User:Deliz21/Evaluate an Article

Which article are you evaluating?
Brunetto Latini

Why you have chosen this article to evaluate?
Brunetto Latini is a very important character, and is someone that Dante respects, although he is in Hell. I chose this article because I wanted to assess if it was clear in describing how he encounters Dante in the Inferno. My first impression of this article was that it is not extremely detailed as I am used to with Wikipedia articles. I also wondered if this meant it was lacking important information and therefore was intrigued to delve into it.

Evaluate the article
After reading this article on Brunetto Latini, the lead section is clear but short. It includes a succinct introduction sentence that introduces who Brunetto was in Italy. However, the lead section does not give an overview of what the Wikipedia article focuses on about Brunetto in particular. Although the lead section is short, it is specific and does not overdo the description of Brunetto or related ideas about him.

Regarding content, the article is fairly detailed. However, the Dante Encyclopedia relates that Brunetto was a big part of the "primo popolo" and acted as a key notary. This specific is excluded from the article, although it does state that he was a notary. It does not describe his particular role, and leaves out his particular role in fostering the expanse of Roman/Latin language influence in the government notaries. However, this article includes a wealth of information on Brunetto and even splits up between a section for: his life, his works, The Divine Comedy, and Canto 15. The content is highly relevant and it uses specific evidence to back it up. The article also does well with equity gaps as it acknowledges Brunetto's likely love affair to another man, and therefore the article is accepting the LGBTQ perspective to Brunetto.

The point of view of the text is neutral. The author(s) describe interpretations of Dante's Brunetto by acknowledging various sources from opposite point of views. This gives the reader more background than just a single side. The article is biased towards Brunetto likely being homosexual and therefore punished for sodomy, but it does bring up countering views (lack of evidence for homosexual relations in his life). However, since many scholars agree that Brunetto was in fact homosexual, this does not seem to be incredibly farfetched/ biased. On the other hand, the last sentence is very persuasive in its pointing towards Brunetto being punished for sodomy. The words, "it is difficult to see that there can be any doubt" when describing his love poem, are opinionated and so deviate from the truth of the article into an opinion. This is especially true since this blanket statement is not cited and sourced so appears even more like the author spoke their own voice in explaining this. Another important point is that since the article does not ignore the important nature of Brunetto's sodomy but also includes the possibility that Dante was somehow involved in it, it can be seen as somewhat of a "minority viewpoint".

The sources for the article are not cited well and so seem to be unreliable. There are pieces of secondary information, although there could be more sources included in the page. There are only two sources cited for all the information provided, which makes the information weaker. There are more references but they are not directly cited. In a couple paragraphs/statements there is a complete lack of citation, which makes these interpretations improperly sourced. There are also mostly general references posted with few footnotes. Therefore Wikipedia has left the site unverified. If some lines included the sources as inline citations, the evidence would be more trustworthy. An important source that this article could have used is Dante Encyclopedia which includes relevant descriptions of Brunetto and his depiction in Inferno. Yet another source the article could utilize is a news opinion article published by the Paris Review: "Recapping Dante", if credit of the opinions is attributed to the author of the article. This source would be helpful in giving yet another interesting interpretation of the relationship between Dante and Brunetto, especially at the moment they meet in hell. This is helpful because it expands upon the nature of the specific interaction between the two men which proves further insight into how Brunetto is shaped in Canto XV. The authors provided by this Wikipedia article are not strikingly diverse, and none appear to be historically marginalized as far as can be found online. Their viewpoints and interpretations do vary, as some disagree with Brunetto as a sodomite, which provides a difference in opinions. The links all work, and for the most part seem to be peer-reviewed and academic readings. Therefore, the (few) sources provided are reliable, well-researched and supported by academic institutions.

The writing and organization style are of clear and good quality. It does not have run on sentences: each sentence gets straight to the point. But, it seems that there could be a possibility some of the writing is copy-pasted from sources, due to the lack of inline citations. There are no obvious grammar or spelling errors. The break-down of the article is very clean and flows well. The sections the author(s) chose give a short look at the different important views of Brunetto. It would be more thorough if more evidence and writing was provided, but it is still cleanly written. It breaks it up into: life, works, a summary of him in the inferno, and then the specific canto he is in. The organization is clear. But, at some points, the paragraphs are nonlinear which makes the read a bit difficult at times. In particular, the paragraphs don't explain in depth and seem to be more akin to quick summaries. The paragraphs are not as detailed as they could include more information about Brunetto's from the sources and references used.

The article only includes two images but they are helpful in showing Brunetto's importance to Dante's writing. The first image is well-captioned as it describes what is occurring in Dante and Brunetto's encounter in the Seventh Circle. The second image, however, doesn't include anything other than a title. Although the wikipedia article describes Tesoretto as Brunetto's Italian work, the caption does not explain this background. There is also little description of the text shown in the image. The photographs are both public domain as they take one to the Wikipedia public domain site for the images. The images are clear to see. The author(s) could have found more artwork depicting either Brunetto or Brunetto in the Inferno , however, as the images provided do not give much information on Brunetto. They are simply laid out alongside the topic that describes them, which is good organization.

The talk-page includes people arguing about the depiction of homosexuality with each other. One of the comments is about the bias of the article since there are few sources. They ask for a possible edited rewrite. It is rated start-class and of low importance. It is part of: WikiProject Biography, WikiProject LGBT studies, WikiProject Middle Ages / Crusades, and WikiProject Philosophy / Philosophers / Medieval. The article describes Brunetto as a strong writer and of great importance in Florence and Tuscany in his time. It emphasizes how well-respected he was by other important figures in Florence at the time. This article highlights Brunetto's homosexual nature as being the basis for his punishment, as we did in our discussions. However it pushes his "loving" connection to Dante more than we did in class. It also brings up an interesting point about the word choice in Italian, that Latini uses "tu" and Dante addresses Latini with "voi". It uses this as evidence to promote their loving relationship. It also includes a sort of counterargument that our class mentioned that he was never seen as homosexual in history. The most poignant difference from our discussions would be this article's strong insistence of the homosexuality reflected in Brunetto and Latini's conversation.

The article is average overall, but needs to be better researched. It is strong in that it provides specific interpretations of Brunetto. It is also organized cleanly. It is weak in that it shows bias towards a certain point of view and could include more images. It is not well-enough developed and there needs to be work done to rid the bias and source it more clearly.