User:Panders2025/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

 * Flag of Liberia:
 * Article Evaluation:I would be focusing on the County Flags section. There are clearly historical gaps that can be easily fixed. For example, the article states simply that "The flags were introduced in 1965," but this can't be that simple because counties were added on over time. Based on my initial research, the statement "for the purpose of promoting the counties as meaningful entities" is actually a value statement because of the politics that came with the founding of the counties. In a somewhat biased source I read, the counties were founded without real regard to the indigenous people they were supposed to represent. ::Also in regards to content, when you go to the county's wikipedia page itself, you can find information on the meaning of the flag. But this is not included on the page about the flag itself, which I imagine it should be. That information could easily be transferred over, though that would require somewhat changing the layout of the page. Even still, the official information you find about the meaning of the flag is quite bare bones, for example simply stating that it is a tree. It does however, often relate to the main industry in the county.::Generally, this section only uses one citation, even for the claims that can clearly be backed up by other sources. While that link does work, there is clearly work to be done here. This is especially the case if another expert other than Stephen can be found.::The talk section actually features some antagonistic comments about these flags and then defensive responses to these comments. Coming out of these exchanges, Wikipedians ask for more context about the flags::
 * Sources


 * https://www.mia.gov.lr/doc/Bong%20CDA_web.pdf
 * https://www.mia.gov.lr/
 * https://web-p-ebscohost-com.revproxy.brown.edu/ehost/detail/detail?vid=0&sid=d1862505-4cbd-454c-8439-fb766e316984%40redis&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZSZzY29wZT1zaXRl#AN=388321&db=e000xna
 * https://steven-knowlton.scholar.princeton.edu/sites/g/files/toruqf3746/files/knowltonliberianflags.pdf

Option 2

 * Quilting in Liberia:
 * Article Evaluation:This is not an article and would theoretically be an article I would write myself. I wanted to mention it here because it was a topic that naturally came up through my research for the Liberian County Flags. Many sources (including official ones) say that the flags result from the Liberian quilting tradition. There seems to be a rich history hear, reflecting Liberia's history as likely the most unique case of colonization in all of Africa. Quilting, at least as has remained popular in Liberian culture, seems to draw more from quilting done by enslaved people in America rather than indigenous quilting practices. Quilting was essentially seen as the cultural relic of the Liberian people, and became their go to item to give in diplomatic exchanges. Quilting (in addition to the obvious connection to agriculture for raw material) seems to be influenced by environmental factors in what Liberians choose to include in their quilts.::Despite this importance, quilting is only mentioned in one paragraph in the "Liberia" wikipedia page and does not have a large section on the "Culture of Liberia Page." There is likely an argument that this unique aspect of Liberian culture deserves its own Wikipedia page.::Important to note that Martha Ann Erskine Ricks has her own page.::This might be a good avenue to pursue (even though writing your own page is hard) if the Liberian Flags doesn't work out.:
 * Sources
 * https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-40500884
 * https://www.internationalquiltmuseum.org/exhibition/stitching-transatlantic-liberian-quilts-john-singler-collection
 * https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0752/12/3/97
 * https://academic.oup.com/illinois-scholarship-online/book/34118/chapter-abstract/289402651?redirectedFrom=fulltext
 * https://www.nps.gov/grsm/learn/historyculture/the-erskine-family-and-the-emigration-of-freed-black-people-to-liberia.htm

Option 3

 * Makgadikgadi Pan:
 * Article Evaluation:I really don't have much background information to be able to evaluate this article, but the tone seems quite neutral. It is grounded in a lot of scientific/biology/geographic knowledge. There is likely not a lot of human history to be said about such an inhospitable place, but I notice that mentions of human history are quite sparse, for example I was more or less looking for a "European Discovery" section but that is largely absent except for the brief mention of "19th-century explorers." The threats and conservation section seems somewhat skimpy.:There are entire sections that do not have citations but the hyperlinking is done quite well.:The talk page has some meaningful additions, like possibly splitting the article into two sections, one about the flats and another about the national park. However, many Wikipedians in the discussion page are just discussing when the location was mentioned in Topgear, which is not mentioned in the article itself.
 * Sources
 * https://whc.unesco.org/en/tentativelists/5559/
 * https://journals.co.za/doi/pdf/10.10520/AJA052550590_932
 * https://link-springer-com.revproxy.brown.edu/chapter/10.1007/978-3-030-86102-5_5
 * https://journals.co.za/doi/abs/10.10520/AJA052550590_115

Option 4

 * Roads in Botswana:
 * Article Evaluation:The thing that jumps out at you about this article is that it is almost entirely formatted in tables and lists. This likely follows many other pages about "Roads in X." Generally, the page is mostly about classification, enumeration, and driving laws. This information appears to be largely ripped form Botswana government websites. ::Hyperlinks and citations seem pretty adequate. ::What is clearly missing (and why I chose this article) is the discussion of the development of these roads and Botswana become more and more car-centric. I am largely taking this idea/analysis from the third example Julie Livingston uses in her book Self-Devouring Growth. In this book, she lays out how the development of roads required ever-expanding quantities of land, oil, and sand, representing the enigma of development.::There is currently no discussion in the talk page at all.:
 * Sources
 * https://www.dukeupress.edu/self-devouring-growth
 * https://onlinepubs.trb.org/Onlinepubs/trr/1990/1274/1274-023.pdf
 * https://www-jstor-org.revproxy.brown.edu/stable/40979716
 * https://journals-sagepub-com.revproxy.brown.edu/doi/10.3141/1819a-14

Option 5

 * Article title:
 * Article Evaluation:
 * Sources: