User:PatrickrYeh/Evaluate an Article

Which article are you evaluating?
(Provide a link to the article here.) Marin County, California

Why you have chosen this article to evaluate?
(Briefly explain why you chose it, why it matters, and what your preliminary impression of it was.)

I chose this article because I have visited Marin County many times and am drawn to its natural beauty and historical value. My preliminary impression of the article was that is seemed relatively well-developed and complete.

Evaluate the article
(Compose a detailed evaluation of the article here, considering each of the key aspects listed above. Consider the guiding questions, and check out the examples of what a useful Wikipedia article evaluation looks like.)

The article's lead section starts with a concise sentence that describes where Marin County is situated in California. The lead then proceeds to delineate the major sections in the article—natural sites, demographics, historical importance, geography, climate, and current relevance. Overall, the lead is succinct yet pleasant to read.

All of the article's content is relevant to the topic and it does a good job incorporating material for a complete description. However, some of the sources should be updated. For instance, the article cites a 2006-2008 American Community Survey about the percentage of residents born in the US. The article cites material and statistics from around 2006 multiple other times, suggesting that it was published more than a decade ago and might be outdated. Overall, the only content that is missing is up-to-date statistics, and no section seems like it does not belong. Finally, the article does describe the native peoples in the first section, commemorating their right to the land, and thus tackling an equity gap.

The author assumes a very neutral tone. However, in the section that details the return of coho salmon to some of Marin's freshwater systems, it is obvious that the author is advocating for more environmental action to remove dams and restore Marin's natural salmon hatcheries. The political section does a good job of portraying Marin's political history without an agenda and clearly demonstrates majority/minority perspectives through statistics.

Some of the facts in the article are backed up by reliable, secondary sources. However, others are backed up by suspicious, online newsletters (ex. SFGATE), and some sources need to be updated with more current information (aforementioned in the second paragraph). The article has a diverse array of sources ranging from independent journals to the US census. Nonetheless, there are no Native American perspectives and sources, even though the article has a section about the Miwok people. The article's bibliography has a surprising number of newsletters and random websites that could be replaced with peer-reviewed, reputable sources.

The article is visually appealing and well-captioned. It has a thriving talk section with multiple threads—one of which being the population density in Marin. Furthermore, it is part of two WikiProjects: California: San Francisco Bay Area and United States: U.S. counties. Overall, the article seems to be in good status, and the talk section suggests that will improve. It is well-developed, but could due with more scholarly, current sources.