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Evaluation Mexican American Studies Department Programs, Tucson Unified School District
Evaluating: Mexican American Studies Department Programs, Tucson Unified School District

Content
The content of the article was all relevant to the topic, and seemed to give a well-balanced view of the many facets of the MAS program. The content appeared to be current through most of the article, though there was a place where the article mentioned the current state of the program and was very vague, which could be investigated further.

Lead
The lead gave a good introduction to the article, but it was shorter than is typical of a Wikipedia article. It provided two sentences to define the MAS program, but failed to summarize the content of the article well. Providing a better lead that was more representative of the article could make the page more accessible and useful to readers.

Tone
The tone of the article appears to be neutral and academic. There are few places of bias in the piece, as the viewpoint of the school administrators who favored eliminating the MAS program was not equally represented with other viewpoints.

Talk page
The talk page shows some conversation related to areas to expand and places where wording could be confusing, such as the use of tenses to describe the program. Most issues raised are also said to be either already fixed or in the process of being fixed by the user. The article is part of several WikiProjects, including education and Mexican-American culture in Arizona. The article has a start class rating and low importance for all projects.

Content
The content of the article appears to be fairly complete. There is ample information about the plot of the story and the dynamics of Gilead. There are also smaller sections on the reception and analysis of the novel, with room to add more.The article puts extra focus onto the plot of the novel, and fails to expand in areas of background and implications of the work.

Article framework
According to the provided handout, the article does not follow the prescribed organization for an article about a book. The article could be made far more readable and agreeable with other wikipedia articles by rearranging the content into a standard format. This would also expose areas that are lacking in terms of content, such as the reception and analysis of the book.

Lead
The lead gives a fair introduction and outline to the article, and mirrors the article in favoring information about the plot and themes of the novel to the outside implications of the text, though it does include information on awards received.

Background
There is no background section in this article. This break from the standard format for Wikipedia articles about books could bring about confusion and decrease the ease of accessibility to the information in the article. Some of the information that would be included in the background section is present in other sections of the article, though it could be hard for a reader to synthesize because it is so spread out. Much of the background information of the novel is lacking from the article altogether, and would need to be researched before editing.

Summary
The plot summary gives a complete view of the novels plot. It is fairly long, but doesn't need significant editing at first evaluation.

Genre
The article's genre section gives a good overview of the space the novel occupies as speculative fiction and includes good sources on the topic. The section includes some information, especially in the Historical Context subheading, that would be better suited to other sections of the article to increase clarity, flow, and accessibility of information.

Analysis
The analysis section is also missing from the article, showing another deviation from the conventional framework for articles about novels. The information that should be in this section is somewhat present in other sections, as was observed with the missing background section. In order to improve the reader's ability to access the information, the information incorrectly placed in other sections would have to be rearranged, and some further research would be required, especially to present the varied perspectives on the analysis held by different figures in the field.

Publication
The article also lacks a publication section, though much of the information for this section can be found elsewhere in the article, and could be restructured to better fit the framework. This section would most likely be fairly short for this novel.

Reception
The reception section is fairly comprehensive, though it primarily focuses on the feminist perspective on the novel. A more balanced response could be collected, and the subsection on race could be expanded to better explain a central criticism of the work.

Infobox
The info-box is present and contains good content in a readable format.

Points to be added:
From the Merriman article I would add a point on his claim that Atwood inserts the white women into a space of oppression that was actually occupied by African Americans (1) into the race section, which lacks this facet of its evaluation of race in the novel. There is currently just a single sentence addressing this critique.

From the Rule article, I would add a sentence detailing her claim that Atwood uses The Handmaid's tale to challenge Nature's Nation. (629)

Both of these points would be presented as opinions held by established figures in the field and attributed to their respective author.

Wikipedia Project, Phase One: evaluating Wikipedia articles related to Fun Home
Evaluation of Fun Home as compared to The Handmaid's Tale

The Wikipedia article for Fun Home is generally well done. It follows a strong format that is consistent with Wikipedia's standards for articles about novels. Unlike that article for The Handmaid's Tale, this article is easy to follow and allows a reader to find target information quickly and easily. The Fun Home article still has room for improvement, though. The lead is wordy and, while the content is good, should be revisited for brevity. Some wording in the lead should also be revised.

The article is lacking a dedicated analysis section, though content related to analysis can be found elsewhere in the article. A dedicated analysis section would be beneficial to the article as readers may seek out the analysis section when first interacting with the work as there is a lot to unpack related to the plot and extenuating circumstances of the novel.

Three part evaluation of The Handmaid's Tale
General Observation: The framework of the article doesn't follow the standard format for articles about books. There are sections present in the article that don't belong, drawing information away from where it should be.

Concrete point: An example of a misplaced section is the Setting. The setting section is not a part of the Wikipedia guidelines, and draws information that should be included in other areas. The first paragraph of the setting describes the actual setting, which could be included in the summary section. The rest of the section includes an analysis of the sociopolitical situation.

Action item: The first paragraph could be integrated into the summary section, with the remainder of the section integrated into an analysis section, which would need to be created.

Sources for influx of disease in the Caribbean
Smallpox Devastates Indigenous Populations (1)

- Smallpox had been endemic in Europe since 8th century, but had never made it to the Caribbean until Europeans made contact in the fifteenth century. The indigenous populations in the Caribbean, as in the rest of the Americas, had no natural immunity to the virus and lacked the ability to properly treat the disease on a large scale.

- Smallpox messed up the social structures of the indigenous people. With everybody dying from the disease it was impossible to maintian their normal schedule of planting/harvesting/etc leaving them much more vulnerable to the europeans

The Columbian Exchange: A History of Disease, Food, and Ideas (2)

- Not just smallpox, but also whooping cough, measles, and others, all of which were unheard of before European invasion

-Taino population of Hispanola was 60,000 to 8 million before european contact but the entire population was virtually extinct 50 years after columbus first arived in 1492

- Syphilis is thought to have originated in the Americas and spread via columbus and his crew

epidemics in the Americas, 1450–1750 (3)

-Disease facilitated the conquest

-Smallpox was deadliest by far

Transoceanic Mortality: The Slave Trade in Comparative Perspective (4)

- Conditions on slave ships led to spread of disease before arrival in americas

Of Agues and Fevers: Malaria in the Early Chesapeake (5)

- Malaria was unheard of in the americas prior to european contact, but was introduced via the caribbean

-Malaria was endemic in both europe and africa, so it was brought to the americas by both european invaders and enslaved africans

-malaria is a parastic infection of the genus plasmodium, spread by mosquitoes of the genus anopheles

Side Effects of Immunities: the African Slave Trade (6)

-Malaria was a problem in the Americas, and became endemic in areas with the mosquitoes

- The europeans recognized that the african slaves had better immunity than the locals, increasing demand for slaves from africa as opposed to enslaving indigenous peoples

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= Draft one of contributions to Wikipedia article on Influx of disease in the Caribbean =

European contact
Before European contact, the indigenous peoples of the Caribbean are thought to have lived with infrequent epidemic diseases, brought about by limited contact between tribes. (2) This left them socially and biologically unprepared when Christopher Columbus and his crew introduced several infectious diseases, including smallpox, whopping cough, and measles. (2) When the European diseases began to spread from the carriers to the indigenous population, there was no natural immunity to protect the indigenous people, leading to more serious cases and higher mortality.(1) There was also no system in place to care for the sick as the society was not used to the diseases as European nations were at the time.(3)

Among the most notable of diseases in the Columbian exchange is Smallpox, which first broke out in the Americas on the island of Hispaniola shortly after Columbus's first voyage. (1)The disease was carried by Christopher Columbus and his crew from Europe, where it had been endemic for over seven hundred years. (1) Like the other diseases introduced in the time period, the Europeans were familiar with the treatment of the disease and had some natural immunity, which reduced mortality and facilitated quicker recovery. (1) The Taino people, who inhabited Hispanola, had no natural smallpox immunity and were generally unfamiliar with treating epidemic disease. (1) The Taino population before European contact is estimated to have been between 60,000 to 8 million people, and the entire nation was virtually extinct 50 years after contact. (2)

Because the indigenous societies, including the Taino, were unfamiliar with the diseases, they were not prepared to deal with the social consequences. The high number of people incapacitated by the disease disrupted the normal cycles of agriculture and hunting that sustained the native population. (3) This led to increased dependence on the Europeans, and reduced capacity to resist the invasion. (3) The eventual enslavement by the Europeans compounded the effects of the epidemics, though the loss in population has primarily been attributed to the disease.(2)

Transatlantic slave trade
As the population of enslaved indigenous peoples fell due to disease and abuse, the Spanish began to import enslaved people from Africa in 1505. (Loewen) Because there was already an established European colonial presence in Africa at the time, the slaves were less vulnerable to disease than the Taino people on Hispanola. (6) However, they came carrying their own diseases, including malaria. (4) At the time, malaria was endemic in both Europe and Africa, though more prevalent in Africa. (4) The climate of the Caribbean was hospitable to mosquitoes of the genus anopheles, which acts as a host for the disease, allowing it to spread. (5) Many of the African-born enslaved people had genetic protections against malaria that the indigenous enslaved people did not. (6) As malaria, smallpox and other diseases spread the indigenous population continued to fall, increasing the motivation for the Spanish to continue to bring in more enslaved people to work in mining and agriculture, driving the development of triangular trade. (6)

(Citations refer to ref works bibliography, will be added in actual article, 517 words)

= Final draft of contributions to Influx of disease in the Caribbean =

European disease
Before European contact, the indigenous peoples of the Caribbean are thought to have lived with infrequent epidemic diseases, brought about by limited contact between tribes. (2) This left them socially and biologically unprepared when Christopher Columbus and his crew introduced several infectious diseases, including smallpox, whooping cough, and measles. (2) The European diseases spread from the carriers to the indigenous populations, who had no immunity, leading to more serious cases and higher mortality. (1) Because the indigenous societies were not used to the diseases as European nations were at the time, there was no system in place to care for the sick.(3)

Smallpox is among the most notable of diseases in the Columbian exchange due to the high number of deaths and impact on life for indigenous societies. Smallpox first broke out in the Americas on the island of Hispaniola shortly after Columbus's first voyage. (1)The disease was carried by Christopher Columbus and his crew from Europe, where it had been endemic for over seven hundred years. (1) Like the other diseases introduced in the time period, the Europeans were familiar with the treatment of the disease and had some natural immunity, which reduced mortality and facilitated quicker recovery. (1) The Taino people, who inhabited Hispanola, had no natural smallpox immunity and were unfamiliar with treating epidemic disease. (1) The Taino population before European contact is estimated to have been between 60,000 to 8 million people, and the entire nation was virtually extinct 50 years after contact, which has primarily been attributed to the diseases.(2)

Because the indigenous societies, including the Tainos, were unfamiliar with the diseases, they were not prepared to deal with the social consequences. (3) The high number of people incapacitated by the disease disrupted the normal cycles of agriculture and hunting that sustained the native populations. (3) This led to increased dependence on the Europeans, and reduced capacity to resist the European invasion. (3) The eventual enslavement of the Taino people by the Europeans compounded the effects of the epidemics in the downfall of indigenous societies. (2)

Impact of transatlantic slave trade
As the population of enslaved indigenous peoples fell due to disease and abuse, the Spanish began to import enslaved workers from Africa in 1505. (Loewen) Because there was already an established European colonial presence in Africa at the time, the enslaved people were less vulnerable to disease than the Taino people on Hispanola. (6) However, they came carrying their own diseases, including malaria. (4) At the time, malaria was endemic in both Europe and Africa, though more prevalent in Africa. (4) The climate of the Caribbean was hospitable to mosquitoes of the genus anopheles, which acts as a host for the disease and allowed it to spread. (5) Many of the African-born enslaved people had genetic protections against malaria that the indigenous enslaved people did not. (6) As malaria, smallpox and other diseases spread the indigenous population continued to fall, which increased the motivation for the Spanish to continue to import more enslaved workers from Africa. This enslaved people worked in mining and agriculture, driving the development of triangular trade. (6)

(Citations refer to ref works bibliography, will be added in actual article, 517 words)