User:SadiesC23/Evaluate an Article

Which article are you evaluating?
Lullingstone Roman Villa

Why you have chosen this article to evaluate?
I chose to evaluate this article because buildings within antiquity can give the modern scholar or the general public a first-hand look into the daily life of Romans and Britons within the Roman Empire. This article in particular demonstrates the cultural shift from traditional Roman religion and values and into the Christian faith. While it is a good start to creating a good Wikipedia article, it could definitely use more information and it could go more in-depth with the information that it already has.

(Briefly explain why you chose it, why it matters, and what your preliminary impression of it was.)

Evaluate the article
While this article does seem to have the key components of a good and properly written Wikipedia article, it definitely needs improving. The lead section has a good summary of what the Lullingstone Roman Villa is and it provides the reader with the knowledge to understand what it is. However, the amount of information that is presented in the article seems to be lacking. Each section is equally represented, but I question what else could be contributed to these sections and what other sections could be added to the content. For example, the rooms and ultimate purpose of the villa should be expanded.

There are some changes that I believe should be made to the grammar and there is a large block of quotation taken directly from an online reference. In regards to references, I looked at some of those that were used, and they do not seem to be scholarly articles. Considering that a major feature of the Villa is its art, it is important to take the thoughts and opinions of museum curators and English Heritage into account, however, this is the main source that is used. It should be recognized that the Villa is a piece of ancient archaeological evidence and that it is possible that the Villa or its purpose is mentioned in the works of ancient scholars or other sources. Adding ancient scholarly work to the reference list would allow readers to not only gain a modern perspective of life in Roman Britain, but also an ancient perspective.

The media used in the article is helpful to the readers as it shows the artwork that is mentioned and it also shows the potential layout of the Villa so that readers know and understand what they are reading and learning about better. It would be helpful if there images of the gravesite and more on the Pagan Shrine. It would be helpful if all the images were linked to their respective sources so that readers can visit their websites.

Based on the projects that this article is additionally involved in, it seems to be completely underdeveloped. I think the most important strength that this article carries are the media and images that are included, however, in almost every other aspect it certainly needs work. This article is listed as 'Start,' meaning that it needs quite a bit of work and more high quality reference work. These are all things that I've mentioned in my evaluation of this piece.

(Compose a detailed evaluation of the article here, considering each of the key aspects listed above. Consider the guiding questions, and check out the examples of what a useful Wikipedia article evaluation looks like.)