User:Emmareside/Evaluate an Article

Which article are you evaluating?
The article that I am evaluating is Harold Lasswell.

Why you have chosen this article to evaluate?
I chose this article due to the fact that Lasswell is influential to the discipline of Communication and that I, personally, am very interested in his work. I was hoping to become more educated while completing this assignment. This article is important due to his influence and theorizing towards communication and specifically propaganda (as taught in class). My impression of the article was that it looked incomplete and as if it was almost missing something. This parked interest for me and lead me to wanting to look into it.

Evaluate the article
Lead Section

The article includes an introductory sentence that is straight to the point. The lead includes a brief description of the article’s major sections yet the article as a whole lacks information on Harold Lasswell therefore it consequently lacks information on a whole. The lead does not include information that is not presented in the article. The lead is concise and is only three sentences to be exact.

Content

The article’s content is relevant to the topic. The content is not as up to date as it can be having no sources past 1986. The article lacks information on the theorist in general. For example, there could be information on his early life and heritage like other Wikipedia articles include. This lack of information can be improved by doing more research within reliable portals like Omni to find peer reviewed articles on Lasswell. These may then be used to add the information while having reliable information. The article does not deal with any of Wikipedia’s equity gaps. It addresses all content relevant to Harold Lasswell and does not include historically underrepresented populations or topics.

Tone and balance

The article is from a neutral point of view for the most part. It generally states his accomplishments and facts about him. One claim may be based and in a favourable position on Lasswell in the second paragraph “He has been described as a "one-man university" whose "competence in, and contributions to, anthropology, communications, economics, law, philosophy, psychology, psychiatry and sociology are enough to make him a political scientist in the model of classical Greece.” (Wikipedia, Harold Lasswell). This can be improved by removing the sentence/paragraph as it does not necessarily need to be included. There are no viewpoints that are over or underrepresented. The article does not attempt to persuade the reader in favour of any position or away from any other. This article is successful in staying neutral.

Sources and References

The article requires an additional source as it is missing one within the text. This is stated following the singular sentence and is one thing that can improve the article. The sources used are thorough and even include Lasswell’s own works. The sources also reflect the available literature on the topic yet there could be more citations included in general. The citations are not recent and do not include any past 1986. Along with the recent information that could be added. There could be an addition of information on Lasswell’s early life and heritage. The sources are written from a diverse spectrum of authors but not retrieved from a diver spectrum of internet sources. All of the books with links belonged to archive.org. There are more current resources available on reliable portals such as omni that are peer reviewed, more current and more reliable that can be used in place of these. The links all work and are available for the general public to view. This allows the reader to do further research if they would like to.

Organization and Writing Quality

The article is well written and concise. It is easy to read which is one of the good things about this article. The article does not have many gramatical errors and no spelling errors. The grammatical errors consist of run on sentences mostly. The article is well organized and broken down into easy to understand sections. These sections reflect the major points and are easy to navigate. If there was more information on Lasswells early life, there could be more opportunity to improve the overall look of the article. As of now, the writing is done well but it seems empty and almost rushed. If there was more background on not only his academic life but also his life in general there would be the opportunity to move up in Wikipedia rating and quality.

Images and Media

The article includes one image and that image is of Lasswell himself. The image is well captioned and has a few facts about him underneath. The image adheres to the wikipedia copyright regulations. The image is laid out in a visually appealing way on the right hand side. The image is useful and placed well but again, like the information included there could be more of them. With more information, comes more opportunity to include photos regarding colleagues, family and major life events which is something to be improved on.

Talk Page Discussion

There is little conversation on this articles talk page. It includes two entries about edited material. One of the two being on a paragraph that had been removed. The article is rated as start-class meaning it is “An article that is developing but still quite incomplete. It may or may not cite adequate reliable sources.” according to wikiProject’s Biography Assessment page. This article is also a part of WikiProjects Biography. This article is supported by The Politics and Government Work Group and The Science and Academia Work Group. The way wikipedia discusses this topic does not differ from the way we’ve talked about it in class yet it has more information on his other works not regarding Lasswells works on propaganda.

Overall Impressions

The articles strengths are that it provides concise and exact information and has an easy to read format. This article can be improves by adding more information and adding the source it currently needs. This could also be followed by adding more pictures which will make the article look more well rounded. The article does not look complete but it does have potential. It is well-developed for being the a bare minimum. Again, it has a lot of room for improvement yet was done well for the parts it does include.