Talk:Comparative law and justice/Finland

Mid-Semester Comments:

Your Wiki got off to a good start. However, it is not quite up to date with what's been due in recent weeks. It could also benefit from a bit more attention to the norms of both Internet and academic writing. My comments below are designed to help you revise to eliminate these problems as well as to make sure that going forward you are in good shape.

The Content
 * When talking about the ethnic groups making up the population, note that Estonia is close to Finland too. The Sami are an indigenous population; you may find it interesting to look up some more info about them.
 * When you are making comparisons between countries--as in the health and education sections--you want to have evidence to pack up your comparisons. Look for some data on where Finland stands in comparison and reference that data.
 * You need to present some actual data on crime--number and rate--not just broader assertions. There are a number of resources on the Wiki assignment page that can help you find this data; use those resources, as they are very helpful.
 * You need to categorize Finland according to the families of law as discussed in class and in the reading. It is not that unique--all countries fit into one (or more!) of the families of law. You can find this information in the suggested resources as well.
 * You are not up-to-date with your content. The material on the state and the basic legal system is not there. Over the course of the semester, if you remain behind each week in your updates, it will cost you about 15% of your final course grade.

The Writing and Presentation
 * Remove your signature (the 4 tildes) from the end of the basics section. You've already got it up top, which is sufficient.
 * Your pictures are large. You might want to think about shrinking them and/or relocating them elsewhere in the page; they definately need captions. Pictures will help you do that.
 * In your section on travel information, your links should have words and not just numbers. linkmaking can help you do that.
 * Many of your comments and datapoints are not referenced. Everything must be properly referenced unless it is something that is common knowledge (i.e. Finland is near Sweden) or a thought you had yourself.
 * There is a random extra = after Elections.
 * I see you like to write in a more informal rather than academic style. To some extent, that's okay, as you are writing for a more general audience of anyone on the Internet here. But do be somewhat cautious. You want to avoid normative statements--stick with the facts and with things for which there is evidence. You might want to look at the Wikipedia Manual of Style for more on how to write for this sort of resource.

Overall--try to be sure you are keeping up and following all of the assignment guidelines. This will not only help your grade each week, but also give you less work to do in a frantic rush as you revise at the end of the semester.

Mlarthur 01:13, 22 October 2009 (UTC)