User:Gabby223/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: (Thanksgiving)
 * Briefly describe why you have chosen this article to evaluate.
 * I chose this article because this topic has been historically misrepresented in the popular American narrative. This article perpetuates this narrative by excluding relevant history of Indigenous peoples.

Lead

 * Guiding questions


 * Does the Lead include an introductory sentence that concisely and clearly describes the article's topic?
 * Does the Lead include a brief description of the article's major sections?
 * Does the Lead include information that is not present in the article?
 * Is the Lead concise or is it overly detailed?

Lead evaluation
The lead of this article gives a concise overview of Thanksgiving as it is celebrated today. It prepares the reader for the rest of the article by naming the countries in which this holiday is celebrated, which the remainder of the article goes into in greater detail. It also includes very preliminary information about the origins of this holiday. The lead is relatively concise.

Content

 * Guiding questions


 * Is the article's content relevant to the topic?
 * Is the content up-to-date?
 * Is there content that is missing or content that does not belong?
 * Does the article deal with one of Wikipedia's equity gaps? Does it address topics related to historically underrepresented populations or topics?

Content evaluation
The content of this article is very relevant to the topic, and seems to be up to date. There is, however, content that is missing -- namely content regarding Indigenous peoples. Thus, it does address topics related to historically underrepresented populations. They have little to no information about the Indigenous peoples of the United States, who played a large role in the formation of this holiday.

Tone and Balance

 * Guiding questions


 * Is the article neutral?
 * Are there any claims that appear heavily biased toward a particular position?
 * Are there viewpoints that are overrepresented, or underrepresented?
 * Does the article attempt to persuade the reader in favor of one position or away from another?

Tone and balance evaluation
The tone of this article seems neutral -- there are no glaring viewpoints or arguments within it, and it seems to be solely fact based. However, the erasure of Indigenous peoples from this article makes it slightly biased as it is only catering to the colonial gaze.

Sources and References

 * Guiding questions


 * Are all facts in the article backed up by a reliable secondary source of information?
 * Are the sources thorough - i.e. Do they reflect the available literature on the topic?
 * Are the sources current?
 * Are the sources written by a diverse spectrum of authors? Do they include historically marginalized individuals where possible?
 * Check a few links. Do they work?

Sources and references evaluation
When looking at the article, the majority of the sentences include hyperlinks and citations. After clicking on a few, there are a great variety of sources, but few seem to be from reliable, peer reviewed sources. In addition, there seem to be some links that do not work.

Organization

 * Guiding questions


 * Is the article well-written - i.e. Is it concise, clear, and easy to read?
 * Does the article have any grammatical or spelling errors?
 * Is the article well-organized - i.e. broken down into sections that reflect the major points of the topic?

Organization evaluation
This article seems to be well written -- it is clear and easy to read. The article does not seem to have any noticeable grammatical or spelling errors, and is well organized with a clear table of contents at the beginning.

Images and Media

 * Guiding questions


 * Does the article include images that enhance understanding of the topic?
 * Are images well-captioned?
 * Do all images adhere to Wikipedia's copyright regulations?
 * Are the images laid out in a visually appealing way?

Images and media evaluation
The images included are relevant and help the reader understand the written content. Most images are well captioned, but there are a few that lack proper background info. The images are laid out relatively well, and as far as I know, they adhere to the copyright regulations. The images I am most concerned with, though, add to the erasure of Indigenous peoples (as they are almost invisible in these pictures), and the biased colonial gaze.

Checking the talk page

 * Guiding questions


 * What kinds of conversations, if any, are going on behind the scenes about how to represent this topic?
 * How is the article rated? Is it a part of any WikiProjects?
 * How does the way Wikipedia discusses this topic differ from the way we've talked about it in class?

Talk page evaluation
According to the Talk page, this article is part of eight different WikiProjects. It also states that it is a level-5 vital article, and that it has a B-Class rating. Most of the conversation on this page is about certain facts or sentences presented in the article (including a similar holiday in India and clarification on what "first harvest" means), while one comment mentions the exclusion of Indigenous peoples. This comment is mostly related to what we have discussed in class, because even though the author didn't outwardly mention the harm that this article does to Indigenous peoples, they did mention specific and pertinent facts that had been left out of the article.

Overall impressions

 * Guiding questions


 * What is the article's overall status?
 * What are the article's strengths?
 * How can the article be improved?
 * How would you assess the article's completeness - i.e. Is the article well-developed? Is it underdeveloped or poorly developed?

Overall evaluation
My overall impressions are that the article is for the most part clearly written, well organized, and informative. However, it is missing some very important details, specifically in regards to the Indigenous peoples of the modern day United States. So while the article is informative and is the perfect answer to a quick google search on what Thanksgiving is, it is not developed enough to give a holistic and factual history of Thanksgiving.

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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