User:Sarah Silberman/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: (Legal history)
 * Briefly describe why you have chosen this article to evaluate.
 * I have chosen this article because I am pre-law and am curious about Legal history in the United States and was curious about it on a larger scale.

Lead

 * Guiding questions


 * 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?
 * Yes
 * Does the Lead include information that is not present in the article?
 * No
 * Is the Lead concise or is it overly detailed?
 * Yes it is concise, it is not overly detailed (as this is a very broad subject, the lead needs to be thorough)

Content

 * Guiding questions


 * Is the article's content relevant to the topic?
 * Yes
 * Is the content up-to-date?
 * Yes. An example is in the Eastern Asia section, in which the author(s) discuss Taiwanese laws today.
 * Is there content that is missing or content that does not belong?
 * No. Once again as this is a world-wide topic, there is no legal history that should be excluded. The author does a good job discussing thoroughly these countries/continents in regards to their legal history

Tone and Balance

 * Guiding questions


 * 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?
 * One underrepresented section is that of African law and Southern America
 * Does the article attempt to persuade the reader in favor of one position or away from another?
 * No

Sources and References

 * Guiding questions


 * Are all facts in the article backed up by a reliable secondary source of information?
 * Mostly. There are a few sections that don't have specific citations, but it it mostly all there
 * Are the sources thorough - i.e. Do they reflect the available literature on the topic?
 * Yes
 * Are the sources current?
 * Yes
 * Check a few links. Do they work?
 * Yes. I checked both internal and cited links and those that I checked work

Organization

 * Guiding questions


 * Is the article well-written - i.e. Is it concise, clear, and easy to read?
 * Yes
 * Does the article have any grammatical or spelling errors?
 * No
 * Is the article well-organized - i.e. broken down into sections that reflect the major points of the topic?
 * Yes

Images and Media

 * Guiding questions


 * Does the article include images that enhance understanding of the topic?
 * Somewhat. There are two and a half images, though there could certainly be more
 * Are images well-captioned?
 * Yes
 * Do all images adhere to Wikipedia's copyright regulations?
 * Yes
 * Are the images laid out in a visually appealing way?
 * Yes

Checking the talk page

 * Guiding questions


 * What kinds of conversations, if any, are going on behind the scenes about how to represent this topic?
 * There are certain comments on additional sources, revisions for sources, and one unanswered question from 2007.
 * How is the article rated? Is it a part of any WikiProjects?
 * Yes it is part of WikiProject Law
 * How does the way Wikipedia discusses this topic differ from the way we've talked about it in class?
 * It is fairly in line with what we talked about in terms of thoroughness and clarity

Overall impressions

 * Guiding questions


 * What is the article's overall status?
 * Start-Class (so I think it means that it does have places to improve)
 * What are the article's strengths?
 * It does a good job of making thousands of years of legal history very short and concise, and it has many links so that readers can go into further research for themselves on specific areas of interest.
 * How can the article be improved?
 * I would say this article is still underdeveloped, because it does not cover the entire world (missing certain continents entirely). It would be ameliorated should someone do the research and put that information in there.
 * How would you assess the article's completeness - i.e. Is the article well-developed? Is it underdeveloped or poorly developed?
 * Underdeveloped. See above.

Optional activity

 * Choose at least 1 question relevant to the article you're evaluating and leave your evaluation on the article's Talk page. Be sure to sign your feedback

with four tildes — ~


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