User:Musick64/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: English studies
 * I chose this article to study because I am using Wikipedia for an English class.

Lead evaluation
The lead does include an introductory sentence that summarizes the topic very generally. The lead includes links and descriptions of most aspects of the topic. The lead does not contain any information that isn't in the article below. Is the Lead is long, but it needed to be so that it could mention every sub-field and category. I think the lead is strong if wordy. I understand that it has to be long because the topic is very broad and contains many subcategories. Otherwise, it gives a good overview of what the reader can expect in the following article, or direct them to the article that they are looking for pertaining to English.

Content evaluation
The content is relevant to the topic; it includes a brief history of the topic and its study. The content is up-to-date, although there aren't many specifics to be up-to-date about. The content feels appropriate. It addresses the overall history of the study of English without being too verbose or complicated. However, under the section of "High school", there is only one subsection titled Britain that only contains some basic information about that subcategory. Overall, the content was decent and did a good job of giving an overview of the topic for the reader. There weren't too many details and it did not mention the study of English in other countries besides the United States and Britain. However, there were links to fields of English study outside of those countries.

Tone and balance evaluation

 * The article feels neutral, if narrow. As mentioned before, the article only mentions American and British study of English. There are no controversial or heavily biased claims. The American and British viewpoints are over-represented. The article does not want to persuade the reader to any particular viewpoint or message.

Sources and references evaluation
Most of the facts are backed up by a reference, but there are several statements that should have references that do not. The sources are decent, but there are sections and categories that lack references that could help the article. The sources range from being written in the 1880's to 2017. I understand that the study of English studies doesn't have a plethora of research material, and most of the references were from books from the mid 2000's, so I think that the article gets a pass. The links to the references all worked, though.

Organization evaluation
The article was accessible and fairly easy to read. I did not find any spelling errors on the page. The article was organized in an easy-to-understand way.

Images and media evaluation
The article only includes one image, and it was the image for the entire field of literature. The one caption does describe the image well. It adhered to copyright law.

Talk page evaluation
There were several conversations that were related to the article or simply about the article itself. They were relevant to the topic - one was about if an English degree was still viable and the other discussed the organization and content of the article. The article is a part of the WikiProjects for Education and Literature. The article discussed the topic in a way that was more about the history and breadth of the subject rather than any of the details that we discussed in class.

Overall evaluation
The article hasn't been edited since 2017, and I think that speaks to it's strength. It is solid and unbiased. The article contains the breadth of topics underneath this subject, and has included other fields as well. Most facts have good references. However, the article could use more up to date references. Overall, I think the article feels complete and fairly comprehensive. There could be more information about the history of the study, but I think it stands as a good jumping off point for the subject.

Optional activity

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