User:Faith345/Evaluate an Article

Which article are you evaluating?
Dis (Divine Comedy)

Why you have chosen this article to evaluate?
Understanding the geographical structures, the composition and the moral order of City of Dis is key in the analysis of Dante’s conception of hell and contrapasso. The City of Dis is the lower circle of hell where malice or sins of the hardened will are punished, and these sins are complex in nature and their subdivisions within hell(Dante’s encyclopedia 190). An article that choses to discuss Dis has to elaborate on the key features of the city and its role in Dante’s structure and embodiment of Inferno. I chose this article because, even though it has certain good qualities, it does not adequately provide key information a reader needs for them to conceptualize the City of Dis. Given the importance of the City of Dis for the reasons highlighted earlier, I also believe evaluating the article and looking in to sources will enhance my understanding of City of Dis.

Evaluate the article
{| class="wikitable"

Lead Section
The lead section has an introductory sentence that only states what circles are included in the City of Dis. It does not briefly describe what the City of Dis is to help the reader identify the key concept of Dis. Thus, I recommend having a sentence that describes what the city of Dis is, its position, and the main genre of the sins condemned (sins of hard will). Also, the entire lead section is very brief, including only a couple of sentences, and thus does not provide an adequate overview of the City of Dis and a concise description of the article’s major sections. Moreover, the lead section mentions the river Styx as part of the geographical feature and introductory information of the city of Dis, however does not discuss Styx in the body of the article. I recommend a lead section that incorporates the circles and rings it has and the associated sins and what inspired Dante’s creation of Dis( mention  Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics, Aeneid, Cicero, and the City of God). Also, it is important to make sure the features mentioned in the lead are further elaborated on in the body of the article.

Content
The content of the article includes relevant information related to the City of Dis and refers to sources ranging from 1970s to 2019. The aspects of Dis mentioned are background in Roman mythology to describe the background of Dis, geographical descriptions, list of demons found, and the types of acts punished in Dis. It ends with the later manifestations of Dis. Given that the City of Dis is one of the key features of Dante’s Inferno, the article addresses a topic which are relevant in understanding the literature piece. However, the article misses a number of aspects about the City of Dis which I will touch on by comparing its information with Dante’s Encyclopedia.

In the section dedicated to Defining the City of Dis, the encyclopedia embarks with briefly mentioning the origin of the name Dis and then explains the background of the city by referencing cantos from Inferno and comparisons with the City of God. It also highlights the moral component of the City of Dis in relation to Nicomachean ethics. In doing so, it highlights that according to Aristotle’s ethics the three categories of incontinence, malice,and bestiality and Dis is where the later two are punished. The article also presents the debates about the moral order of the city that revolve around the actions punished in Dis and to what extent do Dante upholds Aristotle’s division of diversion from reason. In addition, Dante’s encyclopedia also offers information about what type of sin is condemned in the circles and associated rings of the City of Dis.

The information provided in the article dia mentions the background of Dis and how it is inspired by Aeneid and lists some of the geographical features in comparison to the city of God. I recommend adding detailed information of what makes Dis a city by referencito texts fiferno, Virgil’s Aeneid, and also by touching on what aspect of it is related to the City of God.

Regarding the moral order of Dis, the article only lists the sins punished in Dis and their general position in terms of the depth of the City of Dis. I recommend presenting detailed information of circles and rings of the associated actions punished, the inspiration for Dante’s moral order of the City of dis and the existing debated aspects of it.

In addition, the Wikipedia article closes by mentioning the later manifestations of Dis. There is no focus on such material in the Encyclopedia. However, if such information is to be included, to be further elaborated on and clearly articulate what specifics of Dis inspired later manifestations.

Tone and Balance
The article is presented from a neutral point of view and does not include a biased tone towards a certain position. It does not attempt to side with a certain point of view or persuade the reader.

Sources and References
The article draws in sources from Dante Encyclopedia, Divine Comedy: Part 1 (a book published in 1975), annotations from interpreters of the divine comedy and books on modern Rome and baookon the City of God. The links to these sources lead to the reference page. These sources are reliable in ate esese that the information is drawn from books that discussed/interpreted the Divine Comedy. However, the sources are mainly publications of the Inferno and do not incorporate scholarly publications that focus on she sspecfic aspects ofothe City f Dis. I recommend incorporating thematic publications that focus on certain aspects of Dis help to provide a detailed analysis of the structure and the composition of Dis. For example, this can be seen in the Encyclopedia article where it uses references on publications that focus primarily on the City of Dis and or publications that focus on the moral composition of Inferno. In addition to the sources incorporated in the Encyclopedia, I would incorporate recently published scholarly books to give a timely and detailed description of Dis(Potential sources included below)

Ruud, Jay. Critical Companion to Dante. Infobase Publishing, 2008.

Dante's Deadly Sins : Moral Philosophy In Hell, Wiley, 2011. ProQuest Ebook Central, https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/well/detail.action?docID=818755.

Organization and writing quality
The article is easy to read and has no alerting grammatical/spelling errors. However, there exists a number of very long sentences. These primarily include lists of sins and structures of the City of Dis. Even though, these are essential information to include, simply listing them in a sentence falls short in terms of giving the emphasis they need to have an understanding of the City of Dis. In addition, the brevity of the article affected the flow of the article as even though it is concise it has a certain discontinuity in the flow. I recommend instead of simply listing the sins, incorporate the associated information about the rings and the general theme of the sins. Elaborating by outlining the structure of the city of Dis also helps in developing a flow making the article easy to read and understand.

Images and Media
The article contains an image of Dis with a citation of the source and a caption that provides a description of the position of the associated circles. Even though the image is a representation of City of Dis, I would incorporate an image that has labels of the sins condemned with their associated circles and rings.

Talk page discussion
The discussions on the talk page indicate that the article had misinterpreted Dante’s inferno by generalizing the location of Muslims and Jews into the lower circle of hell. As such, it has been edited to correct the misinterpretation. The discussion echoes what we have discussed in class about Dante’s view on Muslims. And even though he places Mohammed and Ali  in the 9th ring of the 8th circle with their sins being creating discord, Saladin, a known Muslim figure, was placed among the virtuous pagans in limbo. The discussion also points out the misconception of ‘Dis’ represented as Italian in place of ‘Dite’.

The article is part of two wiki projects: Wikiproject Religion and Wikiproject Poetry. And, it is indicated that the article has received a low rating and needs to be further developed on.

Overall impressions
The overall status of the article is indicative that it needs further development. The quality of the article is touching upon the backgrounds of Dis, describing the circles of the City of Dis and mentioning the sins condemned in a language that is easy to follow. The article can be improved in terms of incorporating more content about the geographical description of Dis, the circles and rings of Dis, and the sins condemned by making references to cantos in the Inferno. It can also be developed to incorporate the backgrounds about the composition and the moral structure of City of Dis by referencing to sources that focus on Dante’s inspirations (Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics, Aeneid, Cicero ,a ndthe  City of God).
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