User:Teddyp1234/Evaluate an Article

Which article are you evaluating?
Fainting goat

Why you have chosen this article to evaluate?
When looking for an article to evaluate, I googled "weirdest animal behaviours" and I stumbled across the topic of fainting goats. Out of all the animal behaviours listed from this google search, the fainting goat sparked my interest. I recall hearing about this particular animal behaviour before, so I thought this would be a good topic to dive into and learn more about. After deciding on this topic, I searched fainting goats on wikipedia and came across this article.

This article matters because it brings awareness to this gene mutation found in only four breeds of goats. The information given in this article helps educate its readers on this hereditary condition and may spark interest in the reader to research more about this topic.

My preliminary impression of this article was I thought this topic was very unusual hence why it sparked my interest. After reading this article, I thought this topic fit well into the subject of animal behaviour and would be a good article to evaluate. Also, since I am a Biology major I found it very interesting that this peculiar behaviour shown in these particular breed of goat is caused by a gene mutation. I thought this article provided lots of information on topic and the information was presented very well.

Evaluate the article
From reading the first paragraph of the article about fainting goats, the reader receives a good grasp of the topic. There is enough information provided to not only introduce the topic of the fainting goat, but also to hook the reader in to finish reading this article. From the lead section, we are provided with information about the condition that causes specific breeds of goats to faint and where these breeds originate from. I feel as though there could have been more information provided within this section, as there is no clear outline on the specifics of the subtopics contained within this article. While the lead section does introduce the topic, it only includes the bare minimum of information about the hereditary condition, leaving out any descriptions of the major sections in the article. It doesn't however include any information that is not present within the article and the lead is very concise and to the point.

The content found within this article covers all of the important aspects of this topic and does not shine too much attention onto one part while abandoning another important section. Within this article we find information on the history of this hereditary condition, the characteristics of the goats that this condition affects, the cause and symptoms of this disorder, and the origin of the myotonic or fainting goat. All of these subtopics are crucial for the reader to fully understand exactly why this breed of goat has this peculiar behaviour and are relevant to the topic. I think it is very interesting that the author/editor's chose to include the certain characteristics that can only be attributed to the myotonic goat. It allows the reader to understand that not only is this breed of goat affected by its hereditary condition, but it can be distinguished from other goats due to their wider body and increased muscle mass. Also, the personality of myotonic goats tend to be different as they are deemed quieter than your average goat and are noted to be more teachable/trainable. Upon further inspection, it is to be noted that this article was last updated on August 29th, 2021. This is important to note as it proves this article has been revised and includes relevant, up to date information about the fainting or myotonic goat. I feel that all information included within this article is relevant to the topic and presents a strong, informative report of the fainting goat. This article does deal with one of Wikipedia's equity gaps, as it addresses a topic that would normally be underrepresented. All of the content lying within this article seems to be accurate and the editors have presented their ideas and information in an unbiased way. This article brings light to the condition of the myotonic goat and does so in a very informative way.

The editor's present their information for this article using a neutral tone. There appears to be no controversies or conflict with the sources or evidence used in the article. All information support and provide a knowledgable background for the different subtopics discussed about the hereditary condition of myotonia congenita. All subtopics put forward in this article are well developed and does not attempt to persuade the reader in a certain position.

One thing I noticed while reading this article was that all facts about the fainting goat are backed up by a reliable source. The information provided in this article was well researched and backed up by reliable sources, reflecting the extensive literature available on the topic. For the most part the sources used in this article are current, however there are a few sources which could be classified as dated or old, dating back to the 1960's. The information provided from these 'dated' sources are pretty minute and does not present any major groundbreaking information about this breed of goat, so it is sufficient to include them. The sources used span from a wide variety of authors, presenting reliable information from a diverse population, which is crucial when writing an informative article. To expand on this wide variety, some of the sources used were scholarly articles created upon research, while information from other sources cited came from regular websites such as "Animal Network". Upon searching for better sources that would provide relevant information for this article, there were a few scholarly articles that presented images of the myotonic goat, however most of the information found within these sources were covered in the article. After thoroughly looking through all sources cited, they all appear to be cited properly and the links attached work.

The information presented in this article is organized into specific subtopics and sections. All information is clearly divided into certain sections, making it easy for the reader to distinguish these sections and to go back and find certain information given within the article. The content in this article is divided into ten sections, all presented in an orderly fashion that reflects the major points of the topic. There are no grammatical or spelling errors found within this article.

In terms of images, this article only includes one that depicts a young myotonic goat in the middle of a fainting episode. This image is well captioned and adheres to Wikipedia's copyright regulations. I believe there could have been more images included within this article, especially in the characteristics section, to help the readers understand and distinguish a myotonic goat from a normal one. If images were included within this section, I think this would enhance the readers knowledge and help them understand exactly how this condition affects the myotonic goat physically and how this condition sets them apart from other goats.

The talk page discussion of this article includes the thoughts of some editors after they presented/edited new information. Also, there are some posts made about article vandalism or spelling errors in which they fixed. Some editors talked about what their edit brought to the article and how they could expand upon it in the future. This is similar to what we discussed about a Wikipedia talk page in class, as it shows the shared thought processes of some editors, and any questions they may have about information or content that other editors have added. Seeing and reading the posts made within the talk page shows that the editors producing article are serious about this topic and are presenting reliable information. This article is rated C and is part of three WikiProjects: Agriculture, Tennessee, and Veterinary medicine.

Overall, this article is well developed and is full of reliable information about the myotonic goat behaviour. The article contains many strengths as it is cleverly organized into numerous relevant subtopics, the information contained within this article is cited from reliable sources and is written from a neutral point of view. As mentioned previously, one idea on how to strengthen this article would be to provide more pictures that detail exactly how the myotonic goat differs physically from a regular breed of goat. There is definitely certain details that could be added to some of the subtopics found in the article, such as in the "History" section - details could be added to explain the experiments performed by Brown and Harvey in 1939. Small details and expansion of ideas like this could help to complete this article on the topic of myotonic goats.