User:TJSGear/Evaluate an Article

Which article are you evaluating?
(Provide a link to the article here.)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artisanal_mining

Why you have chosen this article to evaluate?
(Briefly explain why you chose it, why it matters, and what your preliminary impression of it was.)

I am interested in this topic, because I am majoring in public health and history, specifically with a focus on the environment. Artisanal mining has significant environmental health effects, which is both the source of why I chose it and why it matters, as it affects many people, yet is relatively unknown to the Global North. Though this article has some good contextual information for explaining the diverse set of artisanal mining practices, it often omits citations, offers perspectives that sound opinionated, and doesn't have a complete list of countries.

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.)

Lead: Good first sentence, some information not repeated later in article (e.g. types of artisanal mining, share of global mineral market sourced from artisanal mining per each mineral). There is also no template/outline of the rest of the article.

Content: The article's content is relevant, and it seems mostly up-to-date (i.e. within the last 10 years, a few within the last 5 years). In addition, the only countries included in the "Country Specific" section of the article are Ghana, The Philippines, Peru, and South Africa. However, the article does follow subject matter relevant to marginalized people. There is also no discussion of information considering (historical) artisanal mining in the Global North.

Tone and Balance: There is little discussion of if a view is fringe or not. In addition, there is also some unneeded personal commentary (such as commenting on the small scale of mine tunnels in the opening images' captions). Finally, there is some additional opinionated text included when discussing what the prime issues facing artisanal minings, such as the article author mentioning that "In order to maximize the positive impact of [artisanal mining], it must be formalized, responsible and well-governed," acting as though this is a fact while it is actually an opinion.

Sources and References: There are few/no citations from the "Opportunities" section, all the way to the end of the article. Many of the sources are at least from the 2010s and many are from the 2000s. There are also several groups mentioned to which no Wikipedia hyperlink is provided, though I am not sure this is an issue. The sources do seem to prioritize voices of marginalized people, but more work is needed to fully evaluate this.

Organization and Writing Quality: There is some awkward phrasing involving long words chained together by slashes, such as "collapses/landslides/flooding/lack of ventilation." There are also significant amounts of run-on sentences, and a lack of block quotations for long quotes. Finally, there are some grammatical errors, such as: "Gold deposits, in particular began to be exploited by artisanal miners[...]"

Images and Media: Images and media have captions and do appear to adhere to copyright regulations. However, there are only two images, when some technical processes should be more diagrammed.

Talk Page: Most of the talk page discusses how there are certain terms such as "small-scale" that are not defined well, and this issue specifically has been mostly rectified. However, some other Talk Page points, such as the lack of history, and especially history in the Global North, has yet to be added. There is also some discussion of the presence of visible bias/a lack of impartiality.

Overall: This article has a good foundation, and seems to adhere to copyright guidelines (though this requires more investigation). Overall, it gives a good general idea of what artisanal mining is, its importance, and how it is different than large-scale mining. However, there are major gaps in its content, both spatially and historical, as well as the article's readability.