User:Bzidek20/Evaluate an Article

Evaluate an article: SCOBY
SCOBY; en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SCOBY

I have chosen this article to evaluate due to my interests in the food and beverage industry as well as microbiology and the fermentation process. Upon initially viewing this article, I noticed there were numerous areas of improvement that I could contribute to. Additionally (and to my surprise), there were a great number of followers and viewers to this page in the last month, so I saw an opportunity for my research to make an impact on the Wikipedia community.

Lead
The lead does well to define and restate the acronym SCOBY as well as succinctly describe its area of application. However, because this is the only sentence within the lead, there are numerous improvements to be made. A brief description of the article's major sections can be added along with a short history of SCOBY's origins in order to give the reader a preview of the article's contents. Mentioning specific examples of its application in food and beverage may also be useful for readers visiting the page from another Wikipedia source, as SCOBY is a very specific acronym not everyone may be familiar with. Overall, the lead does not overstep its boundaries by containing information not present in the article, but may require additional attention due to its minimal contents.

Content
There are only three major sections of this article: Composition and action, Use in food production, and Use in clothing production. The first section is perhaps most important as it describes the specific contents of the SCOBY and the processes required to make it. However, some missing content from this section would be the specific mechanisms behind each of the required processes. For example, the author states that "...anaerobic ethanol fermentation (by yeast), anaerobic organic acid fermentation (by bacteria), and aerobic ethanol oxidation to acetate (by bacteria) can all take place concurrently along an oxygen gradient." This statement may not be very informative to readers lacking proper background in these processes. To combat this, links to other Wikipedia pages describing these processes could be added, or the processes could be explained within this article in their own subsection. Other missing content from this section would be how these cultures are commercialized: what equipment, growth conditions, and operations are needed to make this on an industry-scale. Section two is also relevant as it describes the specific examples of food and beverage containing or made by SCOBY, but is formatted in list form. There may be other applications as the list is seemingly short, so additional research will be needed. Lastly, the third section of the article regarding clothing production was not mentioned in the lead. Under this section is one sentence describing the use of kombucha SCOBY for leather production. While this seems to be a very interesting topic, it stands needing additional information regarding the specific role of the SCOBY for it to be deemed relevant to the topic. While this article was published in 2007, it was last updated February 7th, 2020, so it is fairly up to date. Products containing SCOBY such as kombucha have recently gained traction by the general public, so the content is still relevant. With this said, the running list of SCOBY products may be out of date and need revisiting.

Tone and Balance
The tone and balance of this article is very appropriate for Wikipedia. The article is neutral, meaning there are no claims or biases in favor of a certain viewpoint. For example, the author did not claim that kombucha is a tastier drink than soda because it uses SCOBY while soda does not. There are also no attempts at persuasion. An example attempt of persuasion would be if the author said vegan leather using kombucha SCOBY would save the lives of thousands of cows.One viewpoint that may be underrepresented is the use of SCOBY in the clothing industry, so I suggest more neutral details be added to that section to make it a more well-balanced article.

Sources and References
Most of the facts in this article are backed up to a reliable source such as another Wikipedia page. Other secondary sources include Merriam Webster, BBC, and Brisbane Times. Of the facts backed by other Wikipedia pages, they were supported sufficiently and thoroughly by those other articles. I believe there is some improvement to be made to these sources, as news articles and general dictionaries are not always the most applicable to specific topics. The BBC source was thorough in describing the process of fermentation and its yielding products, while the other sources merely reflected a single detail of the article. The Wikipedia linked articles are current and frequently updated, while the external sources are more out of date (last eight years). All the links in the article worked, which is essential to readers who want to learn more about fermentation specifics or examples of foods using SCOBY. Overall, I think this article does well to link to other Wikipedia articles, but needs more work in terms of external sources. As mentioned earlier, the concurrent fermentation processes of various bacteria and yeasts are lacking in detail and sourcing. It is recommended that research papers from highly scored journals or other Wikipedia articles are found regarding the specifics of these pathways in order to bolster the content of this article.

Organization
Because this article is short in length, it is very concise and easy to read. Most of the content was clear with the exception of the detailed processes needed by bacteria and yeast to produce SCOBY. There was no further information provided other than the names of the fermentation used, making the overall concept of how SCOBY is made unclear. There are no spelling or grammatical errors. Lastly, the article is well-organized into three pertinent sections of Composition, use in food, in use in clothing. To further improve such organization, I recommend adding these major points to the lead as well as adding subsections when expanding on the details of each component of the SCOBY.

Images and Media
The article does very well in including an image of SCOBY after it is produced so the reader can understand the concept better. The author also included an example application of SCOBY by including a picture of kombucha SCOBY jars. Each image has a caption concisely describing what it is. With this said, both images relate to kombucha SCOBY, so one recommendation would be to include other images with other applications of the SCOBY to eliminate any possible source of bias. The images adhere to Wikipedia's copyright regulations as each is the product of an individual author's work with their name and date provided. The images are laid out simply on the right side of the page in appropriate sections of the article, giving a visual appeal to the article.

Checking the talk page
Currently there are only two conversations posted on the talk page regarding future improvements to the article. One conversation is a short suggestion inquiring the addition of kimchi to the list of products that use SCOBY. The other thread is a more lengthy proposition to either elaborate on or remove certain parts of the article such as SCOBY's nickname of a mushroom as it does not accurately represent what a SCOBY is. The second thread also provides additional details to be added regarding mother of vinegar, which was referenced as a fermentation starter. The article is rated as start-class with low to mid importance. It is currently part of three WikiProjects: Fungi, Microbiology, and Food and Drink. While we have not discussed this topic specifically in class yet, we have referred to fermentation and the differences between eukaryotic yeasts and prokaryotic bacteria. So far, the class discussions have been more thorough, so it is with this in mind that I hope to provide more insight on the details to the pathways used by both the bacteria and the yeast to make the SCOBY in order to make this article just as detailed and informative.

Overall impressions


In Wikipedia terms, the article is rated start-class. If I had to provide the article with an overall status, it would be incomplete but promising. There are a lot of areas with minimal detail that need attention, but it is promising as it contains a lot of good Wikipedia references and has a large impact on the community. The strengths are the concise definition of the acronym, the running list of products using SCOBY, and the beginnings of the major topic headers. The article can be improved by updating the list of products, adding more information to both the lead and section regarding clothing applications, and lastly providing more production insight on the details of how yeast and bacteria make SCOBY. In regards to completeness, the article is underdeveloped.

Optional activity
What conditions are necessary for both the yeast and bacteria to culture SCOBY specifically? Do these conditions vary between them causing them to be cultured separately, or are they cultured together? Bzidek20 (talk) 19:02, 15 April 2020 (UTC) Link to feedback: Talk:SCOBY