User:Peterson.Tess/sandbox

Measurement
ORIGINAL TEXT: There is no widely held consensus on how to measure social capital, which has become a debate in itself. Why refer to this phenomenon as 'capital' if there is no true way to measure it? While one can usually intuitively sense the level/amount of social capital present in a given relationship(regardless of type or scale), quantitative measuring has proven somewhat complicated. This has resulted in different metrics for different functions.

PROPOSED TEXT: There is no widely held consensus on how to measure social capital, which became a debate in itself. Because many researchers define social capital differently, there is no agreed upon unit of measurement. Most basically stated, social capital is the number and strength of a network's connectivity. This has resulted in different metrics for different functions.

Article Evaluation
As this article is presented, it is lengthy and confusing. If it were to be reformatted to provide a more clear definition, a history, and a unit of metrics, this article might be better received.

Specifically in the Background section, the first citation a fact about when the term “social capital” was coined. It cites Google ngram. Is this a reputable, academic source? It appears neutral, but it doesn’t seem like first-hand research. I do like the mention of Alexis de Tocqueville.

I think the measurement section is well defined, and I would like to research it further.

It is rated a C-class in WikiProjects Economics and Sociology. The article needs editing for clarity and flow. I think that with more solid edits for brevity, perhaps more reliable sources, it could be made into a pertinent article that contributes to the field of communications. I also think a more current section on social capital in a digital media setting might be relevant as well.