User:Mikerailey/sandbox

Article Evaluation
The Wikipedia article for the United States Census bureau is formatted clearly and cohesively throughout. It contains accurate information from sources that are cited consistently, a functional lead section that effectively summarizes the topic, and does not contain any apparent tangents or sections with unnecessary emphasis. The information being presented does not appear to be biased, although primary sources are possibly used in excess.

The article relies on many references from the USCB itself; this could be considered a form of bias because a large proportion of information comes from the website of the subject. This reliance on primary sources is not noted in the article, although it is mentioned briefly in the talk page.

The talk page mentions several instances over the past ten years of information that was removed from the article for various reasons. Some of these include inaccurate or uncited material, biased viewpoints, and subtopics with too much detail. In certain cases, the wording of the article is checked for precision and clarity. The two most common edits being made in this article are edits to remove dubious claims and/or clearly unsourced information, and edits to maintain a professional tone (removing conversational turns of phrase, for example.)  On the right track with this eval, but it doesn't address all of the required details - Prof Hammad 

Article Improvement
The article I've chosen to improve is the Malthusian Catastrophe, also known as the Malthusian check. The article has a decent amount of information on the topic, but the lead section could be expanded to include a better explanation of the theoretical concept of a check as according to Malthus, and contextualizing it in the scope of demography. Also, the article could use a section that cites well-known examples of Malthusian checks.

Preventive vs. Positive
Malthus proposed two kinds of population checks: preventive and positive.

A preventive check is a conscious decision to delay marriage or abstain from procreation based on a lack of resources. This type of check is unique to humanity, because it requires foresight. Malthus argued that man is incapable of ignoring the consequences of uncontrolled population growth, and would intentionally avoid contributing to it. According to Malthus, a positive check is any event or circumstance that shortens the human life span. The primary examples of this are war, plague, and famine. However, poor health and economic conditions are also considered instances of positive checks.

''' You're missing out on many opportunities to improve this article based just on the information we've discussed in our course. Also, what about the citations you suggest in the last "part" of the assignment? - Prof H '''

Criticism
D.E.C. Eversley observed that Malthus appeared unaware of the extent of industrialization, and either ignored or discredited the possibility that it could improve living conditions of the poorer classes.

Updated Bibliography
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/4239

www.jstor.org/stable/20027682

David Edward Charles Eversley, Social Theories of Fertility and the Malthusian Debate;