User:KMmullins/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: American Enlightenment (link)
 * Briefly describe why you have chosen this article to evaluate.
 * I decidedly chose this article mainly on the basis that we have spent class time on a similar topic.The first enlightenment period occurred in Europe in the 18th century and centered around reason and the Renaissance humanism. The American enlightenment period occurred prior to the American Revolution, which put a huge spin on the course of history soon after.

Lead

 * Guiding questions


 * Does the Lead include an introductory sentence that concisely and clearly describes the article's topic?
 * Yes, the introductory sentence has a clear and straight forward idea of the article's concept.
 * Does the Lead include a brief description of the article's major sections?
 * The lead does include the major concepts that will be mentioned later in the article. The lead briefly references most of the topics that occur later in the article but, doesn't go further than listening popular figures of the time. The article could try to summarize it's topics later on with slightly more detail explain what happened rather than listening famous figures that believe in some idealism.
 * Does the Lead include information that is not present in the article?
 * All information mention is present in the article.
 * Is the Lead concise or is it overly detailed?
 * I believe that the article was overly detailed when it tends to mention every famous figure involved with a certain topic.

Content

 * Guiding questions


 * Is the article's content relevant to the topic?
 * The article's content is includes several aspects of ideology that each make up the American enlightenment period. There is a section of the article that mentions that architecture of the time, and I think that its relevant to the way the enlightenment period affected how Americans lived.
 * Is the content up-to-date?
 * Yes.
 * Is there content that is missing or content that does not belong?
 * Architecture paragraph doesn't seem relevant to the topic at hand.

Tone and Balance

 * Guiding questions


 * Is the article neutral?
 * To the best of my knowledge, the article seems to simply lay down facts, and is absent of personal opinions.
 * Are there any claims that appear heavily biased toward a particular position?
 * To the best of my knowledge, the article seems to simply lay down facts, and is absent of personal opinions.
 * Are there viewpoints that are over-represented, or underrepresented?
 * To the best of my knowledge, the article seems to simply lay down facts, and is absent of personal opinions.
 * Does the article attempt to persuade the reader in favor of one position or away from another?
 * To the best of my knowledge, the article seems to simply lay down facts, and is absent of personal opinions.

Sources and References

 * Guiding questions


 * Are all facts in the article backed up by a reliable secondary source of information?
 * There are a couple citations that simply have a name as the source, and zero information that shows that the citation is creditable. (#9 and #19)
 * Are the sources thorough - i.e. Do they reflect the available literature on the topic?
 * A lot of the authors of the citations used are creditable in the field of early American history.
 * Are the sources current?
 * The date of publication for the article's citations are scattered in between 1690 and 2013. Although this is era of ideology that happened hundreds of years ago, new literature is being written on the topic in modern times.
 * Check a few links. Do they work?
 * Yes, the links do work.

Organization

 * Guiding questions


 * Is the article well-written - i.e. Is it concise, clear, and easy to read?
 * Yes, I believe that a person reading at an middle school reading level would be able to comprehend the article.
 * Does the article have any grammatical or spelling errors?
 * This article doesn't have any spelling errors or grammatical errors that I am aware of.
 * Is the article well-organized - i.e. broken down into sections that reflect the major points of the topic?
 * Yes, the article breaks down the ideology present during the American enlightenment period.

Images and Media

 * Guiding questions


 * Does the article include images that enhance understanding of the topic?
 * Yes, the article includes one image of Thomas Paine.
 * Are images well-captioned?
 * No. The article has zero captions.
 * Do all images adhere to Wikipedia's copyright regulations
 * Yes
 * Are the images laid out in a visually appealing way?
 * Yes

Checking the talk page

 * Guiding questions


 * What kinds of conversations, if any, are going on behind the scenes about how to represent this topic?
 * Since this article is explaining the aspects of American history, editors of the page will try to avoid bias information present in possible citations.
 * How is the article rated? Is it a part of any Wiki Projects?
 * I am not able to locate any rating for the article, and its not apart of the Wiki Projects.
 * How does the way Wikipedia discusses this topic differ from the way we've talked about it in class?
 * Wikipedia tries to focus on stating factual evidence about what is occurring in early American history while we dive more into discussion about why we believe certain situations happened and how we believe that it affected history.

Overall impressions

 * Guiding questions


 * What is the article's overall status?
 * I believe that the article is well written and holds a variety of ideologies relevant to the topic at hand but, there is always room for improvement.
 * What are the article's strengths?
 * The article has a large amount of cited sources that strongly backup the information being presented.
 * How can the article be improved?
 * The article can delve more into the effects of the American Enlightenment rather than focusing on the famous figures that were present during that period.
 * How would you assess the article's completeness - i.e. Is the article well-developed? Is it underdeveloped or poorly developed?
 * I think the article is well-developed.

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

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