User:Lizrileymga/Evaluate an Article

Evaluate an article

• Name of article: Norris Church Mailer
• I have chosen to evaluate this article because it was assigned to me in Middle Georgia State University's Writing in Digital Environs (Spring 2020).

Lead

Lead evaluation

The Lead includes a concise, clear introductory sentence. It mentions Norris’s writing, acting, modeling, and artist endeavors. However, the Lead does not mention Norris's early life, health issues, or legacy. The Lead doesn't include information that is not also in the article. Overall, the Lead is concise and not overly detailed.

Content

Content evaluation

The article’s content is relevant to the topic and appears to be up-to-date. The article doesn’t include any information that doesn’t belong. It could include more details about the relationship between Norris and Norman.

Tone and Balance

Tone and balance evaluation

This article is neutral and not particularly biased or promoting a specific viewpoint except in one place. The word “callously” is in the following sentence: Still in the early days of their relationship, Norris showed her rough draft to Mailer for his opinion, to which he callously responded, "It's not as bad as I thought it would be", causing Norris to put her work aside for the next several decades.

In the cited source for this information, there is no reference to callousness on the part of Norman Mailer. The addition of this word represents an assumption and promotes a particular opinion of Norman Mailer.

Sources and References

Sources and references evaluation

Most of the sources in this article are linked to reputable sources such as books and newspapers, and the sources are current. However, the sources have the following issues:

• The use of NNDB is questionable. There is discussion on the Talk page regarding the legitimacy of the NNDB website and the suggestion was made to find another source. for the NNDB article as the legitimacy of that website. A suggestion was made to use some other source when possible.
• There are two sources in the Works Cited list that are not referred to within the article. One is the Tulsa World article "Norris Mailer, 6th Wife of Norman Mailer, Dies". The second is the Lennon book “Norman Mailer: A Double Life”.
• The Citations don’t match the Works Cited list except in the case of the Harris article. In all other cases the Citations appear to be showing retrieval date instead of the date of the article or book.
• The source for Joseph Berger’s book is labeled as a news article instead of a book.
• The reference to Wilkes.edu in the Citation list is not supported with an entry in the Works Cited list.

All of the works cited except two could be confirmed. The work by Harris could not be found via a basic online search or through Galileo. The Klemesrud article in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch could not be located online, however; the St. Louis Post-Dispatch did exist in 1979.

This source list could be more thorough. There are many more sources of information about Norris Mailer including an interview with NPR and many articles in the Academic Journal “The Norman Mailer Society”.

Organization

Organization evaluation

The article is well written, clear, and concise. There are no spelling errors and it is easy to read. The article is also divided into sections that reflect major points of this topic. The following sentence is grammatically incorrect: Church's last novel was her own memoir, A Ticket to the Circus, published in 2010, explaining that the title described her life with Mailer, his seven children by his other wives, and her own two children: "Well, I bought a ticket to the circus. I don't know why I was surprised to see elephants".

Images and Media

Images and media evaluation

There is one image in this article. The image is appropriately captioned and laid out in a visually appealing way in the side box. This image is licensed under Creative Commons. Additional images such pictures of Norris and Norman Mailer as well as images of her artwork would enhance this article.

Checking the talk page

Talk page evaluation

The Talk page includes discussion about the article’s sections, references to Norris as both “Church” and “Norris”, and concerns about citations.

This article is rated “Start-class, low importance”. It is part of the following projects: Women’s History, Biography, United States/Arkansas, and Journalism.

Overall impressions

Overall evaluation

This underdeveloped article provides a good set of basic information, but still needs some work. The article’s strength is in its concise, readable description of Norris. It provides the reader with enough information to wonder what else is available. This article could be improved by correcting errors in the Citations and Work Cited list, adding references to other information sources, adding images, and adding links to articles on Wikipedia (for example: All My Children)

Optional activity

• Choose at least 1 question relevant to the article you're evaluating and leave your evaluation on the article's Talk page. Be sure to sign your feedback

with four tildes — ~~~~

• Link to feedback: Norris Church Mailer - Talk - The word "callously"