User:Maggie.htj/Evaluate an Article

Evaluate an article
This is where you will complete your article evaluation. Please use the template below to evaluate your selected article.


 * Name of article: English Studies
 * I chose this article because I am interested in the topic of English Studies, it is relevant to our course, and it is rated as high importance to the WikiProject Education and mid importance and start class by the WikiProject Literature.

Lead

 * Guiding questions


 * Does the Lead include an introductory sentence that concisely and clearly describes the article's topic?
 * Does the Lead include a brief description of the article's major sections?
 * Does the Lead include information that is not present in the article?
 * Is the Lead concise or is it overly detailed?

Lead evaluation
The opening sentence sums up the subject of the article and distinguishes it from another similar topic. The rest of the Lead is not brief, however. It consists of three paragraphs, one of which should probably not be included in a Lead. The information could be summed up in a more succinct manner. The Lead addresses information not included in the main body of the article briefly but neither the Lead not the article ever go into details about this information. For example, it references English as a discipline of study for primary and secondary education but the body of the article only has a section on the "English Major" in post-secondary education. It feels overly detailed with long lists of disciplines, sub-disciplines, and potential courses offered within disciplines.

Content

 * Guiding questions


 * Is the article's content relevant to the topic?
 * Is the content up-to-date?
 * Is there content that is missing or content that does not belong?

Content evaluation
The article's content is relevant to the topic in that it references sub-disciplines within the study of English and goes into detail on the college/university level study of English. This section is well developed and seems up-to-date. This is the only major section of the article, however. The article doesn't go into detail about the study of English prior to college level course work, post-grad degrees in the field, or working in the field of English as a professor. This section feels like an add for a university's English department, especially since there is no other information in the article.

Tone and Balance

 * Guiding questions


 * Is the article neutral?
 * Are there any claims that appear heavily biased toward a particular position?
 * Are there viewpoints that are overrepresented, or underrepresented?
 * Does the article attempt to persuade the reader in favor of one position or away from another?

Tone and balance evaluation
The article is fairly neutral in the information it does present but seems skewed in favor of undergraduate English degrees and lacks information on the study of English in any other context. Specifically the sub-section on career opportunities for English majors feels aimed at convincing students to major in the discipline. This section also contains evaluative information not backed by sources such as the sentence "The most obvious career choices for English majors are writing, publishing, journalism, and teaching."

Sources and References

 * Guiding questions


 * Are all facts in the article backed up by a reliable secondary source of information?
 * Are the sources thorough - i.e. Do they reflect the available literature on the topic?
 * Are the sources current?
 * Check a few links. Do they work?

Sources and references evaluation
Not all facts have citations linked to them. For example, under the sub-section Examples of Courses, "rhetorical courses" has no citation. There are few citations in the References section and many of the sources cited are more than 10 years old. English is a discipline that produces many sources and has many sources written about it as a discipline of study so I would expect to see many more citations and sources referenced in an article about the discipline. Some of the articles referenced lack links to the source but the links in the article work properly.

Organization

 * Guiding questions


 * Is the article well-written - i.e. Is it concise, clear, and easy to read?
 * Does the article have any grammatical or spelling errors?
 * Is the article well-organized - i.e. broken down into sections that reflect the major points of the topic?

Organization evaluation
The article is easy to read and well written free of grammatical or spelling errors from what I can tell. What is included is well organized. The language is sometimes overly evaluative, like the sentence "Initially, English studies comprised a motley array of content..." If I were to re-write that sentence I would take out the adjective "motley."

Images and Media

 * Guiding questions


 * Does the article include images that enhance understanding of the topic?
 * Are images well-captioned?
 * Do all images adhere to Wikipedia's copyright regulations?
 * Are the images laid out in a visually appealing way?

Images and media evaluation
The only image included in the article is an open book with no caption. When clicking on it to make it larger, you can see that it is an open copy of The Classic of Rites, one of the Five Classics of Confucianism, written in Chinese, so is not particularly relevant to the study of English. This image does adhere to Wikipedia's copyright regulations.

Checking the talk page

 * Guiding questions


 * What kinds of conversations, if any, are going on behind the scenes about how to represent this topic?
 * How is the article rated? Is it a part of any WikiProjects?
 * How does the way Wikipedia discusses this topic differ from the way we've talked about it in class?

Talk page evaluation
This article is rated "start" by the WikiProject Literature. It appears to be currently assigned to two editors taking part in another Wiki Education class. Most of the discussions are older than 5 years and centered around the English major again. One user started a new conversation last month in relation to classes taken and jobs available for English majors.

Overall impressions

 * Guiding questions


 * What is the article's overall status?
 * What are the article's strengths?
 * How can the article be improved?
 * How would you assess the article's completeness - i.e. Is the article well-developed? Is it underdeveloped or poorly developed?

Overall evaluation
Overall, I believe this article needs flushing out. While the writing is fairly clear and well crafted, it includes evaluative language inappropriate for Wikipedia. Its Lead section should be made more concise and some of that information should be moved to the body of the article and developed further. Its discussion of the English major is well developed but the article should go beyond the study of English at the undergraduate level.

Optional activity

 * Choose at least 1 question relevant to the article you're evaluating and leave your evaluation on the article's Talk page. Be sure to sign your feedback

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