User:Quinnmac99/Evaluate an Article

Which article are you evaluating?
Benin

Why you have chosen this article to evaluate?
I chose this article to evaluate because it was one of the topics we covered in class that I found initially interesting. I also found it to be one of the more underdeveloped articles when I was browsing some of the topics we had covered. I think this is a group of people that have a lot of aspects to discuss and could be beneficial for more people to learn about.

Evaluate the article
Lead section

A good lead section defines the topic and provides a concise overview. A reader who just wants to identify the topic can read the first sentence. A reader who wants a very brief overview of the most important things about it can read the first paragraph. A reader who wants a quick overview can read the whole lead section.

·       Does the lead include an introductory sentence that concisely and clearly describes the article's topic?

YES

·       Does the lead include a brief description of the article's major sections?

NO

·       Does the lead include information that is not present in the article? (It shouldn't.)

NO

·       Is the lead concise or is it overly detailed?

Somewhere in between, it is a little lengthy but doesn’t repeat information.

Content

A good Wikipedia article should cover all the important aspects of a topic, without putting too much weight on one part while neglecting another.

·       Is the article's content relevant to the topic?

Yes, there are sections for many things such as religion, politics, education, health, economy and many more.

·       Is the content up-to-date?

I would say the content is up to date and matches up with what we have been learning about the Benin kingdom in class.

·       Is there content that is missing or content that does not belong?

From what I can tell, there is a lot missing, and they do a pretty bad job at covering all of the aspects. It feels more like an overview and not really anything in depth. One thing specifically they did not mention was the importance of the leopard as well as bush animals vs village. They didn’t mention the importance of their hierarchies as well as the ritual sacrifices that are performed. For the most part I don’t think there is any content that does not belong but a lot that could be added.

·       Does the article deal with one of Wikipedia's equity gaps? Does it address topics related to historically underrepresented populations or topics?

This topic itself is historically underrepresented therefore there is a lot of unknowns, and the article reflects this. It isn’t very “meaty” in any of the sections besides geography and economy and even those I would not consider to be fully finished. There are fully areas of discussion not covered and other sections of the article that only contain one or two sentences.

Tone and Balance

Wikipedia articles should be written from a neutral point of view; if there are substantial differences of interpretation or controversies among published, reliable sources, those views should be described as fairly as possible.

·       Is the article neutral?

YES

·       Are there any claims that appear heavily biased toward a particular position?

NO

·       Are there viewpoints that are overrepresented, or underrepresented?

NO

·       Are minority or fringe viewpoints accurately described as such?

There isn’t really enough information to have more than one viewpoint which is probably a bad thing and does not fully represent the entirety of information that exists about these people.

·       Does the article attempt to persuade the reader in favor of one position or away from another?

NO

Sources and References

A Wikipedia article should be based on the best sources available for the topic at hand. When possible, this means academic and peer-reviewed publications or scholarly books.

·       Are all facts in the article backed up by a reliable secondary source of information?

YES

·       Are the sources thorough - i.e. Do they reflect the available literature on the topic?

YES

·       Are the sources current?

YES there are sources form the 90s all the way up to 2021.

·       Are the sources written by a diverse spectrum of authors? Do they include historically marginalized individuals where possible?

Diverse but maybe not historically marginalized

·       Are there better sources available, such as peer-reviewed articles in place of news coverage or random websites? (You may need to do some digging to answer this.)

YES there are more sources that could be added. Our textbook and the articles we had for reading being some of them.

·       Check a few links. Do they work?

YES

Organization and writing quality

The writing should be clear and professional, the content should be organized sensibly into sections.

·       Is the article well-written - i.e. Is it concise, clear, and easy to read?

YES informational but not imposing. Gives the facts but not written too scholarly that its hard to understand.

·       Does the article have any grammatical or spelling errors?

NO not that I came across

·       Is the article well-organized - i.e. broken down into sections that reflect the major points of the topic?

YES

Images and Media

·       Does the article include images that enhance understanding of the topic?

Yes and No. There are images but they aren’t really beneficial to what’s being talked about. More pictures could be added and carefully chosen to reflect what the article is discussing in that section.

·       Are images well-captioned?

Some of them are good, some of them are short and don’t give much information.

·       Do all images adhere to Wikipedia's copyright regulations?

YES

·       Are the images laid out in a visually appealing way?

Somewhat. I would say this could be improved on possibly by having the pictures off to the side and not inserted into the text.

Talk page discussion

The article's talk page — and any discussions among other Wikipedia editors that have been taking place there — can be a useful window into the state of an article and might help you focus on important aspects that you didn't think of.

·       What kinds of conversations, if any, are going on behind the scenes about how to represent this topic?

There are actually way less people talking about this than I thought just because the article has older sources so I was assuming it had been around and was being worked on for a long time but this may not be the case. All four of the Talk conversations that have been posted are from 2022. Most of them suggested certain things such as the origin of the Benin name should be added, and I think their suggestions are helpful and include some of the things we have discussed in class. There are a few of them who have harsh criticism for the article and argue that the viewpoint of the article is very one sided and comes across as if the person who wrote it did not fully know what they were talking about. I think I can mostly agree with these statements.

·       How is the article rated? Is it a part of any WikiProjects?

It has been rated as a C-class article by Wikiproject Vital articles and is part of the WikiProjects Africa. It asks that if it can be improved, please do.

·       How does the way Wikipedia discusses this topic differ from the way we've talked about it in class?

It is very matter of fact and seems to completely take away the cultural richness that I felt these people had when I learned about it in class. It feels like it doesn’t really delve into anything that is actually significant to these people and gives almost a scientific analysis of the demographic and factual geographical elements without going into how these people function within their society.

Overall impressions

·       What is the article's overall status?

I think this is a bad article that could use some improving. I could add more things to this without even checking my notes and can only imagine what could be added if actual research was conducted. It could be much better than it is.

·       What are the article's strengths?

The article does a decent job at touching on many aspects although brief and not fully grasping the important parts. It also does an ok job at touching on the stages of colonial influence.

·       How can the article be improved?

Adding a lot more about the culture and ritualistic side of these people as well as the importance of dress and costume and the art that they were creating to wear such as masks. There is a lot missing about the significance of the leopard and other important iconography that we learned about in class. There is a lack of information about the origins of these people and their close connections and similarities to their surrounding communities and how those relationships can play an important role.

·       How would you assess the article's completeness - i.e. Is the article well-developed? Is it underdeveloped or poorly developed?

Underdeveloped in many aspects and needs work.