User:OctopusSuction/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: Legal history
 * I have chosen to evaluate this article because it was of interest to me. Throughout history, law has changed drastically around the world and I find that very intriguing.

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
Yes, the Lead does include a clear and concise introductory sentence that describes the article's topic. The Lead gives a brief overview of the topic of legal history, but doesn't dive too deep into describing the major sections of the article. The Lead does not include information that is not present in the article. I find the Lead to be fairly concise, but I think that it could be made even more concise by moving some of the information to a different spot within the article.

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
Yes,the article's content is relevant to the topic. It seems that this article is only seldom edited, so there could be some information that is not up-to-date. I think that there is quite a bit of content missing throughout the article. There are many places that need to be fleshed out and fully covered. For example, the section pertaining to the United States legal history is pretty bare bones. There are also some things that may not belong because they seem to be stated as fact, but do not have a visible citation.

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
Overall, the article seems to be neutral. I did not notice there to be claims that are heavily biased, the article seems to do a good job of just presenting the facts. There are some sections that include more information and others with less information, this could be argued that the sections with less information are being underrepresented. However, I did not find any specific viewpoints that were being pushed as the correct way of thinking. The article does not attempt to persuade the reader, it does a good job of staying neutral.

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
It seems that most facts in the article are backed up by reliable secondary sources, however I did see some instances of missing citations. The sources are somewhat limited, therefore I would not consider them to be entirely thorough. It seems that the sources are current. Yes, it seems that the links throughout the page and within the sources are working.

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 does seem to be well-written for the most part. I think that, like any document, there are always possible revisions to be made. The article did not have any glaring grammatical or spelling errors that I found. The article did seem to be well organized, there are multiple clear 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 only includes two images, however these images are used appropriately and they have descriptive captions. Yes, both images are public domain, therefore adhering to Wikipedia's copyright regulations. The images are somewhat small, it would be nice to see them in a larger size, but other than that they are fairly visually appealing.

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
There are not many conversations on the talk page. There is a question from 2007 and a suggestion to merge the page with Origin of law from 2009. The article is rated Start-Class. It is a part of WikiProject Law and WikiProject History. This article briefly touches on Japan's legal history and mentions some of the aspects we have discussed in class. However, it does not go into great detail and therefore it does not differ from what we have talked about, it has just presented some further information.

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 overall status of the article is that it is pretty bare bones. The article serves as a decent outline of information, but there could be a great expansion of the information that is already there. The article could be improved by addition of information about histories of different legal systems and diving into more detail about the histories of the legal systems already mentioned. I would say that this article is underdeveloped and could use a lot additional information.

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

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