User:RK.Hawaii/Evaluate an Article

Evaluate an article
This is where you will complete your article evaluation. Please use the template below to evaluate your selected article.


 * Name of article: 1995 American League West tie-breaker game
 * I chose this article because I enjoy baseball and especially baseball history. This game especially intrigued me because it was pivotal in both teams' seasons that particular year.

Lead evaluation
The Lead of the article does a good job of explicitly stating what the article is about. Within the first sentence, I was able to identify the topic and could begin to focus on what the article was saying instead of having to figure out what the topic was. The Lead doesn't give clear details about the different sections, however it does provide context to the situation which was related to the sections of the article. The Lead does include additional information that wasn't covered in the article, mostly to provide context to the situation, but also to give the reader a sort of cause-and-effect relationship between the outcome of the game and the remaining part of the 1995 Seattle Mariners' season. While the Lead got to the point fast and immediately presented the topic of the article and then proceeded to give context to the situation, it then added information that I thought was unnecessary to the understanding of the topic.

Content evaluation
All of the content in the article was relevant to the topic and added substance to the understanding of the game and it's outcome. The content was up-to-date, and provided the current information that we know about that game, it being from the past. All of the content serves a purpose and the article as a whole gives a thorough breakdown of the game. Everything from the games before that, the history of the teams, as well as the chain of events that followed were well written about in the article. This article doesn't necessarily cover a topic that would make a large change to society if it were to be represented.

Tone and balance evaluation
The author of the article remains in a neutral standpoint with the purpose of simply giving the facts and explaining any aspects that may be confusing. The article isn't redundant, so the important information isn't drowned out by excessive details. After reading the article, it doesn't try to sway the reader to support one team or another, it simply states facts about the game and the teams who participated.

Sources and references evaluation
Throughout the article, the author cites numerous outside sources to show credibility in his facts. Most of the sources are ones that documented what happened on that day or what he was referring to such as newspapers, magazines, and tabloids. The sources are not very current, however in this case, an "out of date" source wouldn't raise a red flag as no new information has been discovered about this topic. Most likely the age of the sources is simply because of when the event took place. The article does provide sources from a wide spectrum. It not only provides articles of that time period in the local area, but also from around the nation. The links throughout the article that take you to other articles to provide more information if needed about a detail take you to the page of that topic.

Organization

 * Guiding questions

Organization evaluation
The article is very concise and easy to understand, the vocabulary doesn't over complicate what the topic is about. It simply is used to state facts and provide necessary details to the understanding of the event. There are no spelling or grammatical errors, the article was written in a way that is easy to understand. The article is organized in chronological order, which is an appropriate format for what the article's topic is. The sections of the article highlight important points and make the article easy to follow and navigate.

Images and media evaluation
The only image used in the article is well captioned and does relate to the text in the article. The picture does follow the Wikipedia guidelines and provides a current day connection to the article. The image is presented in a way that doesn't distract from the content of the article, but is in an easy place to view if desired.

Talk page evaluation
The conversations in the Talk page are referring to parts of the article that need to be fixed, but upon my viewing of the article were fixed. This article is a part of a Wikiproject, and the additional information suggested does relate to the topic of the article in one way or another.

Overall evaluation
Over all I would say that this article does a fairly good job presenting the facts relevant to the event that it's focused on. However, it can sometimes run-off to a separate, but still relevant topic. The image used provides a good modern day connection to the article, since it took place over 2 decades ago. That being said, the sources are out of date, but appropriately so. The sources cited were of the events time period, but are still able to convey our current understanding of the event.