User:Amathu15/Choose an Article

Article Selection
Please list articles that you're considering for your Wikipedia assignment below. Begin to critique these articles and find relevant sources.

Option 1

 * Article title: Baltimore and Ohio Railroad
 * Article Evaluation

The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad is marked as the oldest railroad in the United States as well as the first carrier railroad. It was the presence of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad that largely affected the Federal Government, particularly during the age of the Civil War as it brought communication through the Appalachian Mountains. Briefly, the Wikipedia article suggests the significance that the railroad had towards Johns Hopkins University and Medicine. According to sources, Johns Hopkins was a large shareholder and director of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, and in fact, nominated John W. Garrett to take position as the president of this railroad. I think that the article overall uses a very encyclopedic tone, however, there are some instances where the author tends to use phrases or words that imply an emotion or belief held by a notable figure or group. For example, the author uses phrases such as "vigorous" to describe armed forces as well as "ripped up" to describe the action of rebel army men as they attacked against the Baltimore and Ohio railroad. I presume that the author used very descriptive language to describe the history of the railroad in a more story-like and engaging manner. While it is very well done, it does not meet Wikipedia guidelines. There might be some inherent bias in the section titled "1863-1865" as well. In this section, the author seems opposed to the Union forces suggesting that the Union lacked military strategy as opposed to the Confederates. Most, if not all claims have a citation and the article does a great job of using credible, secondary sources that all have working hyperlinks. There are a few hyperlinks in the article such as the "Washington Milling Company" and "Virginia Midland Railroad" that do not yet have a Wikipedia page suggesting that information about these topics might be limited and therefore not necessary to the overall understanding on the Baltimore and Ohio railroad. Most of the discussion on the Talk page deals with Copyright issues of content (which has been resolved), modification of external links and organization of information (particularly to be done in chronological order). Most of the discussions have been resolved. This article is largely considered a B-Class article in all of its associated Wikiprojects. The content of this article is all relevant to the history of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad throughout the years that it was functioning, however, information about the uses of the railroad during the Civil War was largely over-represented. There is less information about the economic effects of this railroad despite the emphasis of large shareholders in the railroad early in the article.


 * Sources
 * The Economic History of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad 1827-1853; Online Book available on E-Reserves: https://go.gale.com/ps/i.do?action=interpret&id=GALE%7CU0113029030&v=2.1&u=balt85423&it=r&p=MOME&sw=w

Option 2

 * Article title: Queen Anne Style Architecture in the United States
 * Article Evaluation
 * This particular article details the Queen Anne Style Architecture that became prevalent in the United States. While this style differs from the original Queen Anne Style Architecture, it has largely influenced the construction of many buildings including the Johns Hopkins Hospital. This article is neutral in its facts, but certainly not neutral in its language. Just from the language of this article, we can assume that the author has a positive outlook towards Queen Anne Style Architecture. For example, the author uses phrases such as "warm and soft" to describe the terracotta brick that was used to build these houses. This language overly romanticizes the topic and makes the article read like a story rather than an encyclopedia article. I also find that the grammar is too technical and uses a variety of different sentence structures which can make it sound more like a primary or secondary source rather than a summarizing article. Definitely, it would be important to check that the information in the article is not plagiarized. Most of the sources are online web articles or encyclopedias themselves, suggesting that the information presented in this article has already been diluted. However, where those sources received their information from is not clear and can lead to skepticism about the reliability of the information presented. The Talk Page of this Start-Class article is generally scarce and mostly discusses issues with wording which might suggest something that is factually incorrect. Particularly, the opening sentence wrote, "In the United States, "Queen Anne" was a sub-category of Victorian architecture," however another editor suggested to change this sentence since there is nothing such as Victorian architecture. These changes have been made already. Most of the information in this article is relevant to the Queen Anne Style of Architecture in the United States. In fact, the author gives a number of different examples of the Queen Anne Style buildings in the United States which can provide some context to individuals supposing they have seen these particular buildings.


 * Sources: https://architecturestyles.org/queen-anne/
 * Note: Certainly not the most reliable source since there are advertisements on the website. However, this is a .org website.

Option 3

 * Article title: John Rudolph Niernsee
 * Article Evaluation
 * John Rudolph Niernsee was a primary architect of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad buildings as well as the Johns Hopkins Hospital. He is recognized as one of the many renowned local artists of the Baltimore area. While the article provides an extensive list of the buildings and structures Niernsee contributed to, there is a lack of information related to his personal life, career, and style of architecture. Any information provided about Niernsee's personal life is also disorganized. Since there is such limited information about Niernsee's life, all of his different careers were organized into a single sub-section. I strongly believe that his career as a Confederate Major, Architect and Mentor can be separated. At the very least, a single sub-section should be dedicated to his career as an Architect. Additionally, there is no information describing Niernsee's style of architecture directly. Instead, we might have to infer given the list of buildings he contributed to the design of, yet it still might not be clear. I also believe that the list of selected works is far too long and needs to be condensed. In this list, there are many churches, but also many National Historic Landmarks. Only National Historic Landmarks should be included in this list as they demonstrate the significance of Niernsee's work and are still representative of his overall effect and style. Given that the content in this article is lacking, the tone of this article is generally neutral. However, since some of the facts are not cited, there may be some underlying bias in choosing to present certain facts. For example, the author uses one line to mention that Niernsee was a Major for the Confederate Army without citing this source. This could suggest a positive opinion toward the Confederacy. To continue, none of the facts specifically describing Niernsee, his career or personal life are cited. There are 5 articles in the references section which all are credible and secondary sources. All external links still work suggesting the credibility of the references used. According to the Talk Page, this article is a Stub-Class article. There has been only one edit made to an external link in the references section of the article.
 * Sources: http://www.scencyclopedia.org/sce/entries/niernsee-john-rudolph-and-francis-mchenry-niernsee/
 * http://www.mdhs.org/underbelly/2015/11/05/john-niernsee-surveyor-civil-engineer-and-architect/
 * Sources: http://www.scencyclopedia.org/sce/entries/niernsee-john-rudolph-and-francis-mchenry-niernsee/
 * http://www.mdhs.org/underbelly/2015/11/05/john-niernsee-surveyor-civil-engineer-and-architect/

Option 4

 * Article title: Christus (statue)
 * Article Evaluation
 * The Christus Consolator is a statue of the resurrected Jesus which has been replicated in many different sites across the United State including at the Johns Hopkins Hospital. The Wikipedia article detailing its history provides a very concise but informative summary of the details of the statue, its meaning to the LDS church, as well as the history of how it became prominent in the United States. All of the information in the article is relevant to the general topic of the article for the reason that it provides substantial information in all of the categories listed above. Furthermore, the article refers to specific individuals including the original sculptor, Bertel Thorvaldsen. Even though the content of this article is largely revolving around religion and the importance of this statue in spreading the beliefs and views of the LDS church, there is no inherent bias in either the style of writing or the facts selected for the article. The author does not appear to be imposing the values of the LDS church on readers or opposing these values. He only describes the values of the LDS church as it relates to the meaning behind the Christus statue. While there are only a few references listed, the majority appear to be credible, print sources that were published in the 1990s and early 2000s. Thus they must be, secondary sources decreasing underlying bias of the information presented. One source directs readers to an online map of Forest Lawn Memorial Park which initially seems irrelevant but is cited once in the article. The Talk Page of this article is not actively used. Of the two comments that were made, one comment was related to the modification of an external link and the other about the relevancy of a certain fact included in the article.


 * Sources: https://www.baltimoresun.com/news/bs-xpm-1996-10-13-1996287233-story.html
 * (News Article about the representation of the Christ the Consoler)

Option 5

 * Article title: Radical Mastectomies
 * Article Evaluation
 * The Wikipedia article detailing the Radical Mastectomy is very complete, but it is a very technical one. The contributors to this article have included a wide variety of information about the history of the Radical Mastectomy, the principles behind the Radical Mastectomy, as well as the subsets of this particular surgery including the extended radical mastectomy. While the article is comprehensive in the information that it provides, it would be very difficult to understand without a strong background in science. The article makes reference reference to many different organs and tissues to describe the anatomy of the breast. This information is necessary to understanding the procedure, but I feel that a diagram would be very useful to visualizing the procedure. What I was most impressed by was the articles ability to convey the evolution of the Radical Mastectomy and to consider the limitations that led to advancements in this model. For example, the article offers statistics about the rates of survival and how Halstead and other surgeons found that women in later stages of cancers were not experiencing any benefits from the surgery, thus leading to changes in how it was performed. Overall, the content of this article appears to be neutral as there are several statistics and facts supported by more than one source. The sources used in this article appear to be credible and largely secondary sources also confirming that there may not be any underlying bias in the article. However, some of the sources are primary research papers written by the developers of the procedure: Halstead. From my understanding, the reports were primarily used for their statistics which cannot have any underlying bias unless the reports are fraudulent (which is very unlikely). The Talk Page of this article rates this article as a C-Class article.
 * The Wikipedia article detailing the Radical Mastectomy is very complete, but it is a very technical one. The contributors to this article have included a wide variety of information about the history of the Radical Mastectomy, the principles behind the Radical Mastectomy, as well as the subsets of this particular surgery including the extended radical mastectomy. While the article is comprehensive in the information that it provides, it would be very difficult to understand without a strong background in science. The article makes reference reference to many different organs and tissues to describe the anatomy of the breast. This information is necessary to understanding the procedure, but I feel that a diagram would be very useful to visualizing the procedure. What I was most impressed by was the articles ability to convey the evolution of the Radical Mastectomy and to consider the limitations that led to advancements in this model. For example, the article offers statistics about the rates of survival and how Halstead and other surgeons found that women in later stages of cancers were not experiencing any benefits from the surgery, thus leading to changes in how it was performed. Overall, the content of this article appears to be neutral as there are several statistics and facts supported by more than one source. The sources used in this article appear to be credible and largely secondary sources also confirming that there may not be any underlying bias in the article. However, some of the sources are primary research papers written by the developers of the procedure: Halstead. From my understanding, the reports were primarily used for their statistics which cannot have any underlying bias unless the reports are fraudulent (which is very unlikely). The Talk Page of this article rates this article as a C-Class article.


 * Sources: https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/conditions-and-diseases/breast-cancer/mastectomy