User:Christopher H. Moller/Evaluate an Article

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: (link) Altruism
 * Briefly describe why you have chosen this article to evaluate.
 * I chose this article consequent to having knowledge about altruism from having taken a introductory class on ethics, and having done research it and empathy for a paper I once wrote.

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 lead includes an introductory sentence that describes the topic of altruism, including what altruism is and the result of being altruistic. The lead includes a brief description of the major sections as a result of giving an overview of it in terms of the origin of the word, with the mention of research in the fields of biology, psychology, and ethics. The lead includes most of the information in the article, but not the mention of the Italian and Latin etymology of the word "altruism". Nonetheless, the lead is neither overly concise nor overly detailed, providing just enough for the reader to get a clear idea of what altruism is, but encouraging them to look forward into the article for more information.

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

The article has content relevant to the topic. Besides that, the content is up to date since it mentions recent findings of genes correlated with altruism from 2013, neuroscience experiments involving altruism and neurobiology experiments, although more could be added just to keep it as up-to-date as possible. Nonetheless, there is no content missing in the article.

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 is neutral, with it providing describing altruism in the scientific, religious, and philosophical contexts, but also mentioning the downfalls of altruism, including "depression and burnout". The article does not try to persuade the reader in favor of one position of another consequent to mentioning the positives of altruism as well as the negative points of altruism.

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

The facts in the article are backed up by reliable secondary sources of information, except for the first paragraph in the philosophical section. All the sources are through since there are numerous psychological, sociological, religious, and philosophical text references. The sources are current, but some are older, such as Aquinas' Summa Theologica, but that is to be expected from a topic such as altruism. I checked out some the links in the article and in the reference section; each one that I tried worked.

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: it is concise, clear, and easy to read. The article has no spelling errors. It is broken down into some of the sections mentioned in the lead: origin of the word, scientific, religious, and philosophical.

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 has multiple images that reveal acts of altruism, such as volunteering, giving alms; plus, there were images of figures known for their altruistic acts, such as a group of monks giving alms. However, there is nothing about Mother Teresa and her doing work that was altruistic to connect the image of her to the article's “Religious Viewpoints” section of altruism, under the "Christianity" subsection of the article. All of the images adhere to Wikipedia's copyright regulations-- some of the images have a copyrighted permission for the photo to be used, whereas others were in the public domain. The images are laid out on the right side of the screen, next to each of the sections they represent. In the case of the painting next to the lead, it provides an example of altruism, to provide a visual expression of what altruism is.

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

The kinds of conversations about the altruism article included revisions to the first sentence since it had two different ethical principles in it, the Golden Rule and altruism, that did not seem to jive together, as well as wondering is meant in the sentence "The term was originally coined in the 19th century by the founding sociologist and philosopher of science, Auguste Comte" since it establishes that Auguste Comte founded a discipline, and there was mention of external links being modified. The article has been rated as a B+ article. It is a part of four different WikiProjects: evolutionary biology, sociology, philosophy, and psychology.

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

The article’s strengths are the broad swath of disciplines altruism is discussed from: biology, psychology, religion, sociology, and philosophy. Also, the facts are all from reliable sources (which were cited properly), and they are accompanied with functioning links that send the reader to alternative sources for more information. The images—that did not violate copyright-- are placed well throughout the article. The article is written from an unbiased perspective, giving weight to multiple sides of altruism (the good, harm, and confusions between it and other characteristics, i.e. loyalty) from the mentioned plethora of disciplines, and it does so in a concise, clear way.

Nonetheless, the article can be improved as a result of one of the images, specifically the one regarding the statue of Mother Teresa, not being mentioned in the article in any way, yet an image of her is shown. The error can be remedied just by describing how Mother Tereasa connects to altruism (did she write something about altruism? Did she act in a way that can be defined as altruistic?). Also, there needs to be some citations in the “Philosophy” section of the article, within the first two paragraphs.

The article is well-developed so far, but with the kind of disciplines stated, it needs to be updated to have the most recent, as well as what has been discussed, discourses, papers, experiments, etc. on the topic of altruism.

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

with four tildes — ~


 * Link    to feedback: