User:Cosettepatterson/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: (Environmental studies)
 * Briefly describe why you have chosen this article to evaluate.
 * I am an Environmental Studies major so I decided to evaluate this article and see what insight I could bring to it.

Lead

 * Guiding questions


 * Does the Lead include an introductory sentence that concisely and clearly describes the article's topic?
 * Yes!
 * Does the Lead include a brief description of the article's major sections?
 * The article provides a concise summary on what fields environmental studies encompasses, but it doesn't really mention what sections are within the body of the article (though there are just two, History and Education, which contains the top universities worldwide for environmental studies, skills acquired in environmental studies, and career options).
 * Does the Lead include information that is not present in the article?
 * Yes – it discusses associated subjects, which are not elaborated upon in the body of the article.
 * Is the Lead concise or is it overly detailed?
 * It is very concise, but almost too concise.

Content

 * Guiding questions


 * Is the article's content relevant to the topic?
 * Yes; however, I know that it is page on an academic discipline and not on the entirety of environmental studies, but I feel like discussing what environmental studies encompasses in terms of topics (climate change, environmental problems such as mining and pollution) should be mentioned, at least briefly.
 * Is the content up-to-date?
 * The articles are pretty up to date – I feel like more of the article's references could be from within the last few years, but they are all post-2012 and 5 out of 14 of them are from within the last two years, with two from this year.
 * Is there content that is missing or content that does not belong?
 * As I said above, I feel like this page could definitely elaborate on what this subject encompasses – maybe some common classes and topics. Even though it's just on explaining the academic study, I think the article should connect back to current issues with the climate, especially if someone was to look at this page wondering if this is what they should study, and they wouldn't find any information on what they'll be learning specifically. The hyperlinks are good, but it would help to include more information directly in the article.
 * Does the article deal with one of Wikipedia's equity gaps? Does it address topics related to historically underrepresented populations or topics?
 * No, it doesn't. That's another thing – maybe it could talk more about the demographics (socioeconomic statuses, ethnicity, gender) of who's studying environmental studies, and see if there are any gaps in these. It's such an important academic discipline, especially in today's world, and I feel like this could be highlighted.

Tone and Balance

 * Guiding questions


 * Is the article neutral?
 * Yes
 * Are there any claims that appear heavily biased toward a particular position?
 * No
 * Are there viewpoints that are overrepresented, or underrepresented?
 * I feel like this article is very straightforward, but also very brief, so much so that no viewpoints are really represented, moreso just briefly stated facts.
 * Does the article attempt to persuade the reader in favor of one position or away from another?
 * No

Sources and References

 * Guiding questions


 * Are all facts in the article backed up by a reliable secondary source of information?
 * Yes
 * Are the sources thorough - i.e. Do they reflect the available literature on the topic?
 * Yes, but I feel like there could be more if the information is expanded upon. There aren't a lot of peer-reveiwed articles and I feel as though there should be more to increase the credibility of the article.
 * Are the sources current?
 * Yes, most are.
 * Are the sources written by a diverse spectrum of authors? Do they include historically marginalized individuals where possible?
 * No, this could definitely be improved upon.


 * Check a few links. Do they work?
 * Yes

Organization

 * Guiding questions


 * Is the article well-written - i.e. Is it concise, clear, and easy to read?
 * Yes
 * Does the article have any grammatical or spelling errors?
 * No
 * Is the article well-organized - i.e. broken down into sections that reflect the major points of the topic?
 * Yes, but there are very few sections and not a lot of information.

Images and Media

 * Guiding questions


 * Does the article include images that enhance understanding of the topic?
 * No, there's only one image of Earth and that's it! There could definitely be more!
 * Are images well-captioned?
 * Yes, the one image is well-captioned.
 * Do all images adhere to Wikipedia's copyright regulations?
 * Yes
 * Are the images laid out in a visually appealing way?
 * Yes

Checking the talk page

 * Guiding questions


 * What kinds of conversations, if any, are going on behind the scenes about how to represent this topic?
 * Yes!
 * How is the article rated? Is it a part of any WikiProjects?
 * It in three WikiProjects: Environment, Education, and Higher education. It is rated "Stub-class" for Education project, "Stub-class" and "High-importance" for the Environment project, and "Start-class" for the Higher education project.
 * How does the way Wikipedia discusses this topic differ from the way we've talked about it in class?
 * It's really interesting to see how people are discussing this solely from the standpoint of what its academic discipline is and how they delineate different subjects. It is particularly interesting to see how these viewpoints have changed throughout the years – in 2006, one argued that Environmental Studies was the same thing as Environmental Sciences, two years later, a user argued that they are in fact different and that environmental studies focuses on a broad range of social issues that environmental sciences does not, then another two years later someone added that environmental sciences goes more in depth into the technology and natural science; flash forward to last year, another user discussed their point that Environmental Studies and Environmental Sciences to be parallel to one another, that they are complementary, and that there is even another field that branches off called Environmental Engineering.

Overall impressions

 * Guiding questions


 * What is the article's overall status?
 * I can't remember where to find this! Maybe "High-importance"?
 * What are the article's strengths?
 * It is brief, clear and easy to understand, and includes relevant information.
 * How can the article be improved?
 * It could be improved by expanding upon what issues Environmental Studies encompasses, how it may have branched off of sciences and how other environmental disciplines have branched off of Environmental Studies, it could include more relevant and updated sources.
 * How would you assess the article's completeness - i.e. Is the article well-developed? Is it underdeveloped or poorly developed?
 * It is underdeveloped.

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: Talk:Environmental studies