User:Beetleinabox/Evaluate an Article

Which article are you evaluating?
Charity Bryant

Why you have chosen this article to evaluate?
(Briefly explain why you chose it, why it matters, and what your preliminary impression of it was.)

I chose this article because I had listened to a podcast episode on Charity Bryant and Sylvia Drake and googled them to find the Wikipedia page was slightly underwhelming, lacking a lot of the information I sought, and thought it would be good for this class. Bryant was known for her poetry and better known for being the aunt of a poet, however a large part of her significance comes from her romantic relationship with Sylvia Drake. She left behind a wealth of knowledge on her romantic relationship with another woman in the 18th-19th centuries.

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.)

The Lead section of the article is concise and addresses what Bryant is notable for. Unfortunately, the content of the article doesn't succeed at furthering the discussion. It begins by addressing her same-sex relationship with Sylvia Drake and her role as a business owner, yet neither of these is dedicated much space in the article. It does discuss her poetry, yet not the extensive diaries she kept. The content that is there isn't always relevant and is gratuitous in it's use of quotes from the subject's prose. The content isn't always in the correct section, having topics such as Bryant's illness, which would ultimately lead to her death, in the section on her poetry. There are few sources used for the article and those that were used are not always reliable. The majority of the article comes from a singular author, Cleeves, however Charity Bryant's own writings are cited as well as news articles. The only peer reviewed article amongst the sources is a review of the book written by Cleeves. Upon investigation, the news articles themselves don't use citations. The majority of the citations are current, all but one being from 2014 onward. Though the links to citations appear to be in working order. Not all claims are cited though. For example the article claims that Charity Bryant and Sylvia Drake were seen by their community "as any other ‘ordinary’, heterosexual couple" without citation. The tone of the article stays neutral throughout and is free of grammatical errors. It's easy to understand and provides a relevant photo. There is no conversation going on in the talk page. This article is a fine start but overall is poorly and underdeveloped. It could use some serious tlc to the sections it has and what it addresses. It is also in desperate need of some reliable sources.