User:Spencerladner/Evaluate an Article

Which article are you evaluating?
Resource depletion

Why you have chosen this article to evaluate?
I chose this article as it is a key topic of discussion in my enrolled program. This topic is very important as it represents one of the main ideas of this course. The topic of resource depletion correlates directly with the ideas of extraction and its consequences in several different ways. My preliminary impression of the article is that the lead section is quite small in comparison to the rest of the article. This leads to the belief that there is a lot of missing information in the lead section which is supposed to be concise and offer a summary.

Evaluate the article
(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.)

This is a very interesting topic and article that brings up a lot of good points that add context to the ideas behind resource depletion. I have some suggestions and comments to continue to improve the article:


 * This article has an effective and concise opening line which seems to clearly outline the topic being discussed.


 * While the opening line is very effective, the major subsections of the article are not properly addressed and contextualized in the lead section. This leads to a lack of context and foreshadowing for the reader to better understand what topics are being discussed in relation to resource depletion. The lead section provides a good introductory overview, but lacks information providing context that captures everything discussed in the article.

The lead section is too concise to summarize all the information presented in the article. Consider discussing and adding more context/expanding on each subsection in the lead paragraph. This includes mineral depletion, oil depletion, deforestation etc...

A lot of the articles topics are relevant to the topic of resource depletion. There is room for some improvement regarding equity gaps.


 * This article lacks discussion of how resource depletion impacts marginalized communities, and how the process of resource depletion disproportionately impacts certain communities. Consider adding context relating to equity gaps in resource depletion instead of just the broad concept.
 * There are instances in the text where bold statements are made. Statements like, "the more a resource is depleted, the more the value of the resource increases" are bold and suggest a simple correlation that really represents a complex issue with many factors. The citation to back up the claims is also no longer available.

Overall the article seems to maintain a neutral tone in an effective manner. There are very few excerpts of text that appear to open the door to bias.


 * There are very few to no clear biased claims throughout the text.
 * Throughout the article, there are no clear minority/fringe viewpoints being displayed.
 * The approach seems to be informative and not conveyed in a persuasive manner.

While some of the articles cited are peer-reviewed, others are dead links or fail to have a hyperlink to the source of information.


 * The section on resource scarcity as a morale problem has only three sources to back up the claims. One of the sources is not cited properly and is not accessible.
 * Many of the sources are 10-15+ years old which is quite a long time ago. A lot of the information presenting ideas based on theses sources may need to be updated and reassessed.

At some points the organization seems unstructured. It seems to jump between subjects with a lack of connectivity, but this could be due to the topic being so broad.

The images used in the article provide context to each of the topics in the respective sections. None of the images seem out of place, and each are valuable in helping the reader understand each subtopic.


 * Caption are concise and provide enough context for each image.
 * The images are organized in a manner that appropriately connects to each respective paragraph.

The talk page shares some concerns with me, but it seems the article has greatly improved since many of the previous comments were posted. The talk page also believes that the article represents a more US-centric viewpoint, and fails to consider the issue from a global perspective. The article is a part of various wikiprojects.

This article has many strengths and areas for improvement. It is strong in the sense that it is comprehensive. It covers various issues associated with resource depletion. There are many examples relating to the topic.

Areas of improvement are the structure and organization of the article. Some sections could be more concise while others could be expanded upon and include more evidence to back up written claims.

Overall the article is well written and covers a broad range of issues that are associated with resource depletion, and provides context to the reader regarding the issue.