User:Schultry/Evaluate an Article

Which article are you evaluating?
Shays' Rebellion - Wikipedia

Why you have chosen this article to evaluate?
I chose this article because I am really interested in early American history, and find domestic issues to be intriguing. Shay's Rebellion matters because it is the first case of a domestic uprising in the United States and was a decisive factor in the move away from the Articles of Confederation. I initially think that this is a very well written and researched article.

Evaluate the article
The lead section is fairly concise and lays out a summary of the rest of the article. It doesn’t include any additional information. Good start to the article. It seemed to be written from a neutral perspective. Value judgments were not made on either side, and the perspectives of both the Shayites and the government were addressed. It may be possible that the government viewpoint is slightly underrepresented. No persuasion is occurring, however. The sources and references seem excellent. There are several sources cited in the bibliography, and there are further sources cited in the additional reading section. Of the sources cited in the bibliography, several are from either university presses or scholarly journals. I was unable to find better sources than the ones cited. I felt the article was fairly easy to read. It could have potentially used more clarification in regards to the battle at Sheffield. According to the article, it was the bloodiest event of the rebellion, yet only a small paragraph is dedicated to it. I think additional information would be helpful if it is available. The images that there are from this time are included and helpful, especially the map. The talk page was very interesting, as there was a discussion as to the naming of the event, whether it was Shay’s or Shays’, and an interesting discussion on one of the included sources who differed in his research from others in casualties and impact on the ratification of the constitution. Overall, I would say this is a very good article, and Wikipedia seems to agree, as this article was deemed a level-5 vital article, and also nominated for being a “good article” in 2012.