User:Amoreland22/Evaluate an Article

Which article are you evaluating?
Sam Evans

Why you have chosen this article to evaluate?
(Briefly explain why you chose it, why it matters, and what your preliminary impression of it was.)

I chose this article because I found it within the C-Class articles collection and recognized the fictional character it's written about. As someone who has watched the tv show Glee, I have a sense of familiarity with this character, Sam Evans, and felt like that could help me understand and then evaluate the article. It matters because having an unbiased catalog of this main character's appearances, relationships, and storylines is necessary in order for people trying to learn more about him and the show to get an accurate overview. My preliminary impression of it was that it was shorter than I expected it to be, although that makes some sense regarding the article's layout, and that it seemed decently well organized.

Evaluate the article
(Compose a detailed evaluation of the article here, considering each of the key aspects listed above. Consider the guiding questions, and check out the examples of what a useful Wikipedia article evaluation looks like.)

I found everything in the article to be relevant to the topic and characterizing Sam. The lead section is concise, although to improve it I would consider moving the sentences about actor Chord Overstreet's thoughts on his portrayal to the end instead of interrupting the flow of general character information. The reception section needs to be updated with additional and more recent information, so much so that there is an alert from May 2012 suggesting up-to-date additions. There does not appear to be missing information other than the fact that Rachel Berry (another character) should be listed as a significant other or at least a relationship of Sam's. Adding her to the list was discussed on the talk page, yet she does not appear there. Plus the summaries of Sam's storylines under the season headers could certainly be elaborated on, especially for the later seasons. Season 5's summary in particular should be structured better for flow and worded more professionally given that it begins with "Sam and Tina hooked up. Sam didn’t get into college." The article is neutral and does not appear to be heavily biased or persuasive in any way. There are no viewpoints overrepresented or underrepresented, primarily because there are few viewpoints within this kind of article. The citation links do work and they properly support information in the article. Most facts are supported by an neutral and reliable source, although most are popular sources due to the lack of scholarly ones surrounding the character and show. A fact that stuck out to me as needing a citation is this sentence about Overstreet in the lead section: "Overstreet has said that he takes pieces of himself and puts it into his character". There is no reference to Overstreet saying that included and there should be. The sources do come from a diverse compilation of authors and publications and are thorough, but a main flaw with this article is how out of date its reception section is. Therefore, updated information and updated new sources to go along with it would be a useful addition. The article does include images, 3 to be exact, and all enhance the reader's visual perception of Sam and the actor he is portrayed by. They are visually appealing and well captioned, but the main character image should probably be a photo of Sam on the actual show not of Chord Overstreet playing him during the show's tour. The article's talk page shows that it is a C-Class article and part of the WikiProject Fictional characters and WikiProject Television. Conversations within this talk page are quite dated, primarily from the early years of the show being on air with new information being added as Sam's character developed. The conversations all center around specific characters (Santana Lopez, Kurt Hummel, Mercedes Jones, and Rachel Berry) to include vs not include in Sam's list of significant others. The earliest being in 2011 over whether or not to include Santana Lopez in it, stemming from a user pointing out that there was a biased warning against adding her and people discussing the subjective nature of "significant". Santana Lopez and Mercedes Jones do now appear in the list, Kurt Hummel was determined to not be a potential addition once the show established Sam was not gay. The discussion about whether to include Rachel Berry is the most recent since her romantic storyline with Sam was introduced in the show's final season that aired in 2015. User LeoChris asked if anyone objected to the addition and user BlueMoonset objected by saying it was necessary to wait to see where the show took the relationship (it was still airing at the time). Rachel Berry is not currently on the list so the combined subjectivity of "significant other" and a likely lack of care to add to Sam's wiki after the show finished are the most likely reasons why not. Overall the article is a bit underdeveloped and could be improved, but it's certainly not terrible. It's strengths are it's attention to cataloging Sam's storylines in each season. The article can be improved by adding new updated information, sources, and reception of the character from retrospectives after the show ended. I also think adding a subsection under reception dedicated to cataloging receptions of Sam's performances could be great, especially since it was well done in another Glee character named Quinn Fabray's wiki.