Talk:Kaplan, Inc.

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[edit] Requested move

See Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Kaplan for initial talk. mikka (t) 19:57, 30 December 2005 (UTC)

Out of five comments (see Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Kaplan), one is in favour of status quo, and four would see 'Kaplan' moved to 'Kaplan Inc', with 'Kaplan' becoming the disambiguation page (including of course reference to 'Kaplan Inc'). I therefore intend to carry out such changes in the next twenty four hours (unless anyone cares to beat me to it). Happy New Year to all btw -

Smerus 19:51, 2 January 2006 (UTC)

I will perform the move, but I disagree very highly with your methods. Putting the page up for deletion is an example of violation of WP:POINT. -Scm83x 21:22, 2 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Advertisement?

I have created the additional copy for the Kaplan, Inc. page as an employee with a strong knowledge of the company. The copy that resided on the page before I first made these edits held a great deal of inaccurate and outdated information, which I attempted to correct. I also restructured the page to explain how the business is organized.

I was very careful to cite sources, pulling most of the information directly from the recent financial statements from our parent company, The Washington Post Company. I have made every effort to maintain a neutral point of view, and feel strongly that my entry did not read like an advertisement. The entry only included factual statements that could be backed up by numerous sources.

I feel strongly that the recent changes have been made by a biased editor who, rather than making constructive suggestions on how to improve the language, is simply reverting all changes. In doing so, he is reposting inaccurate information that I had previously corrected.

krb2182 18:54, 30 March 2007 (UTC)

I certainly did not revert all changes, as you can see from the history and specifically this diff. I did remove some good information, and I have reinserted it. Here are some changes I made, and why:

By flighty language, I mean the type you would find in promotional material; for example, "global provider of educational services", which I changed to "education company"
Take out in-text link to Kaplan's website — Wikipedia is not a directory of links
Shorten descriptions of subdivisions, which were unnecessarily detailed and promotional — e.g., "Score has more than 160 locations nationwide and served over 75,000 students in 2006", and "Each of Kaplan’s individual schools is separately accredited by one of several national or regional accrediting agencies approved by the U.S. Department of Education"
Remove "Philanthropic Activities" section — promotional

If there are further inaccuracies, please correct them. Λυδαcιτγ 01:09, 31 March 2007 (UTC)

You raised some good points above; thank you. I reinserted some of the facts about each of our businesses, all of which simply point out the size and scope of the company. Many company entries include such information. I have pulled everything directly from public documents, citing the source of each fact and always maintaining a neutral point of view. The information is encyclopedic in nature and is very important to researchers, particularly in the education industry. I have also included the section on Philanthropy, though I adjusted the language to eliminate a "promotional" tone. Again, many company entries on Wiki include such information. I have consistently maintained a neutral point of view and believe I addressed your concerns. Thank you for your input.

krb2182 14:37, 2 April 2007 (UTC)

I don't think it's important to know that "Score has more than 160 locations nationwide and provided services to over 75,000 students in 2006." The words "more" and "over" are themselves promotional, but regardless, it seems unimportant to a general encyclopedia reader. An education industry researcher can find this data on the Kaplan website. Similarly, we don't need to know that Kaplan's universities are accredited — this is filler that should be a given. Otherwise, getting better. Λυδαcιτγ 03:28, 3 April 2007 (UTC)

Oh, and as for the Philanthropy section — please point me to these articles, as I don't think typical philanthropy is notable enough to be part of an encyclopedia article on a company. Λυδαcιτγ 03:29, 3 April 2007 (UTC)