User:Mbrookemac/Choose an Article

Article Selection
Please list articles that you're considering for your Wikipedia assignment below. Begin to critique these articles and find relevant sources.

Option 1

 * Article title:Paleoclimatology
 * Article Evaluation:Relevancy of content: The content is relevant to the topic. It reviews topics including what paleoclimatology is, materials and geological features that are used to help determine climate in a given era, the current data on climatic trends of certain eras, atmosphere formation, and mechanism of Earth's climate formation. Some sections would benefit from a more clear outline on how the topic relates to paleoclimatology. The lead section is missing a directional statement which would help pull together sections like "climate forcing's" which doesn't necessarily have a clear connection to paleoclimatology.:Neutrality: The article is written from a neutral standpoint. If there are issues within the discipline (for example, if there were to be ethical concerns between ice extraction and Indigenous land rights which is a common problem when invasive scientific analysis is occurring in more remote regions) they are not addressed and the article may benefit from a couple of sentences clarifying if there are no concerns, and a new section if there are concerns.:images: The article would benefit from more images. For example in the "proxies for climate" section, they could add what the different samples look like when extracted (e.g. an ice sample, tree or coral rings, etc.).
 * sources: There are many claims not supported (or not properly cited) within the article. For example, the whole section "Precambrian climate" is unreferenced. The referenced that are cited are reliable, peer-reviewed journals like Nature and Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Most of the referenced articles I viewed have functioning links but out of date and missing citation are a critical importance for the article.


 * Sources:Precambrian climate source use of simulations source for different climate building techniques and climate era reconstruction

Option 2

 * Article title:Microplastics
 * Article Evaluation:Relevancy of content: The content is highly relevant to the topic of microplastics, it ranges from a description of microplastics, sources, effect of microplastics, and policy and legislation. These hit the major markers for topic categories because the provide the reader with a comprehensive overview of the topic. :
 * Neutrality: The article does a good job at maintaining neutrality. The sections which could potentially include biased messaging such as "Effects on the environment" and "sources" are not overly blameworthy towards any particular group or company but is still honest about the sources and are representative of the academic articles I've read online.
 * images: There are many opportunities within the article to incorporate more images that would provide the reader with an idea of what the section is about. For example, an image of what microbeads in cosmetics looks like would help the reader to understand better the size and type of plastic they are talking about.
 * Sources: There are many sources and many, but not all, statements are supported by a peer-reviewed source. There are also issues when you look into the source, but not with its quality. Of particular concern, there are whole sections that are copied directly from the source such as the part in "Primary microplastics" describing the use of air blasters to clean rust from boat hulls. These missing, incomplete, or plagiarized sections greatly reduce the quality of the article.
 * Sources: There are many sources and many, but not all, statements are supported by a peer-reviewed source. There are also issues when you look into the source, but not with its quality. Of particular concern, there are whole sections that are copied directly from the source such as the part in "Primary microplastics" describing the use of air blasters to clean rust from boat hulls. These missing, incomplete, or plagiarized sections greatly reduce the quality of the article.
 * Sources: There are many sources and many, but not all, statements are supported by a peer-reviewed source. There are also issues when you look into the source, but not with its quality. Of particular concern, there are whole sections that are copied directly from the source such as the part in "Primary microplastics" describing the use of air blasters to clean rust from boat hulls. These missing, incomplete, or plagiarized sections greatly reduce the quality of the article.


 * Sources:Possible effects of microplastics classification and general microplastic information relationship for plastic breakdown into smaller microplastics, ecosystem and human health

Option 3

 * Article title:Fossil fuel
 * Article Evaluation:Relevancy of content: The article has relevant sections like origin and introduction, environmental effects, and the industrial sector. These sections however are underdeveloped, missing critical depth in the information presented. The section on economic effects, notably, is one sentence long. The controversy surrounding fossil fuels with the economic importance being the backbone of many arguments supporting its use leaves this section dry of useful information on the background of the topic. Arguments are relevant, however many statements are not cited. Many of the arguments against fossil fuels in this article are good, however the effect is negated by the lack of sourcing to support their argument.:
 * Neutrality: The tone of the article could be more neutral. It includes potentially inflammatory uses of vocabulary that may be taken as opinions like the section on "Lobbying activities" describing lobby actions as "exploitative". The use of exploitative may be taken as a statement of bias (regardless of the truth on the matter) as they didn't then highlight the viewpoints and reasoning outlined by the lobbyists. The section "Industrial sector", has a section on economic effects but lists only one negative economic effect. With the current research and debate on fossil fuels, this certainly is not the only economic effect, negative or positive for that matter. The lean towards negative effects takes the tone from neutral to slightly biased.
 * Images: The article has many useful images and diagrams with my only suggestion being to add a diagram of how fossil fuels are formed.
 * sources: The introduction contains a good amount of citations but the sections after need work in terms of citing all information provided in the article. most citations are academic and peer-reviewed but I did also find, for example, an article from The Guardian.
 * sources: The introduction contains a good amount of citations but the sections after need work in terms of citing all information provided in the article. most citations are academic and peer-reviewed but I did also find, for example, an article from The Guardian.
 * sources: The introduction contains a good amount of citations but the sections after need work in terms of citing all information provided in the article. most citations are academic and peer-reviewed but I did also find, for example, an article from The Guardian.


 * Sources:economic effects of fossil fuels Environmental consequences weighed against the economic importance phasing-out fossil fuels

Option 4

 * Article title:Acid mine drainage
 * Article Evaluation:Relevancy of Content: The content is all relevant to the subject with some areas for improvement. For example, The section "Technologies" is one sentence with no real information. It simply states that there is technology that exists for acid mine drainage but there is no description of any method. Some other underdeveloped sections include "Metagenomic study" which could use some updated more detailed information (contains two sources one from 2019 and one from 2004), "Microbes and drug discovery" and "Effects on aquatic life" with short, over-simplified descriptions.:
 * Neutrality: The article is written in a neutral tone however the depth of information (it is all very general) leaves out certain issues that people have with acid mine drainage and also the way companies justify their actions.
 * Images: The images they chose are complimentary to the information however if they add information to the suggested sections, there would be opportunities to add more images.
 * Sources: There are significant sections missing citations such as "Carbonate neutralization" which require editing to verify their claims. Many sources are academic journals but some are not including an achieved website. Many sources are not accessible by their original link but an achieved link is provided in many cases, sometimes however, the source is totally inaccessible from their link.
 * Sources: There are significant sections missing citations such as "Carbonate neutralization" which require editing to verify their claims. Many sources are academic journals but some are not including an achieved website. Many sources are not accessible by their original link but an achieved link is provided in many cases, sometimes however, the source is totally inaccessible from their link.
 * Sources: There are significant sections missing citations such as "Carbonate neutralization" which require editing to verify their claims. Many sources are academic journals but some are not including an achieved website. Many sources are not accessible by their original link but an achieved link is provided in many cases, sometimes however, the source is totally inaccessible from their link.


 * Sources:Environmental effects Mitigating environmental effects What is AMD and effects in the USA

Option 5

 * Article title:Carbon footprint
 * Article Evaluation:Relevancy of content: The content is relevant and gives a comprehensive overview on the concept of carbon footprints. It explains the definition, the variables considered (the kind of gas emissions), and the pros and the cons (critiques) of the concept of carbon footprints. The sections are well developed with a good focus on important aspects like what is included in a carbon footprint evaluation and the definition of carbon footprint itself. :
 * Neutrality: The article has a generally neutral tone and shows all sides of the carbon footprint including viewpoints of those who disagree with the concept (under "Critique"). Language under the section "Critique" could be viewed as biased as it uses some opinions not supported by a credible, academic source.
 * Images: There are a good amount of images included in the article that help to illustrate the concept of carbon footprint such as the image describing the carbon footprint of different proteins like tofu, beef, and eggs (to name a few).
 * Sources: Sources are academic and nonacademic. Most claims are supported but some are lacking citations or credible citations. For example, the last few sentences in the second paragraph of "Carbon accounting" are uncited. Lack of citations removes credibility of those statements and should be rectified to increase the quality of the article.
 * Sources: Sources are academic and nonacademic. Most claims are supported but some are lacking citations or credible citations. For example, the last few sentences in the second paragraph of "Carbon accounting" are uncited. Lack of citations removes credibility of those statements and should be rectified to increase the quality of the article.
 * Sources: Sources are academic and nonacademic. Most claims are supported but some are lacking citations or credible citations. For example, the last few sentences in the second paragraph of "Carbon accounting" are uncited. Lack of citations removes credibility of those statements and should be rectified to increase the quality of the article.


 * Sources:What is a carbon footprint and how its calculated Future trends of Carbon footprint and industry breakdown carbon footprint of meat and dairy products