User:Iwritesometimes/Evaluate an Article

Which article are you evaluating?
Young adult fiction

Why you have chosen this article to evaluate?
I've chosen this article because my primary professional focus is editing/publishing, and I often write creative works that are considered young adult. This genre is important because it is developing more and more to reach a wider audience of young adults and address broader topics in the hopes of offering more representations of different young adult experiences. I think this article is very interesting because while it does acknowledge some of the growth of the genre, it seems to have a very limited perhaps biased view of it.

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.)

''I think it puts an emphasis on fiction since the article is entitled YA fiction, if that makes sense. So I wouldn't necessarily see a need for revision here. -MV'' ''This is an excellent way to contribute! -MV'' ''I do think a sentence or two about how YA has grown in terms of topical diversity and market/sales would be useful here. -MV'' ''Interesting. Not sure what you mean by bias in favor of authors. Do you mean in terms of who is mentioned? it would always be helpful to expand different examples, especially so it isn't U.S.-centric. -MV'' ''*This is definitely one of the challenges of an article like this. Book reviews may not be perfect sources, but they are more widely available than other things.''' ''I agree there could be different images. -MV''
 * 1) I believe the leading section is fairly clear about the genre without being overly detailed. However, it does mention only that YA is fiction, and I believe nonfiction works can be and have been written for young adults as well.
 * 1) Content: some notes I have of content are:
 * 2) the first section mentions that YA is shaped by the history of how young adulthood was perceived, but only includes one main source from a single author. I know of at least one other source from a psychologist that wrote a book on adolescents that contributed to many stereotypes that hugely affected YA genre, so much so that they are still very present even today.
 * 1) in the section 21st century, the only topic written about is problems that arose from diversity/sensitivity in newer YA novels; there is a notable focus on the issues that authors and publishers experienced with their works being criticized negatively due to appropriation, misrepresentation, or bias/discrimination. There doesn't seem to be much about how YA has grown in diversity, the topics its come to explore, or any examples of newer YA novels. It seems to be under-researched or biased in its writing. Diversity is expanded upon later, but this also lacks examples that earlier sections include.
 * 1) I think this article, especially in diversity sections, may show a bias in favor of authors, or perhaps just a lack of adequate research on the topic of misrepresentation in YA.
 * 1) I'm not sure if all these sources are reliable; many are book reviews, which are almost always biased in some way.
 * 1) I don't see a problem with organization. I do find it odd that "Style" is at the bottom, when it seems like a writing-centered topic that would be better up by "Themes" and before "Diversity."
 * 2) Some of the images did make me chuckle; there are only two, and one is fine and does enhance some understanding, but the other is a randomly selected author from a book signing. I think it would be more beneficial to choose something else that isn't so focused on just one author that isn't representative of the entire genre.
 * 1) The talk section community seem to agree that this genre isn't as well-defined as it could be, that there is a disagreement on what is considered YA, and a general concern for the diversity sections' lack of reputable sources--and the overall article's sources as well. There is actually a person who argued that the article is "not an appropriate place to push a diversity agenda," and seems unhappy with the length of that section, despite it being a bit small. No one had mentioned the History as far as I can see and lack of other sources for early adolescent literature focused on who counts as a young adult.
 * 2) I think this article definitely needs work. I didn't realize that it was rated S, I just assumed such a topic would have more attention and be higher in the rating. People who edit this article also seem to either be intent on adding sources/content, very defensive of keeping it the way it is and even removing content, or offended by the apparent overuse of Harry Potter as an example of YA.

Feedback from Vetter
Hello - Great work on this article evaluation of Young adult fiction. I think it's a good choice to work on for this assignment because of how closely connected it is to your professional interests as well as because of the obvious developmental needs it demonstrates. In addition to the issues you've pointed out, I think some attention to how the article seems to be written with a focus on U.S. authors could be improved.

Just keep in mind that you don't need to take the article to any kind of "final version" - the assignment requirements are


 * Minimum of 4 references cited and added to Wikipedia article
 * Minimum of 300 words added to Wikipedia article

So really you could focus on 1-2 of the tasks you've mentioned.

Anyway hope this helps! I commented on your major evaluative points. I'm excited to see what you will do with this article. Keep in mind that a draft of your edits is due on Oct. 4.

-DarthVetter (talk) 16:58, 26 September 2022 (UTC)