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This essay discusses the criteria and purpose of article assessments, recorded in talk page templates like {{WikiProject Venezuela}}. Assessments are useful if done right, but are often done wrong. Many articles are given lower quality or importance ratings than they merit based on the criteria. A common mistake is to assess short articles as stub or start class even when there is nothing more to be said about the subject, and longer articles as B (or higher) class even when there is much more to be said.
An unjustified "stub class" assessment with no explanation may cause a potentially productive newbie to give up. However, an author may be blind to defects that a reviewer sees at once. Reviewers are therefore encouraged to give notes on the article talk page that state what they feel needs improvement, preferably relating the notes to the project's assessment criteria, and authors should feel free to ask reviewers for more detailed feedback on what needs improvement.
There may be more leverage in bringing many articles up to C class, where they meet the needs of most casual readers, than in bringing a few up to the very demanding standards of FA class.