User:ShaynaSaltzburg/Evaluate an Article

Which article are you evaluating?
Syracuse University

Why you have chosen this article to evaluate?
I decided to evaluate this article because I wanted to look more into my university and see what information was provided and what was left out. I tried to understand better how an article on a location can be formatted. Although I believe there is more information about Syracuse University than the topic I will be creating an article on, I think I would learn more from an article that has more information to work with rather than less.

Evaluate the article
My first impression of the Syracuse University Wikipedia Article is that it is well-rounded and formatted. It has a lot of detailed information about the campus and the history of the university. There is a wide variety of photos and links to supplement the information, and it covers most information about Syracuse University. The article's lead section does an excellent job of being succinct and mentioning the important information to start the article. It needs a topic sentence and doesn't preface the rest of the article, but even without those, it does provide an excellent introduction to Syracuse University. In regard to the content, some of the statistics have yet to be updated since 2022, some others being from the late 2010s. Some of the rankings from the past are important to mention, but when talking about undergraduate and graduate numbers, I think they should be updated since 2023 to keep them as accurate as possible. As for the rest of the content, the article is well-rounded and includes most aspects of Syracuse University. Graphics are also included to describe the racial disparities on campus. Even though it is not explicitly discussed in the article, a section on controversies discusses some issues the university has faced throughout its time. The article has a neutral tone and keeps the information for the article. There is a lack of information on minority groups on campus and some of the other negative aspects of the university. The article is informative and lengthy but could still be better, and it could still use some work on its overall tone to make it even better. About 250 sources are cited in the article. I didn't click through all of them, but at a glance, there are a lot of articles and information from the Syracuse University websites and affiliates.

Most links are from the early 2000s and the late 2010s, with some from early 2020s. The links I clicked on worked, and the article and information can still be accessed. There is a mix of financial reports and tables about the university and random websites; with the inclusion of 250 sources, there is a wide variety of information they chose from. Overall, the article is easy to read and follow along; it is formatted to encapsulate the whole university and its history. There aren't any learning errors or mistakes. Each section in this article has a purpose and has enough information to make it substantive. In most articles, the sections are concise, except the original history section, which seems long and not succinct. There are a lot of photos to accompany this article, including some graphics and other tables to visualize some information about Syracuse University. Though their captions may not be extended, they are present and describe who or what they are.

The images are placed in sections and do not overcrowd the page, but some need to be closer to the paragraphs that reference them. There is a section at the end with notable alums and photos of each, but there needs to be order in their photos. The section would work better if organized alphabetically or even by graduation year. This article is a part of 5 WikiProjects, including Higher Education, Libraries, Skepticism, New York (state), and Christianity. There aren't any conversations about this topic; they are just about adjusting some of its information.

All in all, this article is well-developed and researched. It could be improved by revisiting its layout and ensuring all the photos and other supplementary materials are in a relevant location and organized efficiently. The strengths of this article are its division of sections and its descriptive content. The status of this article is that the last time it was revised was in April of 2024; it is constantly being looked at and adjusted, making it a helpful starting point for any Syracuse University research.