User:Bethymm15/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: Prairie Pothole Region
 * Briefly describe why you have chosen this article to evaluate.
 * I chose this article because Prairie potholes are interesting to me.

Lead

 * Guiding questions


 * Does the Lead include an introductory sentence that concisely and clearly describes the article's topic?
 * Does the Lead include a brief description of the article's major sections?
 * Does the Lead include information that is not present in the article?
 * Is the Lead concise or is it overly detailed?

Lead evaluation
The Lead does include an introductory sentence that explains what Prairie potholes are and the region that they are in. It does a good job at clearly stating the topic. It includes no description of the article's major sections. The article itself is only four paragraphs.

Content

 * Guiding questions


 * Is the article's content relevant to the topic?
 * Is the content up-to-date?
 * Is there content that is missing or content that does not belong?

Content evaluation
The content of the article is relevant with the topic and gives very basic details about the topic. The article is very short so there is not a lot of content within it to give you a deeper understanding into Prairie potholes. There isn't enough content to get a bigger point of view around the topic, so there is definitely content that is missing.

Tone and Balance

 * Guiding questions


 * Is the article neutral?
 * Are there any claims that appear heavily biased toward a particular position?
 * Are there viewpoints that are overrepresented, or underrepresented?
 * Does the article attempt to persuade the reader in favor of one position or away from another?

Tone and balance evaluation
The article has a neutral tone that describes the facts of the topic. There is not any heavy bias towards a particular position about the pothole regions. It remains neutral and balanced through the entire article.

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?
 * Check a few links. Do they work?

Sources and references evaluation
The article facts are all backed up from secondary sources of information. The sources all are pretty out of date, the most current being one from 2011. There are only four sources for the entire article so it is not very thoroughly researched getting multiple sources to back up their facts. The links do work and are relevant to the topic.

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
There was no grammatical errors that made the reading hard to understand. It was very easy to read and used language that was understandable for someone who wasn't an expert on the topic. The article was organized through paragraphs, but had no sections that broke down the major points of the topic. As I mentioned before the article was only four paragraphs long.

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 two pictures total for the article and they show what the potholes look like and where they are located. The pictures are captioned describing what the picture is showing. The pictures on just on the side of the article so the layout scheme does not seem like there was much thought. However, it does line up with the paragraphs that talk about the location of the potholes so that is a nice reference to see.

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
It was rated as start class and only had a small list of edits. We haven't really talked about potholes deeply in class, but the article lined up with what was said. The article had a few grammatical edits and did not have a lot of conversations surrounding it.

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
It is underdeveloped because there were only four citations and four paragraphs to describe this whole topic. The article was definitely something to use if you wanted to get a quick overview of the topic and not have any precise detail. The article needs to have more detail.

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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