User:Brittanyrizo/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: Early history of American football
 * Briefly describe why you have chosen this article to evaluate.
 * I chose to evaluate this article because I have grown up watching American football with my family and it is one of my favorite sports. I thought it would be interesting to see where it originates from.

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 introductory sentence seems very brief and like it could do a better job of introducing the topic. The lead briefly summarizes the article as a whole, and the sections are linked in the contents box. It is relatively concise and all of the information seems to be present in the article. Overall, the lead is not bad but could be better.

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
All of the content in the article is relevant to the topic, and all of the content is up to date. It was updated as recently as March 9, 2020. There also does not seem to be any missing or irrelevant content. The article is very long and informative. The content section is strong.

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 seems to be neutral and not biased. It has a very extensive amount of sources and additional external links. I do not believe that the article attempts to persuade the reader, it merely informs the reader of the topic.

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
I do believe that the sources are reliable and thorough, especially considering how extensive the article is. However, the sources could be more current, the most current source is from 2010. The links that I checked do work.

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
The article is well written and easy to read. It has been edited many times, therefore I did not really find errors but I could have missed them. It seems well organized, however there could have been less sections to make it easier to follow.

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
The article does include images for almost every paragraph, and they seem well captioned. This definitely enhances the understanding because they give visuals to the information in the paragraph it is next to. They seem to adhere to the copyright regulations and are laid out very well.

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
There is some conversation, but not much, many of the external links were modified. The article is C-class and is in 4 WikiProjects: American football, college football, history, United States.

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
I think the article has a good overall status. It has a lot of information, which can be good but it can probably be made to be more concise. I think it is well developed from what I observed, but there is always room for improvements.

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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