User:Lhess17/Evaluate an Article

Which article are you evaluating?
Visual communication

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.)

The topic of visual communication is an important aspect of communication, especially now with the growth if social media and online communication. This article presents the importance of visual communication as well as the variety of uses it has in being an effective form of communication.

Evaluate the article
Lead Section:

The lead section is a detailed and concise overview of the topic, however, it does not completely match the rest of the article. Some topics discussed in the lead section are not all discussed in the article and vice versa. The article includes information about the use of visual communication in politics, science, and economics, but these topics are not in the lead section. The use of visual media in design and advertising is discussed in the lead section but not really in the article. The introductory sentence is effective in introducing the topic of visual communication by defining what it is while also providing examples.

Content:

Most of the information is out of date and can be improved upon. Some of the information is unnecessary to the topic as it goes into detail on things like projector types while skimming over sections like culture and important figures, which are important aspects of visual communication. While the information may have been more pertinent 15 years ago, discussing the unreliability of the "computers of today" is not really relevant to computer usage today. Despite talking about advertising and design in the introduction, there is very little discussion throughout the article on these topics. Overall, the article goes into depth on less important information while skimming over important information and lacks an up to date depiction of visual communication.

Tone and Balance:

The article includes some biases on the topic of visual media types in terms of their effectiveness. Overall, the visual media sections reads as an advice column of which visual media you should use to present to a class. The article does not go into depth on different usages of these visual medias outside of presenting to an audience. The article does however, go into the different perspectives of image analysis which is effective in providing different viewpoints of how visual media can be perceived.

Sources and References:

While there are some sources from the last 3 years included in the article, a lot of the sources are out dated, going back to over 20 years ago. Especially today with the growth in visual communication online, there are a lot of reliable sources that could be used in replacement of these outdated sources to provide a more accurate understanding of the use of visual communication today. The sources vary between credible, published papers and news articles with bias and a lack of reliability.

Organization and Writing Quality:

The article is broken down into easily understood sections, however, as discussed in the talk page, the article lacks important sections. These include a history section and other examples of online visual communication past social media. There appear to be few grammatical errors, though the language is not very formal. Opinionated language, such as "the best way" and " the most effective" is used to describe the effectiveness of the different types of visual aid media rather than an unbiased account. There is also a lack of proper comma usage at times.

Images and Media:

The article only includes two graphics, which for an article on the importance of visuals in communication, is not enough. One of the graphics is merely a stock image of common social media applications, and they are not up to date with more current social media applications. While the caption is accurate in depicting the image, both the image and caption do not add to the understanding of the text. The other image is more effective as it shows the process of visual communication for cartoons and comics. However, the caption could be more specific and the image is over 10 years old and is not very clear to understand. Overall, more up to date graphics throughout would improve this article as they would provide examples of visual communication discussed in the text.

Talk Page Discussion:

The talk page on this article is fairly short. The general discussion is about more up to date, reliable sources and information, the addition of an in depth history section, and more visuals to aid in understanding. It has been a Wiki Education assignment multiple times and is rated as a level 5 vital start class article. Overall, the talk section is focused on improvements to the article with examples of sections and topics that would keep it up to date with new information on visual communication.

Overall Impressions:

Overall, this article is out of date as it lacks crucial information about the topic that is necessary to better understand visual communication as it applies today. It also lacks up to date sources and graphics that would improve the article's effectiveness. Sections that relate to information discussed in the lead section as well as sections such as current online examples of visual communications would also improve this article. The out of date information could be used to develop a history section to show the development of visual communication with the growth of electronics. While the article does touch on important information such as the elements of visual communication, it lacks an in depth understanding of the information discussed.