Bio

My name is Holly and I was born in Wurzburg, Germany in 1999. I am in my first year as a college student and hope to one day get my masters in Library Science. I absolutely love to read, I have been addicted to books ever since I learned how to read. My favorite genre of literature would be Historical Fiction. I am fascinated by English royalty, especially Henry viii and his many wives. Besides reading, I like photography, movies, and baking.

I have always used Wikipedia in my past school projects as an information source, but never have I thought to actually contribute to the site until now. I am interested in possibly writing about such subjects as: film, British royalty, and literature. I am interested in looking into more topics on Wikipedia and the various other sub sites such as the fandom wikipedia site. I can see myself definitely using and contributing to Wikipedia in the future.

Article Review

The story White Oleander by Janet Fitch is a story that has stayed with me ever since my first reading of it in the tenth grade. A dark coming of age story about a girl who loses her mother as a teenager; takes us through the trials and tribulations of a young woman who has to become an adult much quicker than most of us do. Not only is it an extremely interesting story but it was also selected by Oprah's Book Club in 1999. And after visiting the page on Wikipedia I found three aspects of the article worth commenting on: non-functioning links, excessive summarization, and lack of citations.

Links

There are three links on the bottom of the page for White Oleander one of them being non-functioning. The link: "White Oleander. Making a Monster" on the Salon website is no longer functional and when clicking on it, leads you to an error page. This may be because the last edit was on December 12, 2016; but there is a real lack of links. I don't think three links is enough for a book of this caliber. More outside information should be provided for this page.

Excessive Summarization

A warning has been placed at the top of this page that the plot summary may be excessively long or detailed and I completely agree. It could probably be shortened to a little more than half of what it is right now. In the story the main character lives in several different foster homes; the author of this summary writes in great detail on them all. Personally I think the sub summaries of the foster homes could be cut to only the basics of each foster home and her experiences in the particular home.

Citations

There are no citations to speak of on this page and so no reference section either. The only outside information being provided on this page is the external links section at the bottom. I believe if the page were to have citations and a reference page added for things like quotes and other information in the story it would be much improved.

Summary

In closing I would say the White Oleander Wikipedia page is "so-so". While the actual content in the page is correct and true to the book, it gives the reader a good background of what the story is about. Although it could be shortened, I find the author of this synopsis's attention to detail admirable. The author uses creative words and phrases to describe characters and includes little things like character nicknames and short descriptions of symbols in the book. If the pot summary was shortened, more links added, and citations and reference section added the page for White Oleander would be in excellent shape.

This user is a student editor in Wikipedia:Wiki_Ed/Olympic_College/English_099_(Fall).
Student assignments should always be carried out using a course page set up by the instructor. It is usually best to develop assignments in your sandbox. After evaluation, the additions may go on to become a Wikipedia article or be published in an existing article.