User:Whodatmom/Evaluate an Article

Which article are you evaluating?
Hurricane Katrina

Why you have chosen this article to evaluate?
I chose this article because I was a Louisiana resident at the time of Hurricane Katrina. I was one of many people who evacuated to get away from the approaching storm.Although, the damage to my home was minimal, I had friends who were severely impacted by the damage that the storm left behind. My impression of the article was that it was written very well. It had a timeline of the weather a week before it made landfall and the impacts that it not only made to New Orleans but the other cities as well.

Evaluate the article
Lead section-Well written, makes you want to keep reading and learn more about the storm and its destruction.

Content- The article has a lot of information regarding the days before and after the storm. This articles gives a good breakdown of each area from weather radar to government response.

Tone and balance- The article does lean towards the negative side of the response from government officials. However, I do not believe it's intentionally made to to persuade me in one direction. The writer is sharing the facts and how things unfolded days after the storm hit which was very negative due to lack of help to New Orleans.

Sources and References- This article has close to 200 references. I only found one link that did not work. The article got its information from many reputable sources such as nasa.gov and The Weather Channel to name a few. Reading through the sources I was concerned of some sources such as Time Magazine and CNN due to it possibly being biased but the sources used direct quotes from interviews.

Organization and writing quality- The article is very organized and broken down in many sections explaining everything that is needed to know about Hurricane Katrina. It's written professionally without any grammatical mistakes.

Images and Media-Each section has an image to go along with the information given. The images allow the reader to get a mental image of what is being discussed. The pictures used are in the public domain.

Talk Page- Only a few revisions were made, one being a typo. Other than that, the article has been viewed many times to be in the Top 25 Report 3 times. Also, it has been used in Wikiprojects 4 times and listed as a level 5 vital article.

Overall Impression- It was a long read. However, it gives you everything you need to know and not just what was told on the news. I would definitely recommend this article for anyone who wants more detailed information.