User:AIG3624/Evaluate an Article

Which article are you evaluating?
Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry

Why you have chosen this article to evaluate?
I choose this article because I remembered reading this book when I was younger. It was the assigned reading for my 7th grade class, and when reading it, the book gave me insight to the life of African Americans in the 1930s. It was one of the first times I actually began to understand the prejudice people endured due to the color of their skin. And I also think that ties into why this book matters. It is important to allow children to read this book and many others like it. Through these books the reader gets a different perspective and can start to understand the world for what it truly, and it helps understand the history of how we got to where we are. The article I choose is rated as a C-class and I would agree with that. It is useful to someone who is just trying to get a basic understanding of the book and all other elements (i.e. background, themes), however it needs more content/detail to make it well-informed article.

Evaluate the article
As stated before, I think this article provides a great start to understanding Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry. When diving deeper into the elements of the article, I want to first discuss the lead section. Overall, I think the lead section provides a good overview of the topic, but it doesn't hit the all of the points of consideration. The introductory sentence is concise but is too simple; it should include some of the following sentences' information into that first sentence. It also doesn't include brief descriptions of each section. The lead section is concise and doesn't include any information not found within the article. Now moving on to content of the article. The content itself is relevant to the topic and the information is very up to date. There are more sections that could be added to make it more well-rounded. I think there should be a section dedicated to the themes of the book, more background of the author and the impact it has made. The content has gaps but it's topic spreads information about underrepresented group of people. This article has good balance and tone. It provides a neutral point of view and a good baseline of the various viewpoints/impressions of the book. Sources and references also feed into the tone and balance because the topics mentioned can all be backed up by reliable sources. As mentioned, the sources are all up to date, as the latest article include comes from 2021. All the links work, but I do. believe that there should be more diverse authors who wrote articles based on the topic. I also think there are more peer-reviewed articles that can be used in place of some sources. The writing of the article is clear and easy to read, and I spotted no spelling or grammatical errors. The content is organized in a way that makes it flow, minimal need for improvement in this area. The article could also use more images to enhance it. The one photo included is not captioned but does adhere to copyright regulations. Drawings of the plot, the author, or different characters are really important to include. Lastly, the talk page includes many suggestions of how to improve the article, such as adding more information and some tightening of sections. Sometimes, I did notice a bit of accusatory language among editors. Again, this article is rated at a C-class and is apart of 3 Wikiprojects, such as, novels, children's literature, and women writers. Overall, I think the article has a strong base, it is clear and provides a basic understanding of all the ideas surrounding the topic. In summary, I think the article could use more detail to make it well-rounded and add more diverse authors and peer-reviewed articles.