User:MargaretGarry/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: (link) Mining in Sierra Leone
 * I chose this article to evaluate because I have always been interested in the mining industry in Africa and how it effects the population.

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 lead opens with an introductory sentence that is more of a plain fact than a description of the article's topic. There is a brief description of some of the article's sections in the lead, but it does not address all of the topics, (even though it has sections for them in the article). It does not include all of the information present in the article as it mentions limonite for example, but there is no other mention of it in the article. The lead is overly concise as it does not include a clear introduction to the article's content and does not lay out the format for the article.

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 certainly relevant to the topic, it seems up to date as well but I do not have extensive knowledge on this topic. Regarding the content quality itself, I think that there should be a section on community impact, as well as much more detail in the pre-existing sections.

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 appears to have a neutral tone overall, however the author uses inappropriate word choice such as discussing the country as "blessed" with natural resources and still emerging from the "scars" of Civil War. This diction does not seem academic in its tone. The author seems to overrepresent a Western viewpoint as they stress how institutions can be improved and made to be less corrupt. The author also implies that Sierra Leone is not making proper use of all of the diamonds available to the country, which seems to be more of an opinion than an actual fact. These biases as well as others throughout the article suggest that the article is attempting to persuade the reader in favor of Western-minded economic and institutional reforms to the country's mining industry.

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
Many of the supposed facts in the article simply link back to other Wikipedia articles that may or may not confirm this same idea. Thus, they are not backed up by strong academic secondary sources. The sources do not seem thorough either, as there are many more resources available for this issue area yet this is not reflected in the sourcing throughout the article. The sources are not very current as most of them date back at least ten years. The sources are incredibly problematic as many of them are red, with no actual link attached, and thus no source.

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 not well written as it is clear and easy to read, however it is not concise. The author fails to mention important topics in the mining industry in Sierra Leone and uses odd and biased word choice throughout the article. I did not note any grammatical or spelling errors. The article at first glance seems well-organized, but there isn't a section for every topic mentioned in the lead, and there needs to be more sections.

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
There are only three pictures in the entire article, and two of them are of precious stones. This does not help to enhance our understanding of the majority of topics discussed. The images are well-captioned however. The images do seem to adhere to Wikipedia's copyright regulations to the best of my knowledge. Additionally, they are laid out in a visually appealing way.

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
There are multiple comments about the lack of a strong connection between the mining industry in Sierra Leone and the Civil War. This seems to be along the lines of my criticism which is that we need to see more content about the impact of the mining industry on the community. This article is part of WikiProject Mining and WikiProject Africa and is rated as "Start" class by both of these projects. It is of mid-importance to former project and is yet to be rated in this way by the latter project. We did not discuss this topic in class extensively to the best of my knowledge regarding Sierra Leone in particular. However, when discussing resources in Africa in class we talked extensively about the resource curse in general, whereas the main concern of the talk page is the Civil War.

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
The article seems to be off to a good start, but it needs a lot of work to accurately depict the subject of Mining in Sierra Leone. Strengths of the article include how for most of its content it at least attempts to stay unbiased. It also has clear sections for its topics. However, the weaknesses are excessive as it does not include important topics such as the ones previously discussed in my evaluation and the author has a clear bias in their word choice throughout the article. Overall, I would assess this article as being poorly developed with a dire need for improvement.

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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