User:Darbyjoan94/Evaluate an Article

Evaluate an article
This is where you will complete your article evaluation. Please use the template below to evaluate your selected article.


 * Name of article: Sharon Draper
 * Briefly describe why you have chosen this article to evaluate.

Sharon Draper is an African American children's author which relates to the course. She is an author I am somewhat familiar with and one of the suggested articles to review for this assignment.

Lead

 * Guiding questions


 * Does the Lead include an introductory sentence that concisely and clearly describes the article's topic?

Yes, it clearly describes who Sharon Draper is and lists some of her works so a person who is quickly perusing the article would be able to note those easily.


 * Does the Lead include a brief description of the article's major sections?

Yes and no. While it does quickly introduce what awards she has won and that is a major component of the article, it buries her notable works which is likely the main reason a person is searching for an author.


 * Does the Lead include information that is not present in the article?

No


 * Is the Lead concise or is it overly detailed?

It is overly detailed and contains wording that is unnecessarily clunky such as "she may be known best for" when introducing her written works.

Content

 * Guiding questions


 * Is the article's content relevant to the topic?

Yes, all of the content is about Sharon Draper, her written works, and her accomplishments.


 * Is the content up-to-date?

No. While changes have been made to the article as recently as January 2019, it doesn't seem to contain any relevant information about Sharon Draper for any time after 2015.


 * Is there content that is missing or content that does not belong?

Sharon Draper's most recent children's novel, Blended, is mentioned nowhere in the article despite having been published nearly a year ago in 2018. The book is published under the name "Sharon M. Draper", but so are a number of her books so that should not be a contributing factor to it's exclusion. When conducting a Google search for "Sharon M. Draper", this Wikipedia page is one of the top results. There is also a disclaimer that the article's lists of written works is incomplete, so it's possible that Blended is not the only one missing from the list.

Tone and Balance

 * Guiding questions


 * Is the article neutral?

Yes, the article sticks to neutral facts with proper citations.


 * Are there any claims that appear heavily biased toward a particular position?

No.


 * Are there viewpoints that are overrepresented, or underrepresented?

It seems that Sharon Draper's awards seem overemphasized in the article. While that is certainly important and worth noting, the article doesn't do much in the way of describing what kind of books Sharon Draper generally writes or what their target audience may be. Many of the featured articles on other authors that write for the children's demographic make note of this in the article's lead, but this is missing and does not come up again anywhere else in the article.


 * Does the article attempt to persuade the reader in favor of one position or away from another?

No, the article simply present facts about Sharon Draper.

Sources and References

 * Guiding questions


 * Are all facts in the article backed up by a reliable secondary source of information?

Only about half of the article is properly sourced. For example, in the awards section: "She has been honored at the White House six times, and was chosen as one of only four authors in the country to speak at the National Book Festival Gala in Washington, D.C, and to represent the United States in Madrid at their Book Festival. Her book Copper Sun has been selected by the US State Department and the International Reading Association as the United States novel for the international reading project called Reading Across Continents. Students in the US, Nigeria, and Ghana are reading the book and sharing ideas." This is presented with no link or citation for Reading Across Continents although a quick Google search for RAC yields multiple results that could be cited here.


 * Are the sources thorough - i.e. Do they reflect the available literature on the topic?

No, there could certainly be more sources and more information, especially considering what a prolific author Sharon Draper is.


 * Are the sources current?

No, the most recent source is from 2015.


 * Check a few links. Do they work?

Yes, at the time of this response, the links do all work.

Organization

 * Guiding questions


 * Is the article well-written - i.e. Is it concise, clear, and easy to read?

While the lead is a bit wordy, the article is otherwise easy to read and understand.


 * Does the article have any grammatical or spelling errors?

No spelling or grammatical errors were found.


 * Is the article well-organized - i.e. broken down into sections that reflect the major points of the topic?

Yes, the article has an easy to understand and navigate structure.

Images and Media

 * Guiding questions


 * Does the article include images that enhance understanding of the topic?

The article features only one image which is the most recent item in the article having been taken in 2018.


 * Are images well-captioned?

Yes, the single image is captioned as Draper at BookExpo America in 2018.


 * Do all images adhere to Wikipedia's copyright regulations?

The source on the image is "own work" and connected to a user named "Rhododendrites" who seeks to take good quality images for Wikimedia Commons so that they can be legally used in articles.


 * Are the images laid out in a visually appealing way?

The only image is to the left of the lead. This is where a user typically expects to find an image on Wikipedia, so yes.

Checking the talk page

 * Guiding questions


 * What kinds of conversations, if any, are going on behind the scenes about how to represent this topic?

There is discussion of some copyrighted material that was taken out of the article and some discrepancy around Sharon Draper's date of birth and whether or not "Mills" is her middle name or a maiden name. There is also talk about how the Children's Choice Award books are chosen state to state and whether that information needs to be included in the description of her wins.


 * How is the article rated? Is it a part of any WikiProjects?

The article is rated C-class and part of the WikiProjects for children's literature, United States, and women writers. The children's literature project ranks this article at high importance.


 * How does the way Wikipedia discusses this topic differ from the way we've talked about it in class?

It doesn't.

Overall impressions

 * Guiding questions


 * What is the article's overall status?

This article is missing a lot of information and needs more citation before it could be considered a higher quality article.


 * What are the article's strengths?

The article is strong in providing a detailed list of Sharon Draper's awards and honors for her books.


 * How can the article be improved?

The article should go more in depth about what kinds of books Sharon Draper writes. Perhaps how they were critically received, the audience she was seeking, and maybe featuring quotes from Draper about her writing, the how and why of her books and career.


 * How would you assess the article's completeness - i.e. Is the article well-developed? Is it underdeveloped or poorly developed?

The content the article already has is strong, but it's underdeveloped in that there is a lot more information out there that is not included.

Optional activity

 * Choose at least 1 question relevant to the article you're evaluating and leave your evaluation on the article's Talk page. Be sure to sign your feedback

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