User:Mayaworthing/Evaluate an Article

Which article are you evaluating?
(Provide a link to the article  here .)

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 because it is related to the course and I find renewable energy a very interesting topic. Renewable energy matters because the earth can provide energy through natural sources such as wind and water, however humans continue to use non-renewable energy sources. My preliminary impression of it was that it has an abundance of information. It provides many examples and a lot of data on various matters of renewable energy sources.

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:

The very first sentence of the lead section has a note that says “clarification needed”. This is because it explains that renewable sources are naturally replenished on a human timescale which is confusing and unclear. This would not help a reader who wants to identify the topic by only reading the first sentence. This could be improved by further explaining what a human timescale is. This is a weak start however, the remainder of the paragraph is well explained. It uses examples such as “sunlight, wind, the movement of water, and geothermal heat”, which is very helpful for readers to understand an overview and the types of natural resources. It then talks about human’s need for energy sources and the differences between developing rather than developed countries. This lead is concise and well written other than the very first sentence that needs clarification.

Content

This article covers many important and relevant aspects of the topic. The content is up-to-date as there are 2 references from 2023 and many references from 2022 as well. This is important for the content of this article as it includes surveys about energy that are recent and post-covid statistics as well. The majority of the article does not put too much weight on one part while neglecting another however, there is some content that is missing. This is specifically in the "Trends for individual technologies" section. For example, the “wind power development” subsection needs expansion as it has one short sentence about it. It is important to have up-to-date information on this topic such as new improvements and research that have benefited this type of energy in recent years. For example:China in global wind power development: Role, status and impact is recent research from 2020. This talks about China’s advanced knowledge of wind power that is lacking in other countries.

Another area of content that needs improvement is the History section as it only covers history until the year 1980. This section should be updated with more recent history and information as there is common advancement in this field.

Tone and Balance

This article is written from a neutral point of view. There are not many controversies that could demonstrate bias surrounding this topic, however even in the “policy trends” “geopolitics” and “debates' section the article remains neutral. All viewpoints are well represented and the article does not attempt to persuade the reader.

Sources and References

This article has an abundance of references and many in text citations after nearly every sentence. This demonstrates that the article is reliable and well sourced information. For example, a lot of the information is peer-reviewed articles that are recently published. This shows that most of the information is up-to-date such as 2020 and forward. There is minimal information from the early 2000s that needs updating. The sources are also written by a diverse spectrum of authors which provides further validity. Multiple sources and authors could be cited for one section which benefits the quality of the article.

An improvement that could be made is to use less newspaper and/or media articles. I checked a number of these and most of the links do work, however these sources could be biased and affect the neutrality needed in the article.

Organization and writing quality

The writing quality is very clear and professional. I found the article very well written and organized in a sensible way. Other than some sections needing more information such as “wind power development” that I mentioned above, the content is clear and easy to read. I have not seen any spelling mistakes or errors in grammar.

Images and Media

The article does use an abundance of images and charts that help support or explain the text. There are many graphs and maps that help guide the readers as well. The images are also well captioned. The use of the images on the right hand side helps keep flow and organization within the article.

Overall impression

My overall impression of the article is that it is very good and needs additions to some finer details. Any sections with one sentence or a small paragraph could be improved to strengthen the article. It is also very important to prioritize clarifying the very first sentence in the article.