User:Gretashum/Choose an Article

Article Selection
Please list articles that you're considering for your Wikipedia assignment below. Begin to critique these articles and find relevant sources.

Option 1
Lead Section: Generally a good lead section, though from the perspective of astrobiology, it does not skews more toward informing the reader of the nucleotide's relevance to modern human health. The majority of the content in this article is about the molecular biology of a nucleotide and its chemistry; whereas, the Prebiotic synthesis of nucleotides section.
 * Nucleotide:
 * Article Evaluation

Content: Content related to the synthesis of nucleotides lacks information related to the conditions in which nucleotides may be formed, but the sequence of reactions that take place are comprehensive. Additionally, I think the role nucleotides play in DNA and RNA may need to be examined.

Tone: The tone of this article seems fair and balanced.

Sources and references: Not all claims are backed up with a specific source, although much of the information is from a textbook. The prebiotic synthesis of nucleotides only uses one source and could use more.

Writing and Organization: The beginning of the article is well-written, though the latter sections (after synthesis) are not necessarily logically organized.

Images and media: The images are overall useful, though need to be quite large (and bulky) to be useful. The last three images are useful but not well-captioned. Otherwise, the figures enhance understanding.

Talk page discussion: There is discussion about the difference between nucleosides and nucleotides (the figures are confusing). There are some complaints about inconsistencies in the definition of nucleotides and therefore confusion as well as some potential errors in the images. Some people point out that there's heavy reliance on figures to illustrate points. They also suggest more needs to be added about synthesis

Option 2
Lead Section: This lead section needs work as it seems to focus too much on the proponents of the hypothesis rather than the content of the hypothesis itself (which is the main content of the article). This introduction requires at least some contextualization for how well accepted the idea is.
 * Iron–sulfur world hypothesis:
 * Article Evaluation

Content: The content of this article is focused on the contents of the hypothesis (which is inconsistent the lead section.) The last section provides contextualization/why the hypothesis is problematic.

Tone: The tone of this article is confusion because it attempts to be equivocal when it should clarify where this hypothesis stands in consensus science. The tone throughout the article makes it confusing as to how accepted the theory is.

Sources and References: This article is quite well referenced. All facts seem to be backed up, and most links work.

Writing and Organization: The writing may be the main problem with this article. It is highly technical and therefore at times hard to read. The section organization could be made more intuitive as well.

Images and Media: There are no images or media (except equations) in this article, and I believe images might improve understanding.

Talk page discussion: The major problem discussed in the talk discussion is that this hypothesis does not have evidence to support it (verging on fringe science). The hypothesis needs to be contextualized and potentially split into distinct articles.

Option 3
Lead: The lead section of this article is good in content, but is not concise. It does not exactly contain content that is not in the article later, but it is overly detailed.
 * Prebiotic atmosphere:
 * Article Evaluation:

Content: The content of this article is relevant to the topic and up to date, but to coarse-grain to be useful.

Tone: The tone of this article is balanced and neutral.

Sources and References: This article is well cited, and up to date, reflecting the available literature on the topic.

Writing and Organization: This article is well-organized.

Images and Media: There are no images or media in this article, and the addition of some, especially a timeseries of atmospheric constituents and geologic events would be useful.

Talk page discussion: There is no talk page for this article.

Option 4

 * Earliest known life forms:
 * Article Evaluation:

Lead: The lead of this article is focused on the fossil evidence of life (one section of the article) and does not really include the biospheres or genomic evidence, except a reference to hydrothermal vents. Unclear to me whether the hydrothermal vents should really be the star of the show (main media).

Content: This article includes information about what they term "biospheres" and the fossil evidence for the earliest life. The content of this article is heavily focused on life in hydrothermal vents and discounts evidence of life as stromatolites in Australia.

Tone and Balance: This article would benefit from more contextualization for all evidence for early life.

Sources and References: This article is relatively cited but could do with better citation of Roger Buick's work (not one citation!)

Writing and Organization: I would suggest a reorganization of this article to divide up the different lines of evidence for each kind of early life.

Images and Media: The images included in this article are nice, but very disconnected from the rest of the article and therefore do on enhance understanding.

Talk page discussion: The talk page of this article, while active, is not very long and is focused on tone and suggestions for life that are not actually earliest forms of life etc. Seems to be dominated by the author of the page.

Option 5

 * Climate of Titan:
 * Article Evaluation:

Lead: The lead section of this article is succinct but does not allude to most of the other sections of the article (which is quite short). It could use more specific description without referencing so much to Earth's climate.

Content: The content of this article is focused on the atmosphere of Titan, with the exception of seasonality and some discussion of lakes. More content could be added to every section though and one might add discussion of Dragonfly's goals as well as more about habitability.

Tone and Balance: The tone of this article is neutral and well-balanced.

Sources and References: It seems to be up to date, though the latest reference is from 2020.

Writing and Organization: This article is well-organized, and media is well-used throughout.

Media and Images: The media and images are very well-used throughout the article, and they add content.

Talk page and discussion: The talk page of this article is relatively quiet with just a few minor edits being discussed.