User:Reidy3/Evaluate an Article

Which article are you evaluating?
Ivan the Terrible

Why you have chosen this article to evaluate?
I chose an article about Ivan the Terrible because we recently covered him in my class on the history of Russia. He is an extremely prominent and interesting character from Russian history, and learning about his time as Tzar is fundamental information for understanding the origins and development of a Russian state and identity.

Evaluate the article
Overall, I think this is a very well documented article on Ivan the Terrible. The lead section is extremely strong, providing a short but informational summary of Ivan's life and his defining characteristics. It goes on to reference the basic sections and topics within the article without delving too far into the information, and does not cover any information that you cannot find in more detail at some other point in the article. The article is well organized into numerous sections covering the personal life, leadership, and legacy of Ivan, designating additional sections to cover defining characteristics, policies, and events from throughout his life and time as Tzar. Although I have limited knowledge on the topic, it is hard to find any weaknesses in terms of the information covered. For how prominent of a historical figure he is, there is amazing coverage on all the major topics that would relate to his life.

The tone is balanced, and from my reading there is very little to no bias in the article, providing the facts of his life as well as the way he is perceived today from a neutral perspective. The information provided is balanced, with major events and sections receiving much more attention than minor or disputed ones. All information has a citation attached, with the bottom of the article providing an expansive section that includes all citations and references, a bibliography, as well as further reading on the topic. The talk section is also well populated, with numerous users collaborating on this article. There are a large amounts of edits and discussions, providing a well thought out and filtered structure to the articles design. Over the years, extremely minute details have been questioned and confirmed by users ensuring the highest quality credibility of the information.

A lot of photos, exhibits, and links are included within the article that compliment the written information extremely well, making for a much more interactive and colorful read. Each photo is captioned well, and all extra materials are positioned nearest to the information they reference or add to. The actual organization and structure of the written information makes sense, however one critique would be to organize it so that reading throughout the article flows much better. The information is provided in a relatively chronological order, however larger sections, like his foreign and domestic policy, precede information provided later in the article, and in that sense could be reorganized slightly to provide a little bit more clarity when reading about his rule.

This is an excellent wikipedia page and a great source to learn about Ivan the Terrible and his life. A lot of thought and consideration has gone into writing this, and overall it has very few flaws as a source of information, with the few areas it could improve on mainly being about its structure. I would note that this is my first wikipedia article evaluation, however based on the training I have received, this is an extremely complete and well developed source of information.~