User:Sophie Potts/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: DREAM Act
 * Briefly describe why you have chosen this article to evaluate. I chose this article because it is a topic relevant to many young people today, thus I think it is important that people are property educated on the Act's history and development.

Lead

 * Guiding questions


 * Does the Lead include an introductory sentence that concisely and clearly describes the article's topic? Yes, but it could be written more concisely.
 * Does the Lead include a brief description of the article's major sections? No - it just states introductory facts about the DREAM Act.
 * Does the Lead include information that is not present in the article?
 * Is the Lead concise or is it overly detailed? It is relatively concise.

Content

 * Guiding questions


 * Is the article's content relevant to the topic?
 * Is the content up-to-date?
 * Is there content that is missing or content that does not belong?

Content evaluation
There are a few statistics that I am unsure the relevance of, like the "One organization estimated... A different analysis found that..." sentences.

There are grammatical/formatting errors that could be improved and a lack of citations in a few places.

Includes information about the economic downturn of 2007-2010, seemingly irrelevant.

The article is only up to date to 2012, which is not correct.

Leads a section with "education is a majority priority for the DREAM Act." This doesn't feel necessary.

Tone and Balance

 * Guiding questions


 * Is the article neutral?
 * Are there any claims that appear heavily biased toward a particular position?
 * Are there viewpoints that are overrepresented, or underrepresented?
 * Does the article attempt to persuade the reader in favor of one position or away from another?

Tone and balance evaluation
The article several times makes claims that lean toward the position of the immigrant, stating that certain aspects of life are taken for granted by documented Americans. This is a subjective statement and could skew ones perception of the article. Emphasizes the opportunities that people would get under the DREAM Act, which is not necessarily relevant to the factual content of the Act and its history.

Sources and References

 * Guiding questions


 * Are all facts in the article backed up by a reliable secondary source of information?
 * Are the sources thorough - i.e. Do they reflect the available literature on the topic?
 * Are the sources current?
 * Check a few links. Do they work?

Sources and references evaluation
the sources generally seem reliable and the links are working, but there are definitely places in the article that should have citations that currently do not.

Organization

 * Guiding questions


 * Is the article well-written - i.e. Is it concise, clear, and easy to read?
 * Does the article have any grammatical or spelling errors?
 * Is the article well-organized - i.e. broken down into sections that reflect the major points of the topic?

Organization evaluation
There are some formatting and grammatical errors. It is generally well organized but does not have a clear outline from the beginning. It also seems a little imbalanced, for instance giving a section to "Education" may not be necessary to concisely present the topic.

Images and Media

 * Guiding questions


 * Does the article include images that enhance understanding of the topic?
 * Are images well-captioned?
 * Do all images adhere to Wikipedia's copyright regulations?
 * Are the images laid out in a visually appealing way?

Images and media evaluation
The article lacks any sort of images/media.

Checking the talk page

 * Guiding questions


 * What kinds of conversations, if any, are going on behind the scenes about how to represent this topic?
 * How is the article rated? Is it a part of any WikiProjects?
 * How does the way Wikipedia discusses this topic differ from the way we've talked about it in class?

Talk page evaluation
people ask questions and discuss ambiguous terms in the talk page, which has increased the accuracy and thoroughness of the article to date.

Someone commented that there need to be updates on newer versions of the DREAM Act, which is accurate.

Overall impressions

 * Guiding questions


 * What is the article's overall status?
 * What are the article's strengths?
 * How can the article be improved?
 * How would you assess the article's completeness - i.e. Is the article well-developed? Is it underdeveloped or poorly developed?

Overall evaluation
The article is partly well-developed in its history up to 2012. Further than that however, there have not been any updates despite many recent changes and news related to the DREAM Act. It is strong in providing details about its legislative history through 2012. It could be improved however with some organizational/technical restructuring as well as the addition of new content. There is also some biased content that should either be removed or rephrased so that it isn't misrepresented as a fact.

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

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