User:Eeclem/Evaluate an Article

Which article are you evaluating?
The article that I am evaluating is called Resource depletion.

Why you have chosen this article to evaluate?
Since this class is primarily associated with resources of the Earth, I chose this Wikipedia article on resource depletion as I felt it would be a very fitting and applicable place to start. Articles such as this one will most likely only continue to grow in importance as we begin to move closer to the depletion of our current resource reserves and thus begin to require solutions in this regard.

Although the lead section could be longer (which was indicated by Wikipedia), I did appreciate that there was a concept within the article that I had yet to learn (depletion accounting). However, I also noticed that the article does close on a morality point which can sometimes sway the reader towards a specific point of view or argument.

Lead Section
The lead section had a concise introductory sentence that clearly described the topic. Although several types of resource depletion are listed within this section, they aren't accompanied by any descriptions and not all of them are discussed further in the article. For example, pollution and contamination of resources and slash-and-burn agricultural practices. It also doesn't explicitly use the words 'overconsumption' or 'excessive/unnecessary use' at any other point in the paper, but is somewhat implied. The concept of defaunation is also described in the lead, but is not referred to at any other point.

I believe that this lead section is concise, rather than over-detailed. If anything, it could probably use more detail--a comment which is also noted by Wikipedia in a banner at the top of the article.

Content
The majority of the content in this article is relevant to the topic of resource depletion. However, I feel as though the last paragraph titled 'Resource scarcity as a moral problem' doesn't necessarily need to be part of this article. Although this paragraph does address some underrepresented topics and populations by acknowledging the colonial slave labour and violence involved in the development of the West, it does seem as though it is more subjective in it's content, thus having the possible power to sway the reader towards a specific point of view. I also believe that the section on 'Depletion accounting' could be moved to the bottom of the article as it is only related to and supporting the topic rather than actually being directly involved. It is also a method of offsetting resource depletion which makes it more fitting as a concluding point.

Tone and Balance
This article is written in a neutral tone with very little bias indicating a specific position. Although it is not heavily biased itself, the only tone and balance issue that could effect this article is the morality surrounding resource depletion at the end of this article, which I have discussed previously in this evaluation.

Sources and References
Although the references do seem somewhat dated, with most being from the early 2000s, the majority of them do seem academically sound, with many being from reputable journals. The few links that I did click on did correspond with their citation, and the majority of the sources seem to be cited correctly, except for a few where a citation is just not present - such as source 14.

Most of the article is well cited, with very few mistakes. However, I did notice that the introductory sentence where resource depletion is first defined has no accompanying citation of where this definition came from. The final paragraph on the morality behind resource depletion also has very little citations and seems to be coming more from the author's opinion rather than evidence-based fact.

Organization and Writing Quality
Although the majority of the article is written with little grammatical error, I feel that the sentence structure could be somewhat stronger in some areas. I also feel that some of sections could have used some more information to provide more clarity for the reader. For example, the section on depletion accounting could use a more clear explanation.

Images and Media
All of the images that are present in this article function as effective context additions. For example, there are images of natural landscapes that have been deforested and there are also maps/graphs describing this deforestation. When looking into the sources of the images, I found that all but one followed Wikipedia's copyright regulations. Although I am new to Wikipedia so I could have misinterpreted the information, one image only has the title of 'Bramiana Wetlands' but gives no other information as to its source. The majority of the images are laid out in an appealing way, however, I feel as though the maps/graphs could benefit from an enlargement.

Talk Page Discussion
The most recent discussions within the Talk page discuss the lack of citations in the 'Resource scarcity as a moral problem' section and the addition of the 'depletion accounting' section. The other conversations surround poor grammar and writing quality and missing or not needed information, as well as some other minor points. This article is part of four WikiProjects: Environment / Sustainability (C-class, high-importance), Futures studies (C-class, high-importance), Economics (C-class, low-importance), and Science Policy (C-class, mid-importance).

This article, and surrounding conversation, differs from what we have talked about in class simply in terms of depth. We talked about resource depletion very briefly in our first week, and this article simply serves to provide more background.

Overall Impressions
Although this article does give an effective overview of the topic of resource depletion, I feel as though it could benefit from some further additions to the lead section, a grammar and sentence structure check, and further work done on the final section where additional research and sources are required.