User:Cmorris2018/Evaluate an Article

Which article are you evaluating?
Commodification

Why you have chosen this article to evaluate?
Commodification is the keyword I choose to look at during week 2 of our course. This concept matters because it has been increasing in prevalence for decades, and since people are experiencing it, they should have a valid and accessible way to understand it. Considering I took a detailed look at the topic a couple of weeks ago, I felt that the Wikipedia page on the topic should sound mostly familiar. However, at first glance, the topic's Wikipedia entry is somewhat convoluted and relies on the reader having some existing knowledge of business and economics.

Evaluate the article
(Compose a detailed evaluation of the article here, considering each of the key aspects listed above. Consider the guiding questions, and check out the examples of what a useful Wikipedia article evaluation looks like.)

Lead section
The lead section for Commodification is decent but could be better. The introductory sentence describes the topic with clarity. The first paragraph could be improved in terms of providing a brief overview of the most important things within the topic. The remainder of the lead section goes too far into specific examples to provide a quick overview. Instead of listing examples of wrongful commodification, it might explain the trend of more and more things becoming commodified over time, or perhaps explain where the idea came from that not all things should be commodified (Marx, for example). The lead also does not provide a description of major sections. It could be more concise while also expanding on the more important ideas.

Content
Too much emphasis is placed on commoditization and the benefits of it - the article explicitly explains that it's different from commodification but continues to explain it in-depth anyway. Examples are listed but not explained. Marxist theory is present but not explained or expanded upon. There should also probably be a topic addressing the increase of commodification in recent years. There are several sections without citations.

Tone and Balance
The article includes too much evaluating the merit of commoditization - different from commodification, the topic of the article. It is biased toward the concept being beneficial. The topic shouldn't be expanded upon as much as it is.

Sources and References
Multiple claims missing citations.

Otherwise, the references seem to be solid. They cover a range of breadth and depth about the topic.

Organization and writing quality
Particularly in the lead section, the writing lacks essential clarity. For someone who doesn't already understand the topic, it is too specific without defining the concept more clearly.

The organization of the topic is decent, but I believe it needs another sub-topic like "History" or "Trends" to capture what's going on with commodification. I also think the concept should be fully explained before examples are given, so Marxist theory should probably come before examples.

Images and Media
The article includes one image - a bottle of water. It exists as an example but it doesn't really enhance understanding. The caption is helpful to explain the topic. The image itself is not appealing. A graphic explaining how a free source of water like a river is then turned into a commodity by investing in a process and then profiting from the outcome would be more helpful.

Talk page discussion
This page is of interest to multiple WikiProjects, namely philosophy, sociology, socialism, and economics.

The users on the talk page seem to have similar thoughts on problems and lacking sections that I have mentioned above.

Overall impressions
It seems to me that this page is poorly developed. It's off to a decent start in the sense that a lot of information is touched upon, but it needs some expansion and corrections.