User:Spumerriman/Evaluate an Article

Evaluate an article

 * Name of article: History of communication studies
 * I chose this article to evaluate because I recently switched my major from Business to Communication Studies. After reading the title i was intrigued to learn more about communication studies.

Lead evaluation

 * The Lead opens with a sentence introducing the topic of the information in the article. It is to the point and explains the topic of the article well. There is also a table of contents which outlines the different sections of the writing. The lead is concise and all information in the lead is present throughout the rest of the article.

Content evaluation
The content of the article is relevant to the topic, which is the history of communication studies. The article is mainly about the importance of communication and how it has evolved over the past decades. In the references at the bottom, the most recent citation is from 2008, which seems dated and could include more information about the 90's and the 2000's. The missing content would be how communication has evolved even more in the past 20 years. The last section is short and exclusively about Germany seems out of place.

Tone and balance evaluation
The tone of the article is neutral, and no biases appear. The article shows the reader the importance of communication studies and how it has always been a present force in society. It does not make an attempt to persuade the reader one way or another.

Sources and References

 * Guiding questions

Sources and references evaluation
The facts within the article are cited thoroughly. The references at the bottom of the page are lengthy and the links provided throughout the article do work. Although there are many sources, they are dated with the most recent being from 2008 and others much older than that. The sources reflect what is written about in the article.

Organization evaluation
The article is long and wordy at times, but it is overall well organized and thought out. There were no grammatical or spelling errors that I noticed.

Images and media evaluation
Pictures are missing from this article. Although the topic can be understood without the use of photos, they would be a good way to break up all the paragraphs of text.

Talk page evaluation
The conversations about the article behind the scenes are few, but critique it for being quite broad and not focusing enough on important details, they are only briefly mentioned. It is classified as an academic discipline category article.

Overall evaluation
The article could use improvement and updated but overall it is not terrible. It includes valuable information that is needed but once refined would be more effective. The article is organized thoroughly but facts are poorly developed.