User:Cfs015/Evaluate an Article

Which article are you evaluating?
Animal–industrial complex

Why you have chosen this article to evaluate?
I chose this article because it was on the Class-C articles list, which was recommended to chose from for this activity. It also relates to the discussion we had in class today about spray toads and the waterfall in Tanzania. Animal-industrial complex matters because it brings attention to the lack of importance that animals have to big companies and capitalism. In addition, this topic highlights the exploitation of animals to serve to human race, which was also a big topic in our course surrounding "intrinsic value."

Evaluate the article
Lead Section:

The lead section provides an introductory sentence that concisely and clearly describes the article's topic. The section mentions all of the article's major sections, and it provides a brief description of them The lead does not mention any information that is not present in the article, but the lead section is concise.

Content:

The article's content is very relevant to the topic. It defines the animal-industrial complex in many different ways and through many different perspectives. It also tells a timeline of the complex and where it came from, which is very helpful for background information about the topic. It draws out all of the components of the complex to make the topic more digestible. Lastly, it splits up and describes each of the major impacts of the complex, which was helpful to know how deeply rooted this complex is in our society. There is no missing gaps in the content, but I feel like there is some content that could be more concise when talking about specific books or people. All of the content is relevant and up-to- date on the subject.

Tone and Balance:

The article is very neutral. There are no claims that appear to seem biased towards a particular position. When reading, I feel like I am just getting the facts, and the article is not attempting to convince me of anything. The view points are represented equally. I gain many different definitions, components, impacts, and perspectives about the complex. The article gives me all the facts and sides, and allows me to interpret it for myself.

Sources and References:

All of the facts are backed up by a source in the article. There is consistent citation throughout each section and paragraph. Most of the sources are very current, dating with in the last five years. There are 62 sources and all of them seem to cover and back up many different perspectives of the topic- creating thorough research. The links work, and most of the sources are scholarly articles or they are personal stories from credible newspapers.

Organization and Writing Quality:

The article is very organized and it is broken down into many specific sections, which helps the reader pick specific topics to learn about; it also helps the flow of the article. While reading, I found no grammatical errors. I think that some of the great detail that the article goes into can get a little confusing and causes the reader to get lost on a tangent. I would suggest making those details a little more general about specific books and people.

Images and Media:

There are four images in the article. They are all images that are well captioned and of animals getting abused/killed for the benefit of humans. These images help the reader feel more sympathy for the animals, and they help the reader understand how horrible the animal-industrial complex can effect these animals. All of the photos are captioned well and follow the copyright guidelines. All of the photos but the first are laid out in a visually appealing way. The first photo needs to be integrated into the text more.

Talk Page Discussion:

Many conversations on the talk page are regarding the information pulled from specific sources. They are debating the information pulled from specific sources and whether or not they can gain anymore reliable sources. Also, there are some conversations about adding other segments into the article and the neutrality of the article. The article is rated C-class and it is involved in the WikiProject Animal rights, WikiProject Veganism and Vegetarianism, WikiProject Economics, WikiProject Anti-war, and WikiProject Politics. The article discusses the effects of humans exploiting animals very similar to the way we discussed in class. It mentions how we use them for our entertainment, ignore them for capitalism, have gained more diseases from our close contact with them, and have started creating one big zoo. Though, it also raised an interesting point that the exploitation of animals often leads to the exploitation of humans.

Overall Impressions:

My overall impression is that this article is very well developed and the overall status of it is great. Honestly, what could improve the article is cutting out some of the extreme details of the topic, so that the article is digustable for all readers. It's strengths are that there are many sources and perspectives.