User:Acardz04/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: (link) Big Bear
 * Briefly describe why you have chosen this article to evaluate. I chose this article because the course I am taking Native Studies - Colonialism and the Criminal Justice System is based on treaty. Because I am from Treaty 6 I decided to chose an article on Big Bear who was involved with the signing of Treaty 6.

Lead

 * Guiding questions


 * Does the Lead include an introductory sentence that concisely and clearly describes the article's topic? Yes, it briefly describes who Big Bear was, his involvement with the treaty and a background story of where he came from.
 * Does the Lead include a brief description of the article's major sections? No, the article discusses the conflict with other Indigenous people, specifically the Blackfoot people and it was not mentioned in the Lead.
 * Does the Lead include information that is not present in the article? No, everything that is described about Big Bear is present in the article.
 * Is the Lead concise or is it overly detailed? I believe the Lead is concise and does include the major details about Big Bear and who he was.

Content

 * Guiding questions


 * Is the article's content relevant to the topic? Big Bear was a well known leader and known to help his people. It discusses his resiliency and who he was as a chief.
 * Is the content up-to-date? Yes, by looking at the edit history it has been up to date with reliable resources.
 * Is there content that is missing or content that does not belong? The article does not talk about the Pass System and how this was involved with the signing of Treaty 6. It also does not go in to detail why the Bison "disappeared" and that they were killed by the government to starve Indigenous people.
 * Does the article deal with one of Wikipedia's equity gaps? Does it address topics related to historically underrepresented populations or topics? Yes it does, this article is about Big Bear and his life trying to prevent his people and all nations across North America to not sign the treaties - giving away their freedom, land, hunting and their ways of knowing. There is a lot of details missing but it does talk about the key parts of Big Bears life.

Tone and Balance

 * Guiding questions


 * Is the article neutral? No, I believe who ever made the article did not want the Canadian government to look to bad which is why some details in the article was brushed over.
 * Are there any claims that appear heavily biased toward a particular position? Yes, when the article discusses the bison "disappearing" it does not say why they magically disappeared and what actually happened to them.
 * Are there viewpoints that are overrepresented, or underrepresented? It is underrepresented in the section "Life after Treaty 6 and the Trial of Big Bear" when they discuss the trial after the North West Rebellion. The person who made the article did not discuss the men who were apart of this were hung and this was the largest mass hanging in Canadian history.
 * Does the article attempt to persuade the reader in favor of one position or away from another? No, I believer the article is created to make it seem like a misunderstanding.

Sources and References

 * Guiding questions


 * Are all facts in the article backed up by a reliable secondary source of information? Yes, I looked over the secondary sources information and they are reliable.
 * Are the sources thorough - i.e. Do they reflect the available literature on the topic? The article is not thorough and it misses a lot of important events in Canadian history which involves Big Bear.
 * Are the sources current? The latest source was published in 2013 but there needs to be more sources because it was not researched enough.
 * Are the sources written by a diverse spectrum of authors? Do they include historically marginalized individuals where possible? No, I believe the sources used were repetitive using the same author. There is a lot of sources that discusses the signing of Treaty 6 and this article is half fast.
 * Check a few links. Do they work? yes they work.

Organization

 * Guiding questions


 * Is the article well-written - i.e. Is it concise, clear, and easy to read? Yes it get's to the point about who Big Bear was and his part in history.
 * Does the article have any grammatical or spelling errors? It uses the word "Indian" without a source why the term was being used.
 * Is the article well-organized - i.e. broken down into sections that reflect the major points of the topic? Yes it discusses who he was as a child until his death.

Images and Media

 * Guiding questions


 * Does the article include images that enhance understanding of the topic? Yes, there is a picture of Big Bear, a letter and a few other pictures what life was like during these times.
 * Are images well-captioned? yes they are.
 * Do all images adhere to Wikipedia's copyright regulations? yes they do.
 * Are the images laid out in a visually appealing way? yes the pictures are laid out next to the paragraph it discusses to get a better picture of what was happening.

Checking the talk page

 * Guiding questions


 * What kinds of conversations, if any, are going on behind the scenes about how to represent this topic? People discussed the person who made the article should include what the numbers Treaties are and what was his involvement with the Treaty 6 signing.
 * How is the article rated? Is it a part of any WikiProjects? It is a C-class and it is apart of the WikiProjects.
 * How does the way Wikipedia discusses this topic differ from the way we've talked about it in class? That this was was one of the first experiences of the injustices Indigenous people went though with the Canadian government.

Overall impressions

 * Guiding questions


 * What is the article's overall status? I believe it needs more research and it needs to thoroughly explain what everything is because the article speaks about Big Bear's life like people know the history that is was involved in such as treaties, why he was involved in the North West rebellion, etc.
 * What are the article's strengths? It has a strong introduction paragraph.
 * How can the article be improved? Using more updated sources.
 * How would you assess the article's completeness - i.e. Is the article well-developed? Is it underdeveloped or poorly developed? I think the article is underdeveloped and needs a little bit more work.

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: