User:Easleyma/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: (link): Meromictic Lake (Meromictic lake)
 * Briefly describe why you have chosen this article to evaluate.
 * I chose to approach this article because it was relevant to our study of Limnology, and a topic we just recently introduced in our classroom discussions.

Lead

 * Guiding questions


 * Does the Lead include an introductory sentence that concisely and clearly describes the article's topic?
 * Yes. The introductory sentence summarizes the subject of the article in a concise and immediately clear manner.
 * Does the Lead include a brief description of the article's major sections?
 * No, this is absent form the lead section of the article.
 * Does the Lead include information that is not present in the article?
 * yes, it contains a brief explanation of holomictic lakes as well as a discussion of the origin of the term, Two topics which do not reappear within the article.
 * Is the Lead concise or is it overly detailed?
 * It is perhaps overly brief but yes it is sufficiently concise.

Lead evaluation
The lead does a good job of briefly describing meromictic lakes but contains some extraneous information regarding the origin of the term and its relation to holomictic lakes. Two pieces of information which are not relevant to the topic. Furthermore, it fails to outline the layout of the article in anyway and thus does not function entirely how a lead section should.

Content

 * Guiding questions


 * Is the article's content relevant to the topic?
 * Yes, most of the content is specifically directed at describing the characteristics and distribution of meromictic lakes.
 * Is the content up-to-date?
 * Yes, it contains information and sources as recent as 2018
 * Is there content that is missing or content that does not belong?
 * There is some information regarding bacterial growth and the black sea which seem somewhat unrelated to the topic as teh discussion of bacteria is a tangent based off the anoxic conditions and the black sea is not a lake.
 * Does the article deal with one of Wikipedia's equity gaps? Does it address topics related to historically underrepresented populations or topics?
 * No, this is mentioned nowhere in the article.

Content evaluation
Most of the content is accurate and pertinent, but a few topics discussed seem somewhat tangentially related to the topic at hand. It doesn't help that all the content is condensed in the characteristics section while the list of meromictic lakes seems less important. The content overall is presented nicely and is almost entirely relevant

Tone and Balance

 * Guiding questions


 * Is the article neutral?
 * Yes, there does not seem to be any one viewpoint overly represented.
 * Are there any claims that appear heavily biased toward a particular position?
 * No
 * Are there viewpoints that are overrepresented, or underrepresented?
 * No
 * Does the article attempt to persuade the reader in favor of one position or away from another?
 * No

Tone and balance evaluation
Overall the article is very neutral and contains no issues regarding tone and balance., The information is presented in an unbiased and scientific manner.

Sources and References

 * Guiding questions


 * Are all facts in the article backed up by a reliable secondary source of information?
 * No, the causes behind their formation is not cited in any way.
 * Are the sources thorough - i.e. Do they reflect the available literature on the topic?
 * Yes, almost all of them are from scientific journals in the field of limnology or a closely adjacent one. A few were from magazines and less legitimate articles which may have been pushing agendas which I found slightly problematic.
 * Are the sources current?
 * Not largely, many are from the previous century but there are sources as current as 2018.
 * Are the sources written by a diverse spectrum of authors? Do they include historically marginalized individuals where possible?
 * There are sources from several languages and regions.
 * Check a few links. Do they work?
 * The majority did but a few returned errors.

Sources and references evaluation
For the most part information in the article has somewhat reliable sources. a few sources were from articles in magazines or OPeds which was a bit problematic. The opensource tended to lean on the older side as well and several of the links did not work. They were for the most part closely aligned with the literature of this topic and there were sources in several languages reflecting the overall diversity of the sources. The whole articles was somewhat under-sourced with some key information regarding the formation of a meromictic body lacking concrete sources.

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?
 * Not to my eyes
 * Is the article well-organized - i.e. broken down into sections that reflect the major points of the topic?
 * Not particiularly

Organization evaluation
I think this article suffers the most from a lack of organization. Almost all of the information is crammed into the section titled characteristics. There was no section for causes, consequences, or organisms reactions to a meromictic environment. All of this information was crammed under the one header making it seem disjointed and idiosyncratic.

Images and Media

 * Guiding questions


 * Does the article include images that enhance understanding of the topic?
 * Yes
 * Are images well-captioned?
 * Yes
 * Do all images adhere to Wikipedia's copyright regulations?
 * To my knowledge yes
 * Are the images laid out in a visually appealing way?
 * Yes, the shots of the lakes were lined down the side and the diagrams enhancing the information were embedded within the article

Images and media evaluation
The images do a good job of enhancing the article in my opinion. I wish they could have found a diagram for a meromictic mixing pattern as opposed to a dimictic representing the null alternative.

Checking the talk page

 * Guiding questions


 * What kinds of conversations, if any, are going on behind the scenes about how to represent this topic?
 * Lots of discussion over which lakes get added to the meromictic list, and a few regarding the use of different stratification terms.
 * How is the article rated? Is it a part of any WikiProjects?
 * It is rated as a c class article and is part of the limnology wikiproject.
 * How does the way Wikipedia discusses this topic differ from the way we've talked about it in class?
 * There seems to be a lot of concern with which lakes get classified as meromictic which was not stressed in my class. We were more concerned with the nature of conditions and formation of meromictic lakes.

Talk page evaluation
The talk page seems for the large part dead. Major discussions regarding content have not occurred since almost a decade ago, and the only edits since then have been some retooling of source links. It seems few people are concerned with the lack of content or organization and more focused with adding certain meromictic lakes.

Overall impressions

 * Guiding questions


 * What is the article's overall status?
 * Weak, very little organization or content backed up by older sources.
 * What are the article's strengths?
 * A comprehensive list of meromictic lakes is a good way for people to explore the topic further.
 * How can the article be improved?
 * More sections with a cleaner delineation of information.
 * How would you assess the article's completeness - i.e. Is the article well-developed? Is it underdeveloped or poorly developed?
 * I would say it is underdeveloped. There is a good foundation of information but it is disjointed and poorly developed.

Overall evaluation
I think this article has a good start to it, it has the basics of what a meromictic lake is down and some discussion of how they form and which lakes display this pattern. It could stand to have much better organization with more sections outlining the different aspects of this stratification pattern. Furthermore, more up to date sources would be helpful in reinforcing the limited content that is there.

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: