User:Katie.toperzer/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.


 * RNA-dependent RNA Polymerase: RNA-dependent RNA Polymerase
 * I chose to evaluate this article because it had little information on the protein's mechanism of action. This page also had no information on how this protein can be used as a drug target to treat viral disease, as seen in the recent development of Remdesivir in COVID-19 treatments.

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's first sentence does clearly and concisely describe the article's topic. It does not necessarily briefly discuss the major sections that will be covered in the article. The Lead does not include excess information that is not mentioned further in the article. I feel that the Lead may be too concise and could use some extra detail about what the reader should expect to find in the remainder of 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 information is relevant to the topic, however, I feel that the information in this article could be elaborated more in detail. The article's content is not up-to-date as there has been recent expansion in topics closely related to this protein, such as drug development. This article is also missing important details in how the protein functions and could use more elaboration on the history of the protein discovery and presence.

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
This article is neutral, only telling facts about the topic discussed. It did not bring any viewpoints other than objective statements into the article and offered no sense of persuasion. This article also used a variety of references so as to pull information from different views.

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
Most of the facts in the article are backed up by a reliable secondary source of information. The sources are thorough and discuss a wide variety of information on RdRP, with the most recent sources being published in 2018 and 2017. Most sources, however, are relatively outdated and could be replaced with more recent studies. The links to the sources do work and take you to the reference articles to read more in depth about the subject.

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
The article is well written and is very clear and to the point with the most basic scientific jargon used to relay the information. There are no grammatical or spelling errors present in the article. The article is broken down into major sections that are relevant and easy to follow.

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 images do look to adhere to Wikipedia's copyright regulations as they appear to be designed on a software by an editor. The images are located in an appealing way off to the side of the text without interfering with the readability of the article and add to the article by giving the reader an in-depth idea of protein's structure and how it functions in transcription. The captions for these images are very concise and are overall well-done for the reader to understand what they are looking at.

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
This article is rated in the C-class and is within the WikiProject Viruses. On the talk page, individuals are commenting on how vague the article is and how it is lacking in areas such as RNA-dependent RNA polymerase in eukaryotic organisms. The talk page also shows concerns that the article is not friendly to those who are not familiar with largely scientific jargon such as using the phrase "sense negative RNA" in the article without clarification. In class, we have and will talk about RNA-dependent RNA polymerase in a more detailed way than the Wikipedia article goes into as we will talk about it's role in scientific techniques, such as RNAi.

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 that this article is a good basis to understand what RNA-dependent RNA polymerase is and how is works in viral hosts, however, I do feel that it can be improved by adding more information on the mechanism in which the protein works to translate RNA as well as how this protein can be used in technologies, such as RNAi, or in drug therapies. The article was very organized and easy to follow, but did not include enough information for it to be complete. I found this article to be underdeveloped and could be edited to make it more complete for those looking for a more in depth explanation of how this process works and what it can be used for in scientific technologies.

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: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:RNA-dependent_RNA_polymerase