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You have not restored "statesman", which is good. But you have restored "American". It is silly to say that he is "American" and that he was "president of the United States" in the same sentence. That is why I cited MOS:REDUNDANCY.
As for the restoration of attorney, diplomat, and writer, what are you trying to accomplish? MOS:LEADCLUTTER says, Do not overload the first sentence by describing everything notable about the subject. Instead, spread the relevant information out over the entire lead. You are, of course, overloading the first sentence by describing 5 notable things about the subject. Is there some reason this works for this article, where it doesn't work for others?
We mention his career as an attorney in the first sentence of the second paragraph. We mention his career as a diplomat in the third sentence of the first paragraph, and again in the second paragraph. We mention his writing in the second paragraph. Without these things, the first sentence, which otherwise just mentions his presidency and his "Founding Father"-ness, is direct and to the point. With three additional things gathered and dumped into it, that sentence is just a pile of words. Bruce leverett (talk) 02:53, 17 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Hello Bruce leverett. The nationality of an individual needs to be mentioned immediately, as it is best for the reader to first know that before understanding other elements of a person's identity. Thus, the opening sentence of Ronald Reagan, which is also a featured article, reads "Ronald Wilson Reagan (February 6, 1911 – June 5, 2004) was an American politician and actor who served as the 40th president of the United States..." The first sentence in the Vladimir Putin article says "Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin (born 7 October 1952) is a Russian politician and former intelligence officer who is the president of Russia..." There are many more examples like it. I don't think that this manner of introduction is backed by any official policy, but it does appear to be the norm on Wikipedia.
I disagree that the nationality needs to be mentioned "immediately". See for example, the Cleopatra and François Mitterrand examples in MOS:OPENPARABIO. You are making a WP:OTHERCONTENT argument: "It's done this way in articles X and Y, it's OK and best to do it this way here." I have mentioned this before in Wikipedia talk:WikiProject U.S. Presidents#First sentences. Most of the biographies of U.S. presidents used to start with "XXX was the Nth president of the United States, serving from YYYY to ZZZ". In the years since about 2011, most of them were modified to use the more verbose style, not because of any policy change that I know of; indeed I don't know why this was done, in most cases there was no edit summary.
Adams' contributions as a Founding Father during the Revolution are arguably as important or even more important than his tenure as president. Having the identification "Founding Father" in the lead is thus critical, and it represents all of the other occupations that Adams held without having to spell them out individually. With "Founding Father," it is essential to say "American" first, as other countries of course have founders as well, and this clarifies what country Adams helped establish. I believe that it should stay in. I oppose any further alterations to the opening sentence. The length of the opening sentence has been substantially reduced and you got probably about 80% of what you wanted. You could always take it further, but I say leave it here. Display name 99 (talk) 19:30, 17 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]
I agree with Display name 99's initial approach here - we need to set out the basic context before getting into his role as founding father. That is standard in the literally hundreds of biographies I edit every day. GiantSnowman09:24, 24 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]
I initially agreed with a longer opening section, but my view on the matter has shifted after considering Bruce leverett's arguments and looking at other articles. Standard practice isn't to list every major thing that a person did in the first sentence, but only give a bare outline. The first sentence of the Julius Caesar article reads: "Gaius Julius Caesar[a] (12 July 100 BC – 15 March 44 BC) was a Roman general and statesman." It doesn't say that Caesar was a priest of Jupiter, consul, provincial governor, dictator, author, etc. In the case of Adams, as with most well-constructed biographical articles, the remainder of the opening paragraph hits all of the major highlights, and all that is needed in the opening sentence is the most general overview. Display name 99 (talk) 21:51, 24 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]
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Please add to the list of specialized studies
Nicolson, Colin, & Edwards, Owen Dudley. (2019). Imaginary friendship in the American Revolution: John Adams and Jonathan Sewall. Routledge: New York and London. ISBN 9781138703827. 77.97.193.150 (talk) 10:48, 5 June 2025 (UTC)[reply]
Not done: The Bibliography section of this article is intended for sources used in this article. If you believe that book contains something this article is lacking, consider suggesting that edit. Otherwise, you may want to add the title to Bibliography of John Adams. DrOrinScrivello (talk) 14:28, 5 June 2025 (UTC)[reply]
level-4 vital article is rated FA-class on Wikipedia's content assessment scale.
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Not done: The Bibliography section of this article is intended for sources used in this article. If you believe that book contains something this article is lacking, consider suggesting that edit. Otherwise, you may want to add the title to Bibliography of John Adams. DrOrinScrivello (talk) 14:28, 5 June 2025 (UTC)