User:CourtneyPhelps/Evaluate an Article

Evaluate an article: Yoruba Art
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 * Name of article: Yoruba art
 * Yoruba art has a vast amount of various forms of art. Their culture and their art go hand in hand, since art making and making objects or masks are the same thing in their society. Yoruba art is the art of life, it all has a significance to their religion or just to their leaders at the time through the form of terracota or brass heads. They're interesting because the Yoruba such a large collection of people that are tied by their culture and dominate the western part of Nigeria.

Lead

 * Guiding questions


 * Does the Lead include an introductory sentence that concisely and clearly describes the article's topic?
 * The introductory sentence is a little vague. They refer to Yoruba art as the entirety of Africa's art as "one of the finest artistic traditions in Africa". But, overall the next sentence is what is about to be the entirety of the articles artworks. They also discuss the use of ivory and doorway/structures but there are no examples or discussion of these anywhere else.
 * Does the Lead include a brief description of the article's major sections?
 * The lead includes a description of the types of art they've made (for example: Staffs, bead works for crowns) and who they're made for. There's no genuine structure to how the rest of the article goes but they do give a description of what art is often made and vaguely discusses tradition. One part of the article that is missed and overall loosely talked about is the Alarinjo/theatre section. This section is a sentence long. They do discuss art forms in the intro that are not seen any where else in the sections displayed, they do not show or talk about ivory carvings or structural art anywhere, other than shortly in the intro.
 * Does the Lead include information that is not present in the article?
 * I believe because it was some what vague and mostly just included the location of the Yoruba and the basics of what they've made and the material, that they did include all the information that would be eventually spoken about further on in the article. They missed talking about several things discussed in the opening paragraph.
 * Is the Lead concise or is it overly detailed?
 * It is somewhat concise, a bit short, but to the point.

Content

 * Guiding questions


 * Is the article's content relevant to the topic?
 * Yes. They discuss various traditions and what different objects were made for. Focusing on art and life, art and culture, masquerades, the importance of heads seen. Although, I feel they could have added content about where the masks and outfits were worn, perhaps a section about dance in their culture since that is also an art form.
 * Is the content up-to-date?
 * Yes, it was last edited around June/May of 2019. Content wise, perhaps - I am no expert.
 * Is there content that is missing or content that does not belong?
 * The article lacks a bit of deeper information about Metal arts, Yoruba Masquerades, Alarinjo, and the Esie Museum. Each of these have a limited amount of information used to describe them, the maker, and what they're used for. There could have been more information relating back to their gods and how they relate to them/how Yoruba people would pray to them during certain times. They could have delved deeper into things like ivory and the gates and doors they discussed at the beginning.

Content evaluation
Overall, there wasn't a vast amount of information displayed, although, very to the point with a lot of information. Some parts of the article didn't flow like one would expect, for example "Yoruban blacksmiths create sculpture from iron, through hand-beating, welding, and casting. Ogun is honored as the god of iron.", there isn't much discussion of many gods influence on art overall. Or in the section about Yoruba Crowns, they could have discussed who made the crowns and how the Oba had to commission objects like this.

Tone and Balance

 * Guiding questions


 * Is the article neutral?
 * Aside from "The Yoruba of West Africa are responsible for one of the finest artistic traditions in Africa, a tradition that remains vital and influential today." the rest of the article is neutral and there's not much of a side to pick. This sentence just makes it seem like they have the best art traditions in all of Africa, which overall is a large place with more that 1 billion people.
 * Are there any claims that appear heavily biased toward a particular position?
 * no
 * Are there viewpoints that are overrepresented, or underrepresented?
 * The "head" is heavily represented.
 * 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?
 * For the most part, except the very vague "Alarinjo" section. This section has no sources and almost seems pointless with one sentence and no source.
 * Are the sources thorough - i.e. Do they reflect the available literature on the topic?
 * The sources used look like they could be thorough and reliable sources of information based on the fact that they're from seemingly reliable books and journals from knowledgable sources.
 * Are the sources current?
 * As current as African art sources can get. Which isn't saying much, but there has been a lack of updated sources with overall African art information.
 * Check a few links. Do they work?
 * yes - hard to know about books

Organization

 * Guiding questions


 * Is the article well-written - i.e. Is it concise, clear, and easy to read?
 * Some parts of it don't exactly flow, but in my head, Wikipedia isn't a creative writing source, it's for information and all of the points discussed one after another do relate to one another. Otherwise, it is clear and easy to read through.
 * Does the article have any grammatical or spelling errors?
 * Not that I can catch.
 * Is the article well-organized - i.e. broken down into sections that reflect the major points of the topic?
 * Yes and no. They don't discuss some of the things talked about in the intro, but they do discuss a number of important aspects of Yoruba art.

Images and Media

 * Guiding questions


 * Does the article include images that enhance understanding of the topic?
 * yes
 * Are images well-captioned?
 * The images are well captioned in the way they are labeled with the usual what it is, where it came from, when it was made, and where it's at now. They do not discuss or reference any piece in particular, they are just shown as examples.
 * Do all images adhere to Wikipedia's copyright regulations?
 * yes
 * Are the images laid out in a visually appealing way?
 * To me, as an opinion, not really. Most of them are just at a grid at the bottom after the text. The door and the staff are randomly placed in the "Importance of the head" section.

Checking the talk page

 * Guiding questions


 * What kinds of conversations, if any, are going on behind the scenes about how to represent this topic?
 * One person discussed "Airport Art", which someone threw right out the door saying it's them cheaply reproducing art and that it's in no way related to the culture of the Yoruba people. This person was very adamant about the ignorance of diversity and richness of African Art and his hate for incomplete Wiki articles. This is the only comment that isn't a bot comment represented on this page.
 * How is the article rated? Is it a part of any WikiProjects?
 * It's part of 3 wiki projects - Africa/Benin/Nigeria/Togo, Yoruba, Visual arts
 * How does the way Wikipedia discusses this topic differ from the way we've talked about it in class?
 * It's very vague on Wikipedia. It doesn't discuss everything to it's every detail, but gives a short definition of everything and small descriptions.

Overall impressions

 * Guiding questions


 * What is the article's overall status?
 * I'm unsure of what this means or what to say. If it has to do with completeness, it is complete in a way, but theres definitely room for more information to be discussed.
 * What are the article's strengths?
 * It has a lot of images.
 * How can the article be improved?
 * More sections - like art and culture, with examples of how masquerades are shown and how this is art.
 * use of the images to connect to the reader of what parts of the art are being discussed and go further into detail about these.
 * How would you assess the article's completeness - i.e. Is the article well-developed? Is it underdeveloped or poorly developed?
 * Under-developed in the amount of information and detail they go into. There's always room for improvement.

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 * 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

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