User:Chemofwaterstudent28/Choose an Article

Article Selection
Please list articles that you're considering for your Wikipedia assignment below. Begin to critique these articles and find relevant sources.

Option 1

 * "Fresh water"
 * Article Evaluation
 * The article on "Fresh water" is a comprehensive overview of what fresh water is, our challenges in accessing this water, and why our supply is dwindling. Since fresh water is not a particularly controversial topic, it is not difficult for the contributors to maintain a neutral perspective. After thoroughly examining the article, a large majority of facts or statistics are cited, but for the ones that do not, I am not sure if the sources used were cited later in the paragraph or section (because it presumably all originated from the same source). Once I reviewed the article for citations, I verified whether the contributors were receiving their information from reputable sources or not. In the reference section, I tested many links, and almost of them led me to an academic journal or government website. Therefore, I am confident the sources are reputable. As we all should be, Wikipedia places an emphasis on equity on their website, and this article does highlight the humanitarian crisis surrounding fresh water, specifically in developing nations. Lastly, for this article, I reviewed the Talk page, and there was some overlap on what contributors wanted to change. Many users wanted to reconstruct the introduction to this article and explain "the importance of this topic." As we have learned in class thus far, fresh water is extremely important to society and our capacity to flourish, so I think this is a doable contribution for myself (or someone enrolled in this course). I then located a source to potentially use when editing this article.
 * Sources
 * - Society, National Geographic. “Freshwater.” National Geographic Society, www.nationalgeographic.org/education/freshwater/.
 * - (covers the importance of freshwater in our society)

Option 2

 * "Aquifer"
 * In contrast to the "Fresh water" article, this article is not as strong or developed. As one of the users on the Talk page suggests, there is a lot of "technical" lingo used in this article, so it is unclear whether or not someone hoping to understand what an aquifer is would benefit from this article. However, there is a lot of information contained in this article, and the organization is relatively clear (especially for someone who is well-versed in this topic). Aquifers are also not a controversial topic (as opposed to some of the other topics featured on wikipedia), so the contributors were able to keep the article unbiased. This article did have a large amount of citations (as indicated by the footnotes), so the article is not missing any major citations. As recommended by the tutorials, I also confirmed the links to the sources worked, and all of them launched me to the article or website the information came from. The sources were mostly government-funded or educational websites (ending in edu) as well as journal articles. These sources should contain accurate information or the most accurate information available to public. As mentioned earlier, the Talk page was concerned about the jargon used in this article, but many users were also disagreeing about how to properly define "aquifer" and its related terms, specifically "aquifuge" and "aquiclude." Consequently, I added sources to help define these terms, but at the moment, I am not completely confident in my ability to contribute to this article. Prior to contributing, would like to have the opportunity to further investigate what aquifers are.
 * Sources
 * National Geographic Society. “Aquifers.” National Geographic Society, 29 July 2019, www.nationalgeographic.org/encyclopedia/aquifers/.
 * - Defines aquifers in basic terms/reading comprehension level of 5-8 grades
 * “Understanding Aquitards and Aquicludes.” Understanding Aquitards and Aquicludes | UNSW Connected Waters Initiative, www.connectedwaters.unsw.edu.au/schools-resources/fact-sheets/understanding-aquitards-and-aquicludes.
 * - Defines aquicludes and aquitards (as the contributors on the Talk Page suggest wikipedia should)

Chemofwaterstudent28 (talk) 20:32, 10 September 2021 (UTC) chemofwaterstudent28

Option 3

 * Article title
 * Article Evaluation
 * Sources
 * Sources
 * Sources

Option 4

 * Article title
 * Article Evaluation
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Option 5

 * Article title
 * Article Evaluation
 * Sources
 * Sources
 * Sources