User:Cedobbs/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.


 * London: (London)
 * I chose to evaluate this article because I thought that it would be interesting and I like reading about London because I used to live there for a little while. I thought it would be a fairly easy to understand article and because of that a good article to start with.

Lead

 * Guiding questions
 * The lead includes an introductory sentence that clear defines London as the capital of the United Kingdom. The lead then includes a brief history of the city, then in later paragraphs lays out details about London's cultural, historical, and economic significance. The lead does not contain information that is not included in the article, however the lead is somewhat lengthy and over detailed. The hyper links included in the lead could have been saved for other sections of the article.

"London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom. Standing on the River Thames in the south-east of England, at the head of its 50-mile (80 km) estuary leading to the North Sea, London has been a major settlement for two millennia. Londinium was founded by the Romans. The City of London, London's ancient core − an area of just 1.12 square miles (2.9 km2) and colloquially known as the Square Mile − retains boundaries that follow closely its medieval limits. The City of Westminster is also an Inner London borough holding city status. Greater London is governed by the Mayor of London and the London Assembly."


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

Lead evaluation
Lead is well done, however the author should consider whether or not the second and third paragraphs are necessary or if they could be added to the second paragraph if they were all less wordy.

Content

 * Guiding questions
 * The content in the article is relevant to the topic and up to date. The article does a good job at looking at several different aspects of London including but not limited to its history, demographics, geography, topography, economy, administration, and culture. I believe that for the most part all the content belongs there and nothing is missing except that the section titled "Walking" might not be necessary as it is already under and could just exist within the section titled "Recreation."

Content of article is too lengthy to add to this section.


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

Content evaluation
This article does a good job of handling the large umbrella of content it has to cover. Some care could be taken to cutting down some access information.

Tone and Balance

 * Guiding questions
 * The article is neutral and thought it includes information that ranks the city of London as the best at something or as having certain characteristics the author always makes sure to cite the exact poll or list that the ranking comes from. I do not think the author is particularly bias towards London as they do not try to compare it to other cities, however, I would say that they probably like London if they chose to write a Wikipedia article over it. There are not viewpoints that are over or underrepresented and the article does not try to make the reader take a position on the topic.


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

Tone and balance evaluation
Overall, I would say the article has a good tone and balance.

Sources and References

 * Guiding questions
 * All of the facts appear to be backup by reliable information, although because of the length of the article I did not check them all. The links that I did check worked though. The sources appear current and up to date and there are thorough citations throughout the article and they reflect the wide variety of literature on the topic.


 * Are all facts in the article backed up by a reliable secondary source of information? Answered.
 * Are the sources thorough - i.e. Do they reflect the available literature on the topic? Answered.
 * Are the sources current? Answered.
 * Check a few links. Do they work? Answered.

Sources and references evaluation
Sources look good!

Organization

 * Guiding questions
 * The article is well written and easy to read, however it's length is a little much and if the list of topics that could be addressed in an article about London were not so long it would need to be shorted. The sections make sense and all reflect back to the main topic, however I feel like more information could be useful about tourism in the city and about what types of businesses are in the city.


 * Is the article well-written - i.e. Is it concise, clear, and easy to read? Answered.
 * Does the article have any grammatical or spelling errors? Answered.
 * Is the article well-organized - i.e. broken down into sections that reflect the major points of the topic? Answered.

Organization evaluation
Good job overall for an article with a topic this broad and an article of this length, however, that means that extra care should be taken in making sure all the information is necessary.

Images and Media

 * Guiding questions
 * The images used helped the reader make sense of the layout and appearance of London and were well captioned so that the reader knew what they were looking at. The images all adhere to Wikipedia's copyright regulations (to my novice knowledge) and are laid out in a visually appealing way that make the article interesting and fun to read.


 * Does the article include images that enhance understanding of the topic? Answered.
 * Are images well-captioned? Answered
 * Do all images adhere to Wikipedia's copyright regulations? Answered.
 * Are the images laid out in a visually appealing way? Answered.

Images and media evaluation
Use of media was well done. Charts used to help demonstrate weather patterns was especially useful.

Checking the talk page

 * Guiding questions
 * Right now there are conversations going on about someone who keeps deleting that London is the capital of both England and the UK. The article is rated as GA-Class and is part of Wikiprojects such as London, London, Cities, and the Olympics. The way that Wikipedia talks about this article that is different that articles we look at in class is that it seems like the people using the talk page actually know what they are doing an aren't just learning.


 * What kinds of conversations, if any, are going on behind the scenes about how to represent this topic? Answered.
 * How is the article rated? Is it a part of any WikiProjects? Answered.
 * How does the way Wikipedia discusses this topic differ from the way we've talked about it in class? Answered.

Talk page evaluation
Talk page is being used to address issues on the article and issues with edits.

Overall impressions

 * Guiding questions
 * The articles overall status is vital article and as an overall good article. The article's strength is how much content it is able to cover but it could be improved by making that content easier to work through. I would say that the article is well-developed.


 * What is the article's overall status? Answered.
 * What are the article's strengths? Answered.
 * How can the article be improved? Answered.
 * How would you assess the article's completeness - i.e. Is the article well-developed? Is it underdeveloped or poorly developed? Answered.

Overall evaluation
Well-developed article, little change needed.

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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