User:KMaiTBinh/Evaluate an Article

Which article are you evaluating?
Banana bat

Why you have chosen this article to evaluate?
I wanted to practice exploring c-span articles to find something new to learn about. I also wanted to see how different articles approached the lead section and how I could develop my approach to editing

Evaluate the article
The banana bat article has an introductory lead that right away established what the animal is regarding species, family, and conservation status. However, it does not give a summarized overview of the major sections outlined in the article. I saw that the author made statements on the bat's endangered status but had citations over the common-use names. I checked the sources and did notice mention of deforestation and the bat's conservation status as endangered. As such, the resources are properly cited.

Going into sections, what caught my eye was how the author quantified that a "medium sized bat" by body mass and then used citation to cover this specific stat. To me, this feels like the author put some thought into estimating the level of familiarity the reader has with the subject. The article has content and sections appropriate to the subject. In my opinion, the organization of sections is effective because the author first establishes what the bat should look like and where it should be found followed by how it eats and behaves and then the explanation of how the bat's physiology supports those functions. The tone is neutral and there appears to be no attempts to sway the reader into any position.

The sources appear to be reliable as mostly textbooks directly correlating the section addressed. I saw that the description of the bat's behavior only referred to one research study mentioned in the textbook. I do think perhaps a systemic review of such studies on behavior would be beneficial because it would give a more substantial observation on the banana bat's behavior.

The talk page appears to have little to no involvement except for changes in modifying an external link to the banana bat. If I read up more on the topic, I would maybe look for more information on the bat's mating frequency during the dry season of Mexico as only 1 research study was used to support this.

Overall, the article takes an academic approach to explaining how the bat looks, where to find it, what it eats, how it behaves, and the physiology that supports its lifestyle. The article has some thoughtfulness on how the information is presented to lay people and sources information from reputable textbooks specific to the bat's species classification, conservation status, and lifestyle.