User:Oliviaabad/Evaluate an Article

Which article are you evaluating?
The Handmaid's Tale (opera)

Why you have chosen this article to evaluate?
(Briefly explain why you chose it, why it matters, and what your preliminary impression of it was.)

I chose this article to evaluate because I'm interested in writing about The Handmaid's Tale for our assignment. The main articles for The Handmaid's Tale have a lot of information already. Initially, I wanted to write about the BBC Radio 4 adaptation, but I couldn't find enough information about it to make it notable. When I first saw that there was an opera adaptation for The Handmaid's Tale, I was immediately interested. I have never heard of it or seen it, but I've watched the TV series and loved it, so I thought it would be fun to learn more about the opera.

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.)

Lead section

The article has a good intro sentence clearly describing the article's topic, but it does not include a brief description of the article's major sections. I would recommend adding a sentence or two to do this. Although the lead section is concise and doesn't include information that's not present in the article, it could benefit from having the brief description of the major sections.

Content

The article's content is relevant to the topic and it is up-to-date. Under the "Style" section, one line needs a citation added. The "Performances and recordings" section could use a little work. I found other performances of the opera elsewhere, so I would recommend adding those. I also found an article, "Offred Renamed: The Adaptation from Novel to Opera" by Helmut Reichenbächer, that has some good information that I think would work well in this article. I would also add more to the "Critical reception" section.

Tone and balance

The article is mostly from a neutral POV, especially since it's mainly synopsis. There isn't much that appears heavily biased. I do think that there could be more added from Offred's viewpoint, particularly about the "role" of women in society. This article doesn't attempt to persuade the reader in favor of one position or away from another.

Sources and references

Not all facts in this article are backed up by a reliable source. For this amount of information, I would expect there to be at least a few sources for this article. There are only two actual sources, and only one of them has a link. The first one with no link is a synopsis from the opera itself. Additionally, the second one (with the link) is a review for the opera from 2019. I recommend adding peer-reviewed sources from the SFSU library database. I have found a few that I will use to add information to this article. As for the links in the "External links" section, there are a couple issues. First, when you click on the first link "Interview with Ruders about the opera" you will find that the page does not exist. I would remove this link. Second, the last link "Boston Lyric Opera website" takes you to the Boston Lyric Opera homepage, where there is no information related to The Handmaid's Tale opera. I would remove this link as well.

Organization and writing quality

The "synopsis" section is written professionally for the most part. I would just go through and edit it carefully because there's a few parts that I think could be re-worded for clarity. I would also do the same for the "critical reception" section. I believe it is well organized with sections that reflect the major points of the topic. It could just use a little more information.

Images and media

There are no images on this page.

Talk page discussion

The only concern on the article's talk page is a misunderstanding in the "language" section from a Danish opera fan. The article is rated as Start-Class on the quality scale, and it's a part of WikiProject Opera. It is also part of WikiProject Science Fiction which works out perfectly as I am adding to this article for a Post-Apocalyptic Science Fiction class.

Overall impressions

I would definitely agree that this article is a Start-Class article. The synopsis is strong with a few minor edits needed. The "performances and recordings" section and "critical reception" section could use some work, adding reliable sources from the SFSU library database. I would say that the article is underdeveloped, as I found some good sources for additional information.