User:JLR02/Evaluate an Article

Which article are you evaluating?
Manchester, Washington

Why you have chosen this article to evaluate?
I chose this article because it is my hometown, and the current article is a stub. It is a pretty small town, but the article could be improved in several ways by updating information, adding photos, etc - all very achievable improvements.

Evaluate the article
(Compose a detailed evaluation of the article here, considering each of the key aspects listed above. Consider the guiding questions, and check out the examples of what a useful Wikipedia article evaluation looks like.)

Lead section

The lead is very short - only 2 sentences, one identifying the name and the other stating the 2010 population. This could definitely be updated to give a better overview. For instance, information about the town's location relative to Seattle, the nearest major city, would be a good thing to include as context for readers not familiar with Manchester.

Content

The content is all relevant to Manchester, although some is a bit outdated. Demographics need to be updated with 2020 census information. The History section could be fleshed out a bit, and to balance out the sections some content could be added to Geography - maybe climate, location relative to notable other towns, or similar information.

Tone and Balance

The tone is appropriately neutral and not overly technical, although a few sentences could be cleaned up for readability. No particular viewpoint is overstated - all information is presented in an "encyclopedic" tone. If I were to add any new content, I would want to imitate the style that currently exists in the article.

Sources and References

The sources listed for current information are all solid, again with the exception of outdated census data. I wouldn't mind finding a few more good sources about Manchester's history, but that would be in addition to information currently listed.

Organization and writing quality

The organization is clear. Sections are appropriate and distinct, and information within them is balanced. The "flow" of the article could benefit from some more prose; the bulk of the article just feels like listed facts. Sometimes that's unavoidable, like with census reports, but things like history and climate can definitely be written a bit more smoothly.

Images and Media

There is one image of the town's beach/park, as well as a map of its location within Kitsap County and Washington state. Both are captioned well. I think the article could be improved by adding a few more photos to give a better overview of the town as a whole. It's not a very big place, but it has a few notable landmarks - the library, the state park, and a longstanding restaurant, for example.

Talk page discussion

The article is rated as Start-class and Low importance within the scope of both WikiProject Washington and the general United States. It has no real talk page discussion, just a post by a link-fixing bot from 2018.

Overall impressions

Overall, this is a pretty solid start. Manchester is not a very big town, so the article will never be as long as an article for, say, Seattle. The article has strengths in its organization and references for the information currently listed. Some cleanup with updated information and added details would make it more well-rounded and a good representation of the current town.