Reverse Outline
• Introduction- background on migration from El Salvador (paragraph 1).
• Reasons why Salvadorans migrated to the United States. Mainly focusing on the commercialization of coffee in Central America and the subsequent Salvadoran migration to San Francisco (paragraph 2).
• Size of the Salvadoran population in the United States since 1970 (paragraph 3).
• Demographics of migrants from El Salvador (paragraph 4).
• Locations of Salvadoran communities in the United States (paragraph 5).
• Gender influence on the Salvadoran communities in the United States (paragraph 6).
• The dangers of migrating to the United States (paragraph 7).
• The problems in El Salvador that cause people to emigrate (paragraph 8).
• The process of becoming a legal resident in the U.S. (paragraphs 9, 10, 11).
• The difficulties Salvadorans face when trying to become legal residents
• Explanation of why most Salvadoran immigrants in the U.S. are illegal (paragraph 12).
• Job opportunities in the United States for Salvadorans (paragraphs 13,14)
• Jobs for men (paragraph 13)
• Jobs for women (paragraph 14)
• How location impacts job opportunities for Salvadorans (Paragraph 15).
• Wages for Salvadoran workers in the United States (Paragraph 16).
• Forces causing Salvadorans, especially women, to migrate to the United States. Some come to reunite with family members, while others come alone (Paragraph 17).
• Comparison of immigration law for males and females from El Salvador (Paragraph 18).
• Family structure for Salvadoran immigrants to the United States. Some establish families in the U.S., while others leave their families back home (Paragraph 19).
• Obstacles for young Salvadoran migrants in the United States (Paragraph 20).
• Obstacles for elderly Salvadoran migrants in the United States (Paragraph 21).
• Role of churches for the Salvadoran community in the United States (Paragraph 22).
• How interaction with other Latinos in the U.S. is helping Salvadorans self-identify themselves (Paragraph 23).

3) In my opinion, this article strikes a very appropriate tone for an encyclopedia article for several reasons. The article does an excellent job of incorporating facts and statistics about the Salvadoran immigrants in the United States, and I think the article is very clear and well organized. The author does a great job of explaining many different aspects of Salvadoran immigration to the United States (reasons why Salvadorans migrate, demographics of the Salvadoran population in the U.S., family structure for Salvadoran migrants, etc.) and presents all of this information in a very coherent and specific way. This article certainly does an excellent job of teaching the reader about all different aspects of Salvadoran immigration in the United States.
The only problem with the article in my opinion is that it is slightly biased. The author continuously highlights the obstacles that Salvadoran migrants face, but rarely identifies any of the benefits of migrating to the U.S. While I certainly agree that the migration process is difficult and challenging, I think that the author should try to focus less on the challenges that Salvadoran migrants face and just focus on the facts about Salvadoran immigration in the U.S.

4) The author uses a diverse selection of very trustworthy sources. Her sources range from a book to a case study to an article. She does a very good job of incorporating facts and information from her sources into the article. However, I do not believe that the author does a good job of citing the information found in her articles. Granted, she includes a bibliography at the end, but I believe she needs to include several citations within the article to show the reader where her information is coming from. These in text citations would enable the reader to check the original source to make sure the information is not biased or incorrect.

5) One sentence that I particularly like is “At different times, economic policies and political decisions have generated migration flows with their own dynamics and characteristics, mainly to adjacent countries.” This sentence, which appears in the opening paragraph of the article, does an outstanding job of explaining the reasons why Salvadorans migrate as well paraphrasing a large portion of the article. After reading this sentence, the reader not only is aware of some of the causes of Salvadoran migration, but the reader is also aware that the migrant groups have unique characteristics. This sentence entices the reader to read more and to find out more about Salvadoran migration. One sentence that I do not like is “In spite of their lack of legal status, Salvadoran women have been able to find work relatively more easily than men, even when the economy is not strong, but this has not translated into higher incomes, as Salvadoran women generally earn less than men do.” In my opinion, the ideas presented in this sentence are good, but they need to be supported by statistics. How can I trust this sentence without seeing statistics that prove that more Salvadoran women have jobs and that they earn lower wages? Although the author’s intentions are good in this sentence, she needs to include statistics to support her claim.

6) As a reader, I would tell the author to try to shorten the article and to try to include more statistics. The author makes many claims about the job opportunities for Salvadorans and the family structure of Salvadoran immigrants, but she fails to include enough statistics to support her claims. In order to fully justify her statements, she needs to include more numbers to demonstrate that her statements are facts and not opinions. I also believe that this article is slightly too long for an Encyclopedia article about Salvadoran migration. Towards the end of the article, I became rather disinterested and felt like some of the information could have been presented in a more concise way. That said, I believe this is a very well done article overall that helped me to learn about Salvadoran immigration to the U.S.