User:Gmebrie3/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: Deforestation and climate change
 * Briefly describe why you have chosen this article to evaluate. Article is of interest individually and collaboratively for each of our teammates. An important topic in need of development.

Lead

 * Guiding questions
 * The introductory sentence is very concise and clearly describes the main topic of the article. It may be a bit too brief and simplistic. The lead paragraph contains some of the main topic addressed in the article but not all and is somewhat vague. Information in the lead paragraph is not representative of the depth of the subject; instead the lead paragraph gives some statistics about to introduce why this topic is of importance.


 * Does the Lead include an introductory sentence that concisely and clearly describes the article's topic?
 * Does the Lead include a brief description of the article's major sections?
 * Does the Lead include information that is not present in the article?
 * Is the Lead concise or is it overly detailed?

Content

 * Guiding questions
 * Yes, the article's content is very relevant to the topic. The information that is contained therein appears to be relatively up-to-date. There is however, information and citations missing under some of the headings; some critical topics are only somewhat fleshed out. Further, there are for example may generalizations and blanket statements that aren't well connected to each other. There are also lapses in time that contain no information to connect the two points in time (see: livestock ranching section).


 * Is the article's content relevant to the topic?
 * Is the content up-to-date?
 * Is there content that is missing or content that does not belong?

Tone and Balance

 * Guiding questions
 * This article is neutral though almost leaning a little to say that deforestation is always negative. There seems to be a little bit of bias. Because although, as stated deforestation and climate change are tied together it does not me that no deforestation is ever needed or preferred. It does not include examples of times when deforestation may be necessary for forest health or land use purposes. The article also does not present any sort of alternative actions that any groups are taking to counteract deforestation other than afforestation. These two issues point toward a protentional bias in the article.


 * Is the article neutral?
 * Are there any claims that appear heavily biased toward a particular position?
 * Are there viewpoints that are overrepresented, or underrepresented?
 * Does the article attempt to persuade the reader in favor of one position or away from another?

Sources and References

 * Guiding questions
 * Not all facts are backed up adequately or with sufficient sources. Some sources, although credible, are biased in their fact presentation (see Green Peace for example, who clearly has a messaging agenda). The sources do however appear to be relatively current. The inks do seem to work but they do not always point to the items cited directly; some direct you to World Cat for example from which I was able to link tot he article.


 * Are all facts in the article backed up by a reliable secondary source of information?
 * Are the sources thorough - i.e. Do they reflect the available literature on the topic?
 * Are the sources current?
 * Check a few links. Do they work?

Organization

 * Guiding questions
 * The article is clear and accessible if not too simplistic. There are no spelling or grammatical errors in the article. The article is well-organized in terms of headings and subheadings that relate back to major topics.


 * Is the article well-written - i.e. Is it concise, clear, and easy to read?
 * Does the article have any grammatical or spelling errors?
 * Is the article well-organized - i.e. broken down into sections that reflect the major points of the topic?

Images and Media

 * Guiding questions
 * There are no images that aide in topic description and/or understanding; as such, there are no captions to comment on. The addition of well placed images, graphs, charts would be of value to this topic.


 * Does the article include images that enhance understanding of the topic?
 * Are images well-captioned?
 * Do all images adhere to Wikipedia's copyright regulations?
 * Are the images laid out in a visually appealing way?

Checking the talk page

 * Guiding questions

There was a question about moving/relabeling the article to Deforestation and Global Warming but this proposal was rejected. This article is part of Wikiprojects on Climate Change, Environment, and on Forestry. It has been a part of several Wiki Education Foundation course assignments. It has not yet received a rating on any of the projects' importance scales; it is rated as Start Class. We have not spent much time on this particular topic but the article does address the human-ecology interaction. It would benefit from the vocabulary of Human Dimensions of Global Environmental Change to advance the importance of this relationship.


 * What kinds of conversations, if any, are going on behind the scenes about how to represent this topic?
 * How is the article rated? Is it a part of any WikiProjects?
 * How does the way Wikipedia discusses this topic differ from the way we've talked about it in class?

Overall impressions

 * Guiding questions

Unclear about what is meant by "overall status". The article needs more specific information under all headings. This information should be written in a manner that provides more depth of understadnig of the topic, not just facts strung together. The topics and main outline are there but all subheading need to be fleshed out. This article is very underdeveloped but can easily be built upon.


 * What is the article's overall status?
 * What are the article's strengths?
 * How can the article be improved?
 * How would you assess the article's completeness - i.e. Is the article well-developed? Is it underdeveloped or poorly developed?

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: Talk:Deforestation and climate change