User:EmmettForster/Evaluate an Article

Which article are you evaluating?
Maya cave sites

Why you have chosen this article to evaluate?
I chose this article because it seemed both an interesting and general topic that I feel, as such, should provide readers with a good understanding of the topic (and thus is a good article to evaluate). I also picked this article because it was c-class, and wanted to be familiar with evaluating more substantial articles. My preliminary impression of the article is that while it does give some good information on the background and influence of these sites, the page could be organized much better, be much more concise, and have a better lead section.

Evaluate the article
Overall, this article gives some good general information about Mayan cave sites and bits about their place in Mayan society. However, this information is both fragmented and poorly organized; it feels very clunky. This is apparent from right the lead section of the article. For example, the opening sentence does not provide information about what Mayan cave sites are or of their importance, but just that they are caves associated with the Mayan culture, a rather cyclical definition. The first paragraph goes on to expand upon this a bit; however, these shorter, abrupt pieces of information could be reworked into a stronger, more digestible two or or three sentences. Additionally, there are a few details that might not need to be in the lead section, or at least more than a brief mention (namely the piece about thieves). The actual content of the article is fairly good--there is a brief history of the study of these sites and a few ways in which these caves were significant to the Mayan culture. However, the formatting here I believe to be a bit of an issue. As it stands, the article appears to be simply a list of these significances, many of which have overlapping themes; if the format of the article was reworked to include more general, overarching topics with some of these examples underneath the umbrella, the article might serve to communicate more cohesive information about Mayan caves. One way in which this might be achieved is by having something along the lines of "Symbolic Significance" and "Functional Significance" sections, and noting underneath those the existing various ways in which Mayan cultures interacted with caves. Overall, writing quality could be improved (combining sentences, more cohesive phrasing) and more content and sources should be added (especially on the "Associations" portions). For example, in the "Offerings" section, there are multiple claims being made about the Maya culture that are not cited. There are also some sources that need to be verified (citation 1). The images and media of the page are also heavily lacking; the page would benefit from images of the caves themselves or of artifacts that have improved our understanding of these caves. I think that the talk page is overall pretty good--I see that other users have raised points similar to mine, and discussion seems civil and well-intentioned. Finally the tone of the article seems neutral and fairly good overall, expect for cases (as noted by user Shenrichs) of wordiness. Ultimately, I feel that the article is a good starting point and that, upon some revision and expansion on this foundation, could give a good general knowledge of Mayan caves.