User:Morganromero3/Evaluate an Article

Living wage
This is where you will complete your article evaluation. Please use the template below to evaluate your selected article.


 * Name of article: Living wage
 * Briefly describe why you have chosen this article to evaluate: I will be examining the dynamics within the conception of a newly configured living wage.

Lead

 * Guiding questions


 * Does the Lead include an introductory sentence that concisely and clearly describes the article's topic? Yes. Definition is clear and concise.
 * Does the Lead include a brief description of the article's major sections? It does not explicitly outline the article's major sections, but many are brought into the conversation already. Case studies in the United Kingdom, for example, are elaborated; however, New Zealand is only mentioned in the lead.
 * Does the Lead include information that is not present in the article? Yes, discussions of Reaganomics and Thatcherism are raised. This is not gone into detail among the article, however, economic backdrops to each living wage ordinance is brought up.
 * Is the Lead concise or is it overly detailed? I would assert that the lead is concise enough considering living wage conceptions are highly contested in alignment with minimum wage disputes. It is hard to fully understand the difference between the two concepts, deeming it necessary to consider in the lead despite it adding more word count to the initial section.

Content

 * Guiding questions


 * Is the article's content relevant to the topic? Absolutely. The article organizes the conception of a living wage by outlining its history at inception, integrating the contemporary - each included with major names who spearheaded discussions surrounding living wage. The article directs forward in referencing explicit examples of ways in which living wage ordinances have been implemented, offering a global scope to the living wage arena. Impact is detailed further, and hard statistics underpins the article with economic evidence.
 * Is the content up-to-date? Somewhat, however, the case studies referenced later on in the article only extend until 2012.
 * Is there content that is missing or content that does not belong? As of what I know currently about the topic, the content amount seems to be sufficient.

Tone and Balance

 * Guiding questions


 * Is the article neutral? Yes. Opinions related to living wage effects are clearly displayed, conveying some success stories and some failures. It also mentions the reasons as to why states have no gone forward with living wage legislation - i.e. that it may not actually undermine poverty - and have considered the topic to be complex given the fact studies have been historically hard to conduct as it relates to researching and finding clear, outright effects on undertaking such a thing.
 * Are there any claims that appear heavily biased toward a particular position? No.
 * Are there viewpoints that are overrepresented, or underrepresented? There is an entire section that relates to criticism surrounding a living wage. It is quite lengthy and if I were to change the article, I would afford less space - especially considering it is located at the very end of the article, which leaves a deep impression to reader's who are just now learning about living wages' effects.
 * Does the article attempt to persuade the reader in favor of one position or away from another? Placing criticism as the end piece may be problematic; yet, I still believe the article prioritizes historical examples of living wage implementations, and focuses more so on evidence related to its legal action as opposed to the social ramifications to it.

Sources and References

 * Guiding questions


 * Are all facts in the article backed up by a reliable secondary source of information? Sources are detailed and consistent. However, I was concerned particularly about the "Living Wage movements" section that began outlining the New York City example. The entire paragraph is negligibly cited, making one citation at the very end of the lengthy paragraph. This confused me as to whether or not the entire paragraph came to this single source, or the beginning of the paragraph was paraphrased from another source.
 * Are the sources thorough - i.e. Do they reflect the available literature on the topic? There are 74 sources referenced.
 * Are the sources current? The most recent source listed is 2018, which I would deem sufficiently current. Sources potentially spanning from 2019-2020 that are made available to the public would be a fruitful addition.
 * Check a few links. Do they work? I checked multiple links and only one did not work. The page contained a heading stating "the requested page could not be found."

Organization

 * Guiding questions


 * Is the article well-written - i.e. Is it concise, clear, and easy to read? In my opinion, the article is well written and easily accessible to a broad audience. Unnecessary jargon or overly sophisticated language is not borrowed; this is important given the economic backdrop to this topic. It could easily go down a path where intensely dense language is being assumed, losing grasp for the reader and creating a barrier.
 * Does the article have any grammatical or spelling errors? No.
 * Is the article well-organized - i.e. broken down into sections that reflect the major points of the topic? The article is well organized. Each section is appropriate and contains information on a global scale.

Images and Media

 * Guiding questions


 * Does the article include images that enhance understanding of the topic? Yes, they serve as historical artifacts as they capture contentious moments in history where issues surrounding a living wage implementation are being addressed and advocated for.
 * Are images well-captioned? Considering the historical context to the images presented, they are well captioned as they provide a clear location and date in time.
 * Do all images adhere to Wikipedia's copyright regulations? Yes.
 * Are the images laid out in a visually appealing way? Yes, not all images are displayed in one segment on each respective section. The images could be a little larger, however, it may draw less attention to the evidence. In addition, the graphics related to statistics are visually appealing to the eye, making it easily accessible due to its large size and bold lettering.

Checking the talk page

 * Guiding questions


 * What kinds of conversations, if any, are going on behind the scenes about how to represent this topic? There is a premature topic raised about this page that had a user express concerns about adding a criticism section on living wage issues. This has obviously been advanced by later being implemented into the article. A current concern about the article is the negative aspects of the graph displaying living wage related statistics. The math is described as poorly executed and thus raises harmful implications.
 * How is the article rated? Is it a part of any WikiProjects? It has been rated as C-scale yet also ranked of "High importance" on the project's importance scale.
 * How does the way Wikipedia discusses this topic differ from the way we've talked about it in class? We have not discussed living wage in class in depth yet, but will later make the comparison once we do.

Overall impressions

 * Guiding questions


 * What is the article's overall status? The article is well founded currently, however, it could be more contemporary in offering historical examples or advancements that have occurred within the last three years. For example, the
 * What are the article's strengths? The organization is a major strength. It is clearly outlined and paired with accessible language so to draw in as many people as possible. In addition, providing a global purview is essential and makes the topic broader.
 * How can the article be improved? In offering less space to the "Criticism" section would be beneficial to the topic and relocating it to be before the "living wage movements" section would be helpful; it makes it less impressionable to an audience considering it is currently the end piece and will leave the topic sourly.
 * How would you assess the article's completeness - i.e. Is the article well-developed? Is it underdeveloped or poorly developed? Well-developed. More historical examples would make the article even stronger but so far there is a solid foundation to the topic.

Overall evaluation
Solid read on a contemporaneously relevant topic that is continuing to strike media at large strides. It offers historical context while also exhibiting moments in history spanning from the nineteenth century to now.

Optional activity

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