User:Jessica Eng/Evaluate an Article

Which article are you evaluating?
American literature (academic discipline) - Wikipedia

Why you have chosen this article to evaluate?
I choose to evaluate this article as it was one of the first topics to spark my interest when reviewing the list of articles. I decided that I would move forward with the first article I selected. American literature is a broad topic and I felt like this would cover the general history of the topic and go into more details.

Evaluate the article
Lead section - started with a very general, one line statement about what American literature is then went into the "History" section. In my experience with Wikipedia pages, there is at least a brief paragraph at the beginning that provides a bit more context on the topic. The abrupt statement at the front made it so I went immediately into the follow-on sections looking for more information.

Content - overall the content was good, if looking for history on American literature. What it is lacking is more information beyond 1932 and more relevant information on the overall topic. It appears the last edit was made in October 2020 so it's likely the article could be revised to ensure the information is most current.

Tone & Balance - overall, the article is neutral; however, there are words utilized such as "generally seen", that could make appear as though the author was providing an opinion but there are references provided to backup the statements.

Sources & References - overall, there is a mixture of sources utilized including books and journals and were written and/or retrieved from as early as 1994 and as late as 2015. The links to the journals and online articles work and you can find the books referenced utilizing the listed ISBN. There does appear to be a reference or two missing from the history section related to World War I and the increase study of American literature.

Organization and writing quality - the article is a little too concise especially if a reader is looking for more current information on the topic of American literature. It would be interesting if the article discussed how American literature as an academic discipline as evolved overtime.

Images & Media - there are no images included in this article.

Talk page discussion - this article is listed as within the scope of WikiProject Education with a C-class rating and mid-importance on the project's importance scale. There is one question submitted in 2018 about what all includes American literature, and someone submitted a sourcing related question on where the sentences in the last paragraph where sourced, as they were not sourced in the article.

Overall impressions - overall, this is a very brief look at the history of American literature but it leaves me as a reader wanting more information. There are "also see" links provided which allows the reader to go into more details on related topics including American studies. I opened this article and found more information on the interdisciplinary field. One suggestion would be to provide updated information on the journals and associations and maybe address the question a user left about what is included in American literature.