User:Alinde123/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: Bernart de Ventadorn
 * Briefly describe why you have chosen this article to evaluate. It is an assignment for my class.

Lead

 * Guiding questions


 * Does the Lead include an introductory sentence that concisely and clearly describes the article's topic? I would say that the first sentence properly introduces the article by stating the primary aspect of Bernart de Ventadorn's life as a prominent troubadour.
 * Does the Lead include a brief description of the article's major sections? Not really. There is only one main section of the article and it is only a biography, whereas the lead describes the body of Bernart's work, which could be a whole section itself.
 * Does the Lead include information that is not present in the article? The lead does nothing to talk about Bernart's body of work other than the styles that he furthered such as the cançons or the trobar leu style.  The author also includes a piece of somewhat unnecessary information about Bernart's portrayal of women, and while it is cited, it does not seem like it really fits into the lead.
 * Is the Lead concise or is it overly detailed? It is concisely written, but there is not a lot of substance, so it feels a bit underwhelming.

Content

 * Guiding questions


 * Is the article's content relevant to the topic? The content of the article is only Bernart's biography and a brief generalization of his body of work, so I would say that it is relevant.
 * Is the content up-to-date? The content seems to be up-to-date.  I am not well-equipped to answer this question fully since I haven't heard of any grand revelations about Bernart de Ventadorn other than what I have read about him in the Fassler textbook and this article, so... sure.
 * Is there content that is missing or content that does not belong? There is nothing in here about specific music or poetry that he wrote and how those works fit into genres of his time.  I understand there might not be a lot of content that survives of his body of work, but there is still enough to include in specific detail about the thematic material of those works and how his works fit into the troubadour genre.
 * Does the article deal with one of Wikipedia's equity gaps? Does it address topics related to historically underrepresented populations or topics? The second paragraph of the lead seems a little out of place.  It is an aspect of how Bernart portrayed women, but it comes off as a little half-baked due to it being only two sentences long and not really fitting in anywhere else in the article.

Tone and Balance

 * Guiding questions


 * Is the article neutral? It seems to be mostly neutral as it portrays factual information about Bernart in a manner that does not make me think the author is pushing an agenda.
 * Are there any claims that appear heavily biased toward a particular position? No, not really.
 * Are there viewpoints that are overrepresented, or underrepresented? I don't think I am well-educated to weigh in on the matters of what parts of Bernart de Ventadorn's life are overrepresented or underrepresented.
 * Does the article attempt to persuade the reader in favor of one position or away from another? It does not seem so.  There isn't really any argumentative language used in this article that isn't backed up with enough evidence.

Sources and References

 * Guiding questions


 * Are all facts in the article backed up by a reliable secondary source of information? Everything except for the last two paragraphs in the Biography section have at least one citation per paragraph.
 * Are the sources thorough - i.e. Do they reflect the available literature on the topic? The sources are pretty focused on troubadours, courtly love, medieval music, and Bernart de Ventadorn specifically, so I would say they encompass a broad range of materials on the topic.
 * Are the sources current? They're a little dated with the most recent being from 2002, but they seem reputable at least.
 * Are the sources written by a diverse spectrum of authors? Do they include historically marginalized individuals where possible? I didn't give myself enough time to look at the authors' backgrounds and if they represent marginalized individuals (which they likely don't), but knowing what I know about troubadours, they are already somewhat overrepresented considering how much of their work actually survived, so maybe it balances out.
 * Check a few links. Do they work? Yeah.

Organization

 * Guiding questions


 * Is the article well-written - i.e. Is it concise, clear, and easy to read? It seems to be pretty concise and easy to read, but it's possibly too concise.
 * Does the article have any grammatical or spelling errors? There's some weird commas in places where there really shouldn't be such as: "He is remembered for his mastery as well as popularisation of the trobar leu style, and for his prolific cançons, which helped define the genre and establish the "classical" form of courtly love poetry, to be imitated and reproduced throughout the remaining century and a half of troubadour activity."  The comma between "poetry" and "to" is unnecessary making the sentence a little unclear.  That occurs throughout the article, so the author made that mistake several times.
 * Is the article well-organized - i.e. broken down into sections that reflect the major points of the topic? There's really only two sections: the lead and the biography, and they are pretty general, so it is okay, but it could be more broken down.

Images and Media

 * Guiding questions


 * Does the article include images that enhance understanding of the topic? There is one image from Bernart's vita, so it represents a depiction of Bernart in that time period.
 * Are images well-captioned? Yeah.
 * Do all images adhere to Wikipedia's copyright regulations? I think so.  It's a picture from a vita that is probably 800+ years old and I don't think there's a copyright on that kind of material.  I could be dead wrong on that, because I am not a copyright lawyer.
 * Are the images laid out in a visually appealing way? It's right at the top with the lead, so it looks alright.

Checking the talk page

 * Guiding questions


 * What kinds of conversations, if any, are going on behind the scenes about how to represent this topic? There really isn't a whole lot going on.  There's only three conversations in the talk page: one is a troll comment, one comment that asks for the article to be included in a Bernart disambiguation, and one comment that asks for the source of the Bernart illustration.
 * How is the article rated? Is it a part of any WikiProjects? It is rated as a start and is featured in Start-class WikiProjects for Biography/Arts and Entertainment, Composers, and Middle Ages.
 * How does the way Wikipedia discusses this topic differ from the way we've talked about it in class? It seems to be a blip on the radar when we discussed him as one of the most important troubadours.

Overall impressions

 * Guiding questions


 * What is the article's overall status? It's a start, I guess.
 * What are the article's strengths? There is plenty of biographical material in the article that relates to other topics and its tone is neutral.
 * How can the article be improved? It could delve more into specific works by Bernart de Ventadorn and how his works fit into the troubadour genre.
 * How would you assess the article's completeness - i.e. Is the article well-developed? Is it underdeveloped or poorly developed? It is underdeveloped, but it has a good start to it.

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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