User:Maddiemohon/Evaluate an Article

Which article are you evaluating?
Black Death

Why you have chosen this article to evaluate?
I have chosen the Black Plague article because I have always been interesting in the Black Plague. It matters because it was such a big part of history and is the deadliest pandemic the world has ever seen. Everyone seems to know of it but probably couldn't give too many details about it. My preliminary impression of the Black Plague was that it was a very deadly disease in history, but I wasn't sure of the logistics of it.

Evaluate the article
Lead section:


 * 1) Yes, it includes a good first sentence
 * 2) Yes, it includes brief descriptions of the topics it will go further in depth with
 * 3) It does not include information not in the article
 * 4) The lead isn't too long but gives a good overview

Content:


 * 1) Yes, the content is relevant
 * 2) Yes, the content is up to date. There is a small section at the bottom explaining modern day concerns.
 * 3) Nothing seems out of place or irrelevant
 * 4) It has a section dedicated to the populations that were persecuted as a consequence of the Black Plague. Jewish people, Romani, and even people with skin conditions like psoriasis were targeted as being the cause.

Tone and Balance:


 * 1) The article is neutral
 * 2) Unbiased
 * 3) The section about the persecutions is small, and I'm sure there is more information that could be added.
 * 4) Minority viewpoints aren't really included. However, the article is just a summary of information about the disease, not necessarily about the social context.
 * 5) No persuasion

Sources and References:


 * 1) Every paragraph has a citation
 * 2) Yes, the references are thorough. There is a lot of cited material.
 * 3) There are a lot of current sources as well as some older ones
 * 4) Yes, there is a diverse source list
 * 5) The sources are from academic journals and books
 * 6) Yes, the links work

Organization and writing quality:


 * 1) Yes, the article is concise, clear, and easy to read
 * 2) I did not notice any spelling or grammatical errors
 * 3) Yes, it is broken down into sections to deep dive into the parts necessary.

Images and media:


 * 1) It includes a several maps, pictures of symptoms, old paintings, etc. that give you more of an understanding
 * 2) Yes, the images contain a description of what it is, when it is from, and citations
 * 3) Yes, they all include citations
 * 4) Yes, the images are all towards the side so your reading is not interrupted

Talk page discussion:


 * 1) There are people tweaking some of the information and making it as accurate as possible.
 * 2) This article is rated B class. It is apart of several wiki projects such as Medicine, Middle Ages, Death, and Jewish History.
 * 3) We have not talked much about the Black Plague yet, but in class it was mentioned that minorities were persecuted as a result and the wikipedia page talks about that as well. It also talks about the northern African outbreak, which I don't think we have covered.

Overall impressions:


 * 1) Its overall status is good, however there are a few tweaks that could be made with death tolls and such (as seen on the talk page).
 * 2) The articles strengths would include the number of sources it has (over 150), and the amount of information it has.
 * 3) The article can be improved by minor fixes like a citation link not working, or information being somewhat repeated in different sections.
 * 4) I think that this article is very developed