User:Lorrriana/Evaluate an Article

Which article are you evaluating?
Chicago Tylenol murders

Why you have chosen this article to evaluate?
I chose that specific article because it relates to the research I conducted for a presentation on Toxicology. It was my second case study, and because of such, I know a decent amount of information about the fact-- or at a bare minimum, the general outline. My preliminary impression of it would've been that the Chicago Tylenol murders were fairly cryptic; as nobody had been caught or deemed susceptible to conviction when it came to these crimes. However, it struck an enormous recall in pharmaceuticals that spread about all of Chicago, even though the crimes happened in a specific town. This is because it was already extremely subsequential that we had managed to figure out some Tylenol was laced with cyanide, and that many more could have been killed by the same occurrence without it ever being documented. It was only put into light as a mass poisoning when three members of the same household (all varying in health) suddenly died in the same few days.

Evaluate the article
LEAD SECTION

The written-out lead is overall perfect for the matter at hand; It summarizes perfectly what the Chicago Tylenol murders were, when they were situated, how they happened, and how influential the overall case was. They even added the status of possible suspects (there being none), and James William Lewis who had aggressively tormented Tylenol’s Manufacturers to profit off of the tragedy. All of these aspects are also divided into major sections later on in the Wikipedia article, therefore the lead has successfully given an accurate preview of it. All information mentioned in the lead is perfectly accurate to what’s included in the article, and all aspects are discussed in further detail later on. The Lead in itself is extremely concise and perfectly brief to read through, all while giving out a perfect and general amount of information on the following article.

CONTENT

All content mentioned within the article was wholly relevant to the situation. The categories are as such; Deaths and early public-safety efforts, Police investigation (Subcategories; Suspects, 21st-century investigation efforts), and Aftermath (Subcategories; Copycats, Johnson & Johnson response, Pharmaceutical changes, 1982 Halloween). The only piece of content that seems out of place is 1982 Halloween, which just briefly summarizes that more fear was struck into individuals regarding the myth of poisoned candy, due to the Chicago Tylenol murders. However, It did show a clear change in purchase rates of candy and overall showed how much fear the Chigao Tylenol murders struck after the fact. Also- It makes for an honest interesting fact after reading such gruesome details about the details of crimes, and the unwell people who may have committed them. Additionally, It’s perfectly up to date regarding the incident that happened back in 1982, and the documented content includes modern research from the 21st century despite the cases’ age. There doesn’t seem to be any content missing, as the only subject that is lacking is due to the very real resolve that we haven’t been able to find a suspect/convict anybody. Therefore, there’s a perfect reason why the assailant and the motive of the crime are both displayed as unknown. The article makes sure to represent the community’s response to the crime, along with the police’s response, the FBI’s, and so on.

TONE AND BALANCE

The article is very neutral, as it explains how-is by using unbiased police investigations on the matter. If it does include anything like a news report or community outrage; it makes sure to mention such and to make a possible bias very clear. The bias mostly steers towards the fact that people are entirely afraid of the matter, therefore they’ll make unreasonable decisions out of fear and want to survive rather than logically thinking over the possibilities. And it’s entirely fair, as again, we don’t know many of the demeaning factors of the case to begin with. The article in no way attempts to persuade the reader in a certain position; it simply explains an unbiased and general summary of the aspects of the case.

SOURCES AND REFERENCES

There’s a decent amount of facts that are backed up by news articles, which somewhat unnerves me. However, the case in itself did heavily revolve around media attraction, and widespread panic- which does give a reason as to why most of this information would be publicized on the news. There aren’t any comments from the victims since they’re all deceased, and none with relatives of the victims. However, some sources come from the police when it comes to investigation matters, or scientific articles when it’s associated with topics relating to chemistry or the chemical content of those afflicted Tylenol capsules. I believe that even if there are a lot of references sourced from media, they’re diligently and reasonably used- and the article isn’t solely reliant on such. I found a modern academic journal that goes over the case that hadn’t been included in the Wikipedia article, which would be good to cite from.

Maria João S. Oliveira, Chicago Tylenol Murders: Information and mindfulness, Safety Science, Volume 165, 2023, 106190, ISSN 0925-7535, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssci.2023.106190.(https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0925753523001327)

I’ve also clicked a good handful of links, being towards other Wikipedia articles and cites sources, and both appear to work perfectly. Anything that has been taken off the internet has thankfully been archived.

ORGANIZATION AND WRITING QUALITY

I believe the article is beyond concise and easy to read. It knows how to mention detail without fully prolonging it, and does a great show of it throughout all its categories. There are no spelling errors that I was able to see, as well as a few grammar-checking sites I managed to put the article through. The sections and subsections that divide the article are perfectly thought-out and placed. Overall, I have zero complaints about the article’s organization and writing quality.

IMAGES AND MEDIA

There are no images or pieces of media used in this article. Therefore, there are no ways that imagery or media can be penalized or criticized within this evaluation.

TALK PAGE DISCUSSION

The talks that are being made about the article primarily lie on it’s title; individuals debate whether it should just be stated as “Chigaco Tylenol Murders” or “Tylenol Murders”, due to the fact that socially the occurrence is referred to as the “Tylenol Murders”, and that there haven't been any other Tylenol Murders, therefore it’s unnecessary to specify it to such a degree. Another topic that was briefly discussed would be of Halloween 1982, as an editor comments something that basically points out the previous writing of it implied poisoned candy was actually an en-masse issue sometime in the past. It was likely changed as I hadn’t read myself the changes they were mentioning. The article is rated B-Class on Wikipedia’s content assessment scale, as well as a topic of interest in the following WikiProjects; Crime and Criminal Biography: Serial, mass, and spree killers (mid-importance), Death (high-importance), Pharmacology (mid-importance), Chicago (mid-importance), Illinois (mid-importance). What’s contained in the talk-page discussion are simple little changes, and don’t seem to be anything greater than what we’ve discussed in class. Wikipedia Talks are strictly for article changes anyways rather than general discussion, therefore I wouldn’t expect to find anything similar to the general wide-scoped conversations we have in class.

OVERALL IMPRESSIONS

The article seems more than complete with all the information known about the case. If anything about a suspect, charged assailant, or motive would ever arise- then I could see the article ready for a review and addition of that information. The article, again, marvellously puts together brief but explanatory summaries of all its topics- making it extremely easy to read while beyond informing. I highly recommend reading over this article, if anything.