User:PAClara/Evaluate an Article

Which article are you evaluating?
Middle Eastern cuisine

Why you have chosen this article to evaluate?
I chose this article because it gives an overview of cuisine across the Middle East. It includes a summary of geography of the area and a brief history of travel and influences. It also highlights key elements of Middle Eastern cuisine and dining etiquette, all of which were brought up in class discussion on the 25th. While the article gives a good overview at a glance, I find it odd that some sections choose to highlight specific countries or that "religion" was lumped in with a section primarily comprised of different foods.

Evaluate the article
The lead section opens by defining the cuisines that fall into the category of "Middle Eastern cuisine." It goes on to list common ingredients and popular dishes, but does fails to mention other content included in the article or lay out a roadmap of what to expect in any way.

All of the content is relevant to the overall topic. However, some of it feels unexpected when you come across it or as if it is categorized incorrectly (like "religious influence" falling under Section 3: Elements as the only non-food related sub-topic when it is not mentioned in the Lead section at all). It is also interesting that the author chose to highlight Ramadan, Turkey, and Iran in the Dining Etiquette category while lumping in everything else under the Arab countries sub-topic. The sub-topics feel imbalanced in scope/type of topic and overall structure. Additionally, there are two topics listed in content that simply have nothing written in them in the article.The author does use easy to understand language, though, and does a good job of explaining non-English words.

As someone who does not claim any of the identities discussed in this article, the article reads to me un-biased or at least that it is not persuading the reader to make a specific impression (positive or negative). The writing does seem to generalize behaviors though and is missing caveats that may relate to tradition or religious influence in some sections. For example, in the Turkey subheading, the author talks about the order of who is served at a meal or talks about eating at gendered tables. Words like "commonly" or "traditionally" or even "historically" being used more in the article could soften some of the claims the author makes. Because the author tends to focus on general trends, nuances are lost, as well as any common counter-trends or other behaviors.

While there are a handful of sources from 2020, most date from 2003 - 2017. The quality of the sources also differs wildly. The author cites from peer-reviewed journals, about.com, BBC News, and a few personal blogs and independent web pages. Though this is a wide range of sources, the backgrounds of the authors are not that diverse. Through preliminary research, it does not seem as if authors of the references come from any historically marginalized backgrounds outside of those published in the peer-reviewed journal. The majority of the sources do contain live links to refer back to. These sources do not indicate that the article has valid, up to date information for readers. Given that the topic of the article is fairly broad and serving as an introduction to Middle Eastern cuisine, I believe more scholarly sources are available that could serve as reliable references because the topic is not very specific or obscure.

The author does not use an abundance of images. I find this a missed opportunity as food is very visual. The images included all have straight-forward captions that generally identify what is in the picture, as opposed to adding additional information that is not found in the body of the article. The images are all copyright approved by Wikipedia.

Many of the comments on the article are related to poor quality of work and point to factual errors, as well as issues with links to references. Main points of contention include defining what the Middle East is. Some commenters assert that North African cuisine is African cuisine and not at all related to Middle Eastern cuisine. Distinctions also include Arab cuisine and Middle Eastern cuisine. This article is rated as Start-Class and is implicated with Wikiprojects: Food and drink, Western Asia, and Arab world.

After considering this article, I believe that it is underdeveloped. The author lacks a clear focus and has not decided on the breadth of the article, as evidenced by the short Lead section that fails to preview what will later be covered. With a clear scope for how many topics will be covered, the sub-topics can more easily be split into orderly and more balanced sections that serve to enhance the reader's understanding, rather than throwing information at them haphazardly.

The main questions being asked in the Talk Tab surround the most basic definitions that are essential to the article, being "What is the Middle East?" Without a specific and researched response, the rest of the article will not fall into place. The sources chosen do not highlight scholarly authors and/or authors from historically marginalized, diverse, or culturally relevant backgrounds. There are a wealth of resources, and images, that would elevate this article.