User:Degenag/Evaluate an Article

Which article are you evaluating?

Transferable Skills

Transferable skill

(Provide a link to the article here.)

Why you have chosen this article to evaluate?
(Briefly explain why you chose it, why it matters, and what your preliminary impression of it was.)

I have these discussions in large meetings with colleagues and when teaching higher level science all the time. For example - we expect at the AP level of Environmental and Biology that kids can utilize algebra (factor label) and basic fraction set up when converting units. Often we find that despite how advanced a student might be - these skills do not always transfer from math to science or vice-versa.

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

There is an introductory sentence that introduces transferable information. There are no major sections in this article for the author to comment on and this piece is also missing. This lead doesn't contain information off topic because of how poorly the article is in itself. It then jumps to a Confederation of British Industry Report which doesn't flow into the topic except to mention transferable skills.

Content

The content is short - not well described with no body or ending in the writing. It doesn't go into detail about transferable skills. In fact, it is so poorly written it's hard to tell if this author has a neutral tone or is biased due to the lack of information. It is highly under developed. The author should begin by explaining what a transferable skill is. The author can then branch that out to transferable skills in an academic setting or even workplace setting. If you went down the academic branch perhaps you talk about specific assumptions and studies on how much information actually is transferred from year to year (I believe 20% transference).

There are no images to comment on. If the author had created subtopics and elaborated a visual would have been helpful to guide the reader.

The only neutral tone in the article is the opening "A transferable skill is an ability or expertise which may be used in a variety of roles or occupations.". Otherwise it is hard to tell if the author has any tone at all other than to lean into a specific study with no context.

It is highly challenging to comment on the author's general quality due to the lack of information. There are references that lead you to a definition of STEM, communication, problem solving...but that does not necessarily link to the topic of information transfer. There is no linking them to the critical thinking.

The sources the author used are entirely definitional. There is an academic book referenced ("Transferrable Skills for Training" but with only definitions of communication, problem solving and self control it is difficult to determine the value of the source.  When you click on it you do not go directly to that source.

The second source is a link to a British Industry study which is properly attached but it is a STEM article entirely - which is really not elaborated on other than to mention STEM as a transferable skill. The author should have elaborated more so that it is clear why this reference is relevant.

Overall Impression

Despite being a science teacher who rarely writes long articles I found myself going to the intro, body conclusion of days of old. I feel that the topic was poorly discussed. Poorly defined in the manner in which the author intended to branch out from. Furthermore the author didn't really provide a lot of information of what the transferable pieces were and how they were transferred. It needs to be re-written with a lot more information and clear purpose.