User:Lkirkley/Evaluate an Article

= User: Lkirkley/Evaluate and Article =

== Which article are you evaluating? ==

(Provide a link to the article here). English Studies in Wikipedia

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.)

I chose this article in particular to evaluate because I am an Secondary English Education Major and so this topic is of interest to me. I wanted to see what Wikipedia had to add in terms of my favorite subject area. However, I do know that not many people enjoy reading about English Studies so I thought that this article would be a great example for me to evaluate Wikipedia.

Evaluate the article
(Compose a detailed evaluation of the article here, considering each of the key aspects listed above. Consider the guiding questions, and check out the examples of what a useful Wikipedia article evaluation looks like.)

Lead Section:
I do think that the introductory sentence can tell you a lot about the subject that is being studied. It is very clean and concise, but I would say that it can be confusing as you move on later in the section. Since English Studies is such a dense topic it is really hard to make this section not confusing. However, I do find that the wording in the section needs somewhat of a revamp. There are so many links to all of the Wikipedia pages that are relevant to English studies, it seems like almost every word in the lead section is hyperlinked. They do talk a lot about how schooling in the English speaking countries as well as the difference between Native English speakers and English Language Learners. The sections aren't clearly lined out in the lead section, and I think that might add some clarity into the leading section.

Content:
I do think that there is helpful content to be found within the different fields listed as well as all of the hyperlinks listed that connect to the different forms of literature. Especially with a topic so broad as English Studies it can be hard to go into detail about everything, so something quick and easy to access such as those lists is really helpful. However, the only time the article really goes into depth is when the article talks about the history of English studies.

The first content paragraph is talking about the definition of being an English major in the United States which I find can be confusing if you are talking about English studies. Especially since the paragraph is so small that it is basically a definition in itself, being an English major should have it's own separate page or really be expanded upon more to make it relevant to English studies. On that same topic, I do think that the section skills acquired should fall under English major and not after the history of English studies. It goes into such depth about how this applies towards the English major today and it seems out of place.

I think that the sources are in fact up to date, many of the articles that are listed are listed as early as 2018, however it can't hurt to have some more relevant articles; especially after the pandemic has hit I'm sure that has changed English studies drastically.

To my knowledge it is not a part of the equity gaps, and I can see a lot of content that could be put into this page but I do not see anything that shouldn't outright be there as well. English studies is so broad that many pieces of this article do fit really well together.

Tone and Balance:
I would say that the article is as neutral as it can be considering it is such an English forward topic. This can often leave out many part of the population who cannot read, or have not learned English. I do not think that this article outright targets anyone, but I do think it is somewhat biased as it is right now since there is a section on how English studies works in Great Britain as well as Ontario, Canada but no where else that speaks English and teaches it so strongly in their schools. The article does not persuade anyone towards are particular viewpoint. The minority presence of other countries is missing but other than that it is very neutral.

Sources and References:
All of the sources are very well accredited. Many of them come from really old English textbooks that I'm sure need some revamping. There are many perspectives in terms of English studies in the United States, Great Britain, Germany, France, and Canada. All of the terms that need their own definition have been properly hyperlinked. And surprisingly all of those links work very well. I would just try to update some of the new forms of English studies curriculum because especially with the recent pandemic, that could bring up some new studies and some new information that can modernize the references list a little.

Organization and Writing Quality:
I would say that the article can get its message across, but I do think that since it is an English studies section that it should have way better grammar and spell checks. There is an entire sentence in the Ontario, Canada section looking at High School, it is lackluster of flavor in terms of words that could be used and has quite a few grammatical errors. In the Britain section right above it, it is also very lackluster. Like it was almost written by students just trying to get the facts down and nothing else. Very robotic and lacking some explanation of simpler things to beef up the text a little so it doesn't seem so much like a bullet point list. I do think that English studies could be broken down into more parts and paragraphs but I think that once that occurs than the page will seem very full. and possibly too long to read for those interested.

Images and Media:
There are no forms of imagery or media that really enhance the article. I would recommend some of the different examples of English studies or possibly a graph to show how popular English studies has become over the years.

Talk Page Discussion:
I do think that the Talk page shows a lot of what has been going on behind the scenes. There was a merge between English major and English studies which can explain the confusion that I was having. There is also a lot of talk about how poor the article is in terms of needing revisions. It was turned over to a Wikiproject in 2019 so that English students could work on the project which could explain the grammatical errors and lackluster content I was talking about earlier as well. I do think that some of the questions on this article page are interesting but I think that most people are unmotivated in terms of trying to revitalize the page.

Overall Impressions:
Overall I would say that this article is rated pretty poorly. I think that it can be hard for other writers to want to work on this article because it is so lackluster in terms of the verbage already here but also because it is such a grand topic to try to cover. It is an article that is severely underdeveloped and in great need of repair. It can't really be an article to try and publish overnight, this would be almost an entire life's work to be put into saving this page. The article has a really strong introduction, and the beginning tables of types of literature and different studies are really helpful for readers. The article should have some more information regarding the English major as well as possibly its different uses and how that has became the English studies that we know today because it has changed so drastically since the rhetoricians in Greece.