User:CalcNate/Evaluate an Article

Which article are you evaluating?
(Provide a link to the article here.)

Cross of Gold speech

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.)

The Cross of Gold speech was a topic I wrote a paper on during an undergraduate history class. I even used this article as a starting point when looking for sources to create my analysis of this speech. This article is important since it highlights the divide between the preferred monetary standard in America during the 18th century and 19th century. This change would have had a large effect on the economy if this standard was adopted. My preliminary impression of the article is that it appears to be well put together, with many supported sources that provides objective information on the subject.

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 SectionThe lead includes an introduction that accurately describes the article's topic in a concise manner, and provides a description of the article's major topics. The lead section does not contain any information that is not present in the rest of the article.

Content

The article's content is relevant to the topic, and only provides information that is important to the article's subject. The content is up-to-date, and does not have any sections that appear to be missing or sections that do not belong in the article. The article does not deal with one of Wikipedia's equity gaps, and does not address topics related to historically underrepresented populations or topics.

Tone and BalanceThe article is written in a neutral point of view that does not have any claims that are heavily biased toward a particular position. The article does not have viewpoints that are overrepresented or underrepresented since the article provides a enough information to cover the topic's content without favoring a single viewpoint too much. Since the article maintains a neutral point of view throughout, is does not attempt to persuade the reader to favor a certain position.

Sources and References

The sources used in the article largely come from books that either provide first hand information about the topic or extensive research about the topic. These sources are written by a variety of authors, and include analysis from past and modern authors. After some research for better sources, the article already provides a list sources that provide thorough information about the topic. Most of these sources are either the same or better than other sources I was able to find online. The source links work and direct the reader to the proper source cited.

Organization and writing quality

The article is well-written; it is easy to read because of its neat formatting and the information is concise. I was not able to find any grammatical or spelling errors. The article is also well-organized; it is broken down into easy to read sections that starts with an introduction, followed by a broad background, and followed up with sections in chronological order about the topic.

Images and Media

The article includes images that enhance the understanding of the topic. They are appropriately captioned and provide the necessary sources from where the image was pulled from. The images adhere to Wikipedia's copyright regulations. The images are also laid out in a visually appealing way, and are easy to view without taking up too much space in the article.

Talk page discussion

The conversations going on behind the scenes discuss how new information can be appropriately added into the article, particularly about economic conditions in the 19th century when the article's event took place. This is also some back and forth discussion about what information is really relevant to the article and if it should be added or not. The article is rated FA-Class with Mid-importance classification, and is part of multiple WikiProjects.

Overall Impressions

The article is well put together and well informed concerning the topic of the article. The article does a great job of of providing detailed information from past and present historical sources that improve the information of the article. The article also provides a nice background about the economic state of America during the time of the event discussed in the article. It provided information focused directly on William Bryan's speech while providing additional information preferred monetary standards among political groups in the 19th century. I would suggest improving the article by adding a section that discusses the gold standard and provides the point of view and economic effects of that standard during the 19th century. I feel that the article well-developed, with years of editing to create it's current state that is still being improved upon today.