User:Jcayala97/Evaluate an Article

Which article are you evaluating?
(Provide a link to the article here.) José Francisco Ortega

Why you have chosen this article to evaluate?
(Briefly explain why you chose it, why it matters, and what your preliminary impression of it was.)

I chose this article because I was interested in researching for somebody that had some significance in the history of the Californias during the 18th century. After reading the article, Jose Francisco Ortega gave me the impression that he was an important figure because of his exp[edition throughout the coast of Alta California from San Diego to San Francisco. It is important to add on to this article because Ortega became a big landowner after he retired from military duty, which is an important piece of the history of California which revolved around wealthy, prominent massive landowners who had big ranches which marked the landscape of California prior to its acquisition by the United States.

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.)

The lead section of this article provides a summary of the significance of Ortega, although it is limited to one sentence which speaks to how brief the article is. The content in this article provides brief but good coverage on the key parts of his life including where he was from and his early life, his time while he was part of the expedition, his later years, and family. Although, the family section does have two citations needed, otherwise there is enough to work with to improve the article. The article appears to be factual and neutral without biased language being used, along with that the writing quality is clear, concise, and easy to understand for the general public. The sources look like they are current and the sources being used do not seem like they are biased or are from a blog or website. The article unfortunately does lack an image for Ortega, so it would need one apart from further information which could add to the substance of the article. The talk page does not have any activity so that would be an indication that more effort and collaboration would be necessary. The strengths of the article are that it shows the importance of Ortega through the expedition he took on and his transformation into a landholding patriarch in California, which is important for the history of California. The downside to this article is that the history and sections overall are quite brief so it needs lots of work and research done for this article. Despite that, it does look to be a promising project.