User:Mbgthinks/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: Maternal death
 * Briefly describe why you have chosen this article to evaluate.
 * I chose this article about maternal death because it is related to what I am interested in researching in my future career. I want to be a doctor but I also want to research the disparity between races when it comes to health care.

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 begins with a definition by the World Health Organization of what can be deemed as a maternal death/mortality. It also includes facts about the maternal mortality ratio and some of its implications. The Lead does not include a brief description of every subsequent section. All the information that is stated in the Lead is included throughout the article. The Lead does a pretty good job of summarizing the article, however, it includes many numerical facts that could have been just stated in the article instead of the introduction part.

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 because it discusses both the causes and preventions that have been put in place. It also talks about the different ways in which maternal mortality rate is measured and trends from the past years and in different countries. The page was last updated in October but the prevention section includes very little about medical technologies or medications that have been implemented. One thing that is missing in detail is the discussion of race and maternal death. The article talks about the causes of maternal death, trends, and epidemiology but fails to mention this big factor that race is related is playing a factor in one of specific demographic. I'm not sure if that is bias on my part but I believe this topic should be included.

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
This article is neutral, I think that this is very important because the article talks about different topics like abortion and public health policies in which it could be very easy to become biased toward a particular position. I think one viewpoint that is underrepresented is how maternal death affects different demographics such as different races or different classes. I don't believe the article attempted to persuade the reader in one way or the other.

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
All facts in the article are backed up by reliable sources such as the World Health Organization (WHO) and Medicinal journals. The sources vary from research journals to organizations like WHO and CDC which are more like big databases, both types of sources include different amounts and perspectives. Most of the sources come from the 1980s/90s and 2000s. I feel that if there were more recent sources there would be more information in certain sections like the prevention methods that are being put in place. The links do work.

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 pretty well-written, however, at times it can be difficult to understand because of how many numerical facts/numbers are included. The article doesn't have any spelling or grammatical errors. The article is well-organized and broken down into three broad subjects which are further broken down, but the article could be improved by splitting up the public health section into sub-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
The article includes two images which do not necessarily enhance understandings of the topic but rather provide pathos to the article. For example, the first image is a sculpture that was created in 1863 that showcases a mother dying and being taken away by angels. The other image shows a mother from Africa and her baby. The images are well-captioned and do adhere to the regulations of Wikipedia. The images add color to the article but are not related directly to the subject in terms of factual evidence.

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
Some of the discussions in the talk page include suggestions and confusion about the article, many including discussions about causes of maternal death and the maternal mortality rate. Many people had issues/concerns about the way the numbers and ratios were displayed in this article. The article is rated as a Start-Class and as High-importance. It is a part of the medicine/reproductive medicine, death, international development, and women's history WikiProjects. The way it is talked about in the Talk page is different from how we discuss articles in class because many of the comments talk about missing pieces of the article.

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's overall status is that it is still developing but provides information that is needed right now. The article's strengths include its ability to clearly define different terms that are related to maternal death and it's detailing in some of the important discusses of maternal death. I think the article could be improved by including ethical issues of maternal death and expanding more into the importance of public health. I also believe the article needs to work on its numerical facts more and double check those with scholarly research. The article is in the process of being developed. It is still missing key parts of the topic that should be included, but it is at a good starting point.

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

with four tildes — ~


 * Link to feedback: Talk:Maternal death