User:Lucienne.t/Evaluate an Article

Which article are you evaluating?
Saprotrophic bacteria

Why you have chosen this article to evaluate?
I had never heard of saprotrophic bacteria, but I was interested to learn about it, especially because it said "nitrogen cycle" in parentheses alongside it on the project list. However, there was no mention of the nitrogen cycle in the article, which left me somewhat confused. My initial impression of the article was that it seemed pretty short, and the language seemed geared towards a more advanced audience.

Evaluate the article
Lead section: The lead section begins with a straightforward and informative opening sentence. The paragraph is concise and straightforward, though it does not describe each of the article's major sections. For example, there is no mention of MEEs, which is the main topic of the second half of the article. Furthermore, the lead mentions saprotrophic bacteria's association with soil fungi, which is not discussed at any point later in the article.

Content: Though I am not knowledgeable about saprotrophic bacteria, it seems that the content is relevant to the subject. Additionally, the article seems up to date, as the most recent edit was made in 2022 and one of the sources was written in 2017. However, I still do not feel that I have a full understanding of saprotrophic bacteria after reading the article; it was short and missing necessary background content. For example, the explanation of the bacteria's population dynamics when cultivating a new environment was difficult to understand for an uninformed reader. Indeed, there could have been greater detail regarding the types of environments they colonize, how they colonize them, and why the population abundance fluctuates the way it does. There also could have been more information about how the bacteria act as pathogens, the physiology behind their consumption of saprotrophic nutrition, why they are fundamental to the food web, their distinction from soil fungi, and more background information about soil organic matter & decomposition in general. Finally, there was a heavy focus on MEEs compared to other general information about the bacteria (i.e life cycle, presence in our daily lives).

Tone and Balance: The tone throughout the article was neutral. None of the claims seemed biased, and the information was not presented in a way that could sway readers to adopt any particular opinion about the topic.

Sources and References: The article makes frequent use of footnotes, indicating that all the information is backed up by a secondary source. The sources seemed pretty reliable, as they mostly came from peer reviewed journals (albeit one from Encyclopedia Brittanica and one from an independent nonprofit institute). All of the sources had links (each of which led to relevant pages) except source 4, though it was easy to find online by looking up the title. The sources were written across a broad span of time, ranging from 1967-2018. Thus, some of these sources may contain outdated information. Furthermore, the sources could have been better utilized to harvest more information, and I was able to find more novel sources containing relevant information (ex. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1134/S106235901106015X)

Organization and writing quality: The article is pretty concise, though some of the sentences are convoluted (ex. sentence #2). The grammar looked good overall. The second paragraph contains some unrelated information, and makes multiple points that could be better addressed by affording each of them their own section. For example, there could be a section on the bacteria as pathogens in medicine and agriculture, another on its population growth/dynamics, and another on the various environments in which it persists.

Images and Media: The article contains no images, diagrams, or visual components whatsoever; it could definitely be improved by the addition of visual media.

Talk page discussion: This article is a part of WikiProject Microbiology, and has been rated as Start-Class and Low-Importance. There are no conversations happening in the talk page.

Overall Impressions: While this article lays out a general framework of the important points regarding saprotrophic bacteria, it is still underdeveloped. Indeed, many of the points made are not elaborated upon, and greater background detail could be offered to give readers greater insight into the relevance and ecological implications of the bacteria. Microbiology is particularly difficult to understand because of its small scale. Thus, it is important for articles that seek to explain topics in microbiology to address them in a broader context so that the reader can conceptualize the content.