User:141.161.133.184/Evaluate an Article

Evaluate an article
This is where you will complete your article evaluation. Please use the template below to evaluate your selected article.


 * Name of article: Abortion in Massachusetts
 * Briefly describe why you have chosen this article to evaluate.
 * interested in abortion rights, relevant to today's political atmosphere, and I live in the state of Mass.

Lead

 * Guiding questions

Abortion in Massachusetts is legal. 74% of adults said in a poll by the Pew Research Center that abortion should be legal in all or most cases.

The number of abortion clinics have been declining in recent years, going from 78 in 1982 to 64 in 1992 to fourteen in 2014. There were 19,354 legal abortions performed in the state in 2014. The state has an active abortion rights community and anti-abortion rights community. People marched in support of abortion rights in May 2019. The state was a leader in anti-abortion rights activities in the late 19th century and into the 1920s. The state has also seen anti-abortion rights violence resulting in deaths.


 * Does the Lead include an introductory sentence that concisely and clearly describes the article's topic?
 * No
 * Does the Lead include a brief description of the article's major sections?
 * No
 * Does the Lead include information that is not present in the article?
 * Yes
 * Is the Lead concise or is it overly detailed?
 * concise but is missing a summarizing statement

Lead evaluation
I would edit the lead to include an introductory sentence/ brief summary describing the article's main points.

Content

 * Guiding questions


 * Is the article's content relevant to the topic?
 * Yes
 * Is the content up-to-date?
 * Yes, for the most part
 * Is there content that is missing or content that does not belong?
 * No

Content evaluation
I think that the content and the main sections are relevant to this discussion and provide clear information about the context and historical elements. The article also providing information about current statistics and events.

Tone and Balance

 * Guiding questions


 * Is the article neutral?
 * Yes
 * Are there any claims that appear heavily biased toward a particular position?
 * Given the subject and Massachusetts' generally more liberal stance on political issues, the article leaned toward pro-choice (i.e. had more information about pro-choice)
 * Are there viewpoints that are overrepresented, or underrepresented?
 * As stated above
 * Does the article attempt to persuade the reader in favor of one position or away from another?
 * No

Tone and balance evaluation
I felt that this article was balanced because it gave a wide variety of contextual information.

Sources and References

 * Guiding questions


 * Are all facts in the article backed up by a reliable secondary source of information?
 * Are the sources thorough - i.e. Do they reflect the available literature on the topic?
 * Are the sources current?
 * For the most part
 * Check a few links. Do they work?
 * Yes

Sources and references evaluation
The reference list of sources is extensive. There are many secondary links, however some of them are a little bit outdated. The statistics table could be updated a little bit.

Organization

 * Guiding questions


 * Is the article well-written - i.e. Is it concise, clear, and easy to read?
 * Does the article have any grammatical or spelling errors?
 * Is the article well-organized - i.e. broken down into sections that reflect the major points of the topic?

Organization evaluation
Yes the article is well-organized in many different sections. There are no grammatical or spelling errors to my knowledge. It is well-written. Some of statistical/ numerical figures could be more clearly incorporated into the text (a little bit confusing where the numbers came from and what they represent).

Images and Media

 * Guiding questions


 * Does the article include images that enhance understanding of the topic?
 * Are images well-captioned?
 * Do all images adhere to Wikipedia's copyright regulations?
 * Are the images laid out in a visually appealing way?

Images and media evaluation
There are very few images. The article could be improved by incorporating more pictures and changing the layout to be more appealing. There are captions and citations for every picture.

Checking the talk page

 * Guiding questions


 * What kinds of conversations, if any, are going on behind the scenes about how to represent this topic?
 * How is the article rated? Is it a part of any WikiProjects?
 * How does the way Wikipedia discusses this topic differ from the way we've talked about it in class?

Talk page evaluation
There have been a decent amount of edits. The conversations are sparse and not too recent. This is a B-class rated article.

Overall impressions

 * Guiding questions


 * What is the article's overall status?
 * What are the article's strengths?
 * How can the article be improved?
 * How would you assess the article's completeness - i.e. Is the article well-developed? Is it underdeveloped or poorly developed?

Overall evaluation
This article is rated B by Wikipedia. I think the strengths of this article is its organization and context elements, such as a section about terminology and history. The article could benefit from more current elements. I think that the article could be improved by a better introductory lead that laid out the different parts of the article. I would say that the article is well-developed.

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

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