User:Ktjylee/Evaluate an Article

Which article are you evaluating?
Ecosystem engineer

Why you have chosen this article to evaluate?
I'm planning on majoring in Environmental Engineering and the word first caught my eye thinking it would be synonymous, only to find out that it's not at all. It's a term that I've never heard despite studying environmental science for a couple of years, so I wanted to learn more about it.

Evaluate the article
The lead is a bit contradictory or misleading because the first sentence states, "An ecosystem engineer is any animal that creates, significantly modifies, maintains or destroys a habitat," which is a clear definition. However, the sentence after the next states, "As a result, ecosystem engineers are important for maintaining the health and stability of the environment they are living in." An ecosystem engineer is first introduced as an animal that can destroy a habitat, but is that destruction truly destruction if it's beneficial and necessary for maintaining the health and stability of the environment? There is also no intimation of different types of ecosystem engineers, it gives a definition and no transition. This, however, is not necessarily a flaw and does not impede the understanding of an ecosystem engineer.

As for organization, I do feel like importance should either be immediately after the lead or it should be the very last segment. Preferably right after the lead because it discusses the types of ecosystem engineers, then to the importance, then introduced species that are ecosystem engineers. If I were to reorganize it, it would be 1. lead 2. importance 3. types of ecosystem engineers 4. examples 5. introduced species 6. humans as ecosystem engineers. There is a lack of flow and in order to find examples, which I believe quickly and better familiarize the audience with the definition, you have to read till the end of the article.

The photos and captions are overall great, except for the Parrotfish image which does not have a proper caption.

Resources used are all pretty recent, which is admirable.