User:Aliciampark/Evaluate an Article

Which article are you evaluating?
Nancy Ward

Why you have chosen this article to evaluate?
Nancy Ward was one of the first women covered in the "Global Feminism" class. We learned that her work was foundational for the Anglo-American women's use of petitions for a variety of socio-political causes. It was really refreshing to see that especially when it comes to something as monumental as women's rights and feminism, it was not an Anglo-American woman but an indigenous woman who set the foundations for such socio-political change.

Evaluate the article
(Compose a detailed evaluation of the article here, considering each of the key aspects listed above. Consider the guiding questions, and check out the examples of what a useful Wikipedia article evaluation looks like.)

Lead Section

The lead for this article is very concise and to the point. I could get most of the key points on Nancy Ward from the lead. However, one thing that was missing was a signpost of all of the sections the article was going to go through. It would be helpful for the article to briefly summarize the sections that are going to be covered, perhaps in a separate paragraph underneath the first paragraph.

Content

All of the content is relevant and up-to-date (last edited on September 24, 2023). The content from this page covers a marginalized group (the indigenous people of North America), and aims to fairly unpack the different historical events and highlight the role of both the indigenous people and Americans throughout these events. Several quotations from her speeches and letters are included, bolstering the credibility of the content.

Tone and Balance

The article has a fairly neutral tone that mainly delineates historical accounts. The article does a great job at illuminating the indigenous people's point of view in these historical events which are often 1) not talked about in the American education and 2) taught with limited credit given to the indigenous people. Overall, the very factual tone enhances the credibility of the content as well.

Sources and References

All of the sources and references have valid links that discuss the relevant material. Because this is a historical account, most of the sources are a little dated. However, this might not be as important unless there are major recent updates on the topic that need to be included. There are also a variety of sources from all different authors, as well as both primary and secondary sources. An improvement that could be made could be incorporating more primary sources or more sources that are directly from indigenous people. Many of the scholars seem to not be indigenous, so having that would be able to bolster the credibility and robustness of the article.

Organization and writing quality

The article is concise and clear without any grammatical errors. The article is broken down into sections; however, the article could be improved by signposting to help readers understand the significance and chronology of the sections. While the sections do make sense, it might be worth taking a paragraph to explain the significance of having these section in this specific order or why the choice was made to include these specific historical events to illuminate Nancy Ward's life.

Images and Media

There are two images on this Wikipedia page, both of which are correctly captioned and following copyright guidelines. One of these images is a drawn picture of her, which makes sense in the context of the article. The other is a picture of her memorial, which maybe could be a little more aesthetically placed. Additionally, the picture of her memorial does not really enhance the content of the article. Perhaps, images of the places, wars, or activities (i.e., loom-weaving technique) talked about in earlier sections in order to really enhance the understanding of the article's content.

Talk page discussion

Most of the conversation is about adding some more content to flesh it out, as well as some edits to the definitions of Cherokee words. However, there is a dispute talking about what identifying Nancy Ward as "colonial" implies. The comment discusses that Nancy was a Cherokee woman and never identified as colonial, despite her father having European lineage. It is important to be able to talk about marginalized groups and people in a way that has not been influenced by the Western or Eurocentric perspective, and I think that this comment brings up a great discussion on correctly identifying marginalized groups and individuals. WikiProjects that this article is apart of include Biography, Indigenous peoples of North America, and Women's History.

Overall ImpressionsThis article is overall rated a C-Class to the three WikiProjects that it is under, meaning that there is still work to be done on the page in terms of adding more information, better organizing the sections, and adding more images. The articles strengths are that it is a great starting point with factual information and a neutral tone for a more in-depth article to be written. By adding additional information, pictures, and structure to the article, the article could be improved drastically. Overall, the piece is under developed, but in great standing as a quick read for casual readers or starting point for a more in-depth piece.