User:Pjaml/Evaluate an Article

Which article are you evaluating?
Biogeochemistry

Why you have chosen this article to evaluate?
I found it as a "C-class" article, so I thought it would be a good opportunity to see an article that could be improved upon.

Lead Section

 * The introductory sentence gives a clear and concise description of the subject.
 * The lead section does not present an overview of the rest of the article; it does outline the subject, but the remaining article content does not expand on this section (i.e. this article could be expanded to match what is introduced in the lead section).

Content

 * The content focuses mainly on history, and confusingly includes two sections, "History" and "Early development," that should probably be consolidated into one.
 * Missing from the content is an overview of some of the concepts of biogeochemistry; instead, it primarily discusses contributions from specific people.

Tone and Balance

 * The article is somewhat neutral, although the statement "The founder of biogeochemistry is considered to be Vladimir Vernadsky..." does not follow Wikipedia guidelines (i.e. who considers him to be the founder? There is no reference or source for the claim).
 * The history of biogeochemistry is overrepresented, while the science of biogeochemistry is underrepresented.
 * My understanding of Lovelock's Gaia Hypothesis is that it is somewhat controversial, the article does not mention this.

Sources and References

 * The references cited in this article are not used to explain the topic, they are works by the scientists mentioned in the article.
 * None of the sources are current.
 * One source is an obituary that does not appear to be particularly relevant.
 * There are better sources available, and could be used to add more content explaining the concepts of biogeochemistry, rather than just the history.

Organization and Writing Quality

 * I couldn't find any spelling or grammatical errors.
 * The article is not very well-organized. As stated above, the "History" and "Early development" sections seem to be two versions of the same thing.

Images and Media

 * There is one image of Vladimir Vernadsky, it does not seem relevant to the article, even if he is an important contributor to biogeochemistry.
 * The caption also states that Vernadsky is the founder of biogeochemistry without a reference.

Talk page discussion

 * The article is of interest to several WikiProjects, it has been rated "Start-Class" by most.
 * There is a proposal for expanding the content written last year, but no further conversation around it.

Overall Impressions

 * The rating of "Start-Class" is appropriate, this article is mainly a placeholder.
 * The article is currently underdeveloped, but the proposal for more content in the Talk page is a good start that could be followed.
 * This would be a great article to work on for our course's Wikipedia assignment, it has a lead that provides a good outline that could be expanded on.
 * Adding an overview of the concepts of biogeochemistry, including important biogeochemical processes and cycles, would greatly improve the article.