User:Hfarrell1/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: Animal Sexual Behaviour (Animal sexual behavior)
 * Briefly describe why you have chosen this article to evaluate. I chose to evaluate this article because it directly relates to the course Animal Behaviour, as well as a specific topic I'm interested in (Sexual Behaviour).

Lead

 * Guiding questions


 * 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?

Lead evaluation
The article starts off with detailed examples of various categories of sexual behavior within and same species animals and other profound categories which can include cross species behavior. It is very descriptive and straight forward.

Although the article immediately gives multiple examples of different forms of sexual behavior, it does not have a description for all of the sections covered, with more sections left out than included. This could prove to be underwhelming for the affect of getting the important key notes across to readers.

All information given in the lead is covered again later in the article. There is no additional information given in the lead which is not present in the article.

The lead is neither concise nor overdetailed. Although there are multiple examples given of different forms of sexual behavior, it does not nearly cover enough of the entire topic/sections they cover later in the article.

Content

 * Guiding questions


 * 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?

Content evaluation
The article's contents are all extremely relevant to the topic, and it should be known that all sections included are necessary to pass along information about the topic to readers. Without discussing all sections, readers would be missing crucial information about sexual behavior in animals.

The content is up to date, with additional sources linked at the bottom for readers to further educate themselves. All content belongs in the article, as stated above.

Tone and Balance

 * Guiding questions


 * 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?

Tone and balance evaluation
The article appears to be from a neutral standpoint. Alternating positions on topics (homosexual relations in animals for example) are given ample information to show that the authors favor neither side of a debate but simply give all possible positions/complications with studies directly to the reader to formulate their own opinion. All viewpoints are represented equally to the reader to remain a neutral non-biased article.

Sources and References

 * Guiding questions


 * 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?

Sources and references evaluation
Sources are reliable scholarly reviewed journals/papers which are readily available to view directly from the article. Sources are up to date with 167 references given excluding separate related links for the viewers to read on their own. Authors did an excellent job sourcing non-biased scholarly articles for their article.

Organization

 * Guiding questions


 * 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?

Organization evaluation
Article is well written and very easy to read. There are no noticeable grammatical errors and it is well organized. The article has been toned over years of work and it shows from reading. The authors did an excellent job passing along information in an organized, direct manner.

Images and Media

 * Guiding questions


 * 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?

Images and media evaluation
The article includes a few pictures which relate to the topics given, but not too many to overcrowd the page. They are laid out in a pleasing manner with some showing physical examples of interactions between species as well as different forms of sexual signaling parts for animals. The images are well captioned and concise for the photograph.

Checking the talk page

 * Guiding questions


 * 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?

Talk page evaluation
There are very few conversations going on with the talk page. Some readers had specific questions regarding moles for example but most posts are for clarification between this article and other specific pages where information is missing from the other pages and stated here. It is a part of two WikiProjects (WikiProject Animals and WikiProject Sexology and Sexuality). Wikipedia covers a broad list of topics on it's page, where as in class we slowly go through specific topics as to not get overwhelmed with crucial information.

Overall impressions

 * Guiding questions


 * 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?

Overall evaluation
I believe the article is very well written and well developed. Additional information can be given for very specific situations as requested in the talk page (such as sexual behavior of domesticated animals, specifically boars) but is overall a very strong article. Information is abundant and sectioned accordingly to deliver information concisely and in small groups of information. This article is very well done.

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:Animal sexual behaviour