User:Nby2216/Evaluate an Article

Which article are you evaluating?
1721 Boston smallpox outbreak - Wikipedia

Why you have chosen this article to evaluate?
I chose an article about a smallpox outbreak in Boston because it has to do with the topic of my course, and it took place in the United States so I felt I would have a better chance at understanding the history of the time.

Evaluate the article

 * 1) Lead Section:                                                                                                                                         The lead section does a good job at revealing the content of this article from the first sentence. It talks about the article major topics like the outbreak, the earliest experiments with public inoculation, and     how it changed Western medical treatment of the disease as well as people's social and religious feelings about the disease. Overall, I feel the lead is very concise and to the point as it does not contain any information that is not discussed in the body paragraphs.
 * 2) Content:                                                                                                                                                             The content starts off discussing how smallpox came to Boston, detailing the first outbreak to the last. From there, it discusses the public inoculation campaign and how Puritan minister Cotton Mather was pushing for it in an attempt to stop the spread of smallpox. It then discusses the violence, controversy, and the social and scientific impact of the virus and the inoculation campaign. This information was last updated June 21st of 2023 so it is pretty up to date. It does not really discuss an equity gap or an underrepresented group of people.
 * 3) Tone and Balance:                                                                                                                                     When it comes to the controversy of inoculation the author shows the viewpoint and reasoning behind Cotton Mather want for variolation more     in depth than the public's reasoning for being against it. This lack of thoroughness garners sympathy towards Mathers as were told about angry mobs and bombs. Though I feel the author was trying to maintain neutrality and so maybe the facts are simply in favor of Mathers.
 * 4) Sources and References:                                                                                                                                  The links work and they contain accurate, relevant sources that are supportive to the article.
 * 5) Organization and Writing Quality:                                                                                                                          I feel like it is organized really well in a way that makes it flow and the writing is clear and concise, very easy to understand.
 * 6) Images and Media:                                                                                                                                 The images provided don't necessarily add to the understanding of the topic, but it does make the article as a whole more visually appealing. All pictures are captioned and sourced I believe in accordance with the Wikipedia regulations.
 * 7) Talk Page Discussion:                                                                                                                                   There is only one question on the talk page asking how the economy was impacted by this outbreak, how did the people prevent infection, and how did the outbreak come to an end.
 * 8) Overall Impression:                                                                                                                                  My overall thoughts on this article was that it was really well written and educational and did a good job of explaining what was     going on at this time. Maybe as an improvement they could try to find a     point of view or an account from a citizen who was vehemently against the inoculation to add more understanding. Overall, I found the article well-developed.