hello, everyone! I am working on this article for a technical editing project for Texas A&M University. I am a student editor, so I will be including my plans for this article for future reference.

Copyediting: Cleaning up any issues involving grammar, spelling, sentence structure etc.
Refining: This article has been tagged as including intricate details that may not be necessary for this biographical article, so I will be assessing all information and refining as needed.
Citations: I have seen this article contains some original research and lacks citations, so I will be making sure everything is sourced.
Encyclopedic tone: I will also be making sure the article maintains an enyclopedic tone to ensure it does not sound like a personal essay.

This is just a general summary of my plans based on the errors I have seen so far. I will continue to refine the editing plan as I go along, and I will make sure to be specific about my choices. Mala1027 (talk) 19:23, 19 February 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Sexual abuse

Hi all, I've removed the "Sexual abuse" paragraph from the article due to concerns about its compliance with Wikipedia's BLP policy and content guidelines for sensitive or controversial material, even though Virginia Woolf is a historical figure. The section contained serious allegations (including childhood sexual abuse and suggestions of sexual impropriety) that were presented in speculative language ("There is speculation" "There are also suggestions") without clear attributions to high quality, realiable secondary sources. Wikipedia policy requires that such claims be supported by strong sources, and framed with appropriate neutrality. I believe this removal is necessary to maintain neutrality of this article. Thanks! Mala1027 (talk) 02:00, 28 March 2025 (UTC) Mala1027[reply]

Hi Mala1027, BLP applies to living people - given that all those involved are now long deceased, what is the BLP concern? Nikkimaria (talk) 02:18, 28 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Yes this removal does not seem to make sense to me. Maybe it does not need it's own section but it certainly shouldn't all be removed.★Trekker (talk) 02:28, 28 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

The section was clearly attributed to a work by Hermione Lee; what are your concerns about its quality and reliability? Ligaturama (talk) 08:17, 28 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

I am also surprised with this removal, for the purported reasons. Martinevans123 (talk) 09:44, 28 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you all for your input. I wanted to clarify that my removal of this section was not based on BLP alone, but on broader Wikipedia policies regarding verifiability and undue weight. While Woolf is not a living person, I felt the way the information was presented was vague and speculative (e.g., "there are suggestions"). This speculation could skew the neutrality of the article. I'm absolutely open to restoring the content if well-sourced material can be found and written with appropriate attribution and an encyclopedic tone. Thanks again. Mala1027 (talk) 23:39, 28 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Spell it out

"On the other hand, she has been criticised for her views on class and race in her private writings and published works. Like many of her contemporaries, some of her writing is now considered offensive. As a result, she is considered polarising, a revolutionary feminist and socialist hero or a purveyor of hate speech."

Come now. If you're going to write that, you need to say exactly what the offence is. A citation isn't enough. If you can make an accusation of 'hate speech' (scare quotes), you can tell us what the offending opinions were. MarkinBoston (talk) 15:15, 28 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Yeah it should be expanded instead of just saying vague "hate speech".★Trekker (talk) 22:14, 28 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Removed section from "Education" subsection

Hi all, I've decided to remove the section discussing Leslie Stephen's friends. The section lacked proper citation (a "citation needed" tag had been present for some time), and it felt somewhat extraneous to the broader topic of Woolf's education. Let me know what you all think. Mala1027 (talk) 23:45, 28 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Edit Summary

I have finished editing for my editing project. I will provide a summary of the edits I've made. I focused mainly on improving clarity, fixing grammatical issues, and updating sentence structures for better flow. I also worked on making some sections more concise while preserving the original meaning. For future editors: Ensure all spelling and grammar align with British English conventions. Continue trimming overly long sentences for better readability. Thanks to everyone contributing to keeping this article accurate and engaging! Mala1027 (talk) 00:42, 29 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]