User:Thometo/Evaluate an Article

Which article are you evaluating?
Visual communication

Why you have chosen this article to evaluate?
I chose this article to evaluate because I am very passionate about graphic design and felt that I was able to relate that subject to this article. It was interesting taking a deeper dive into visual communication as a whole, and recognizing how graphic design fits into it.

Lead section
The lead section of this article is a great introduction to the topic. The first sentence conveys what is meant by the term "visual communication" and gives some examples of different forms of visual communication. The lead section acts as a perfect prelude to the overview, giving a more concise run-down. Additionally, everything that is present in this section is elaborated on further in the article.

Content
The overall content and layout of the content is very fluid and understandable throughout the article. The article mentions and elaborates on things like animation, which is not quite as primitive as some other things mentioned. The article uses up-to-date ideas and forms of visual communications to help the reader better understand visual communication as a whole. Unfortunately, the article does not specifically address any topics pertaining to history underrepresented groups.

Tone and Balance
A general neutral tone is maintained throughout, yet at some points there is opinion. Although there is a neutral tone, there is favoritism toward technology as a channel of visual communication. While there exists a slight bias, there is a good balance of detail for each stem. I felt that the section mentioning the cultural impact was disproportionately short compared to the other sections.

Sources and References
The facts and ideas come from seemingly credible sources, including numerous citations of university press. All of the sources are current, with most being published within the last 10-15 years. The authors of the source have diverse backgrounds, some being scholars and others being artists and authors with experience in visual communication fields. There are many great interviews/podcasts out there I myself have heard with people who specialize in visual communication for a living, which would've been very nice to include.

Organization and writing quality
The overall structure is clean and well-organized. There are subcategories present under each subheading which not provides great elaboration, but also allows for the reader to easily find more detail on a previously mentioned topic. The article uses understandable words and there are no spelling, grammatical or punctual errors.

Images and Media
The images add the visual element to the explanation, although the captions could be a bit more analytical. I was surprised at how few images there were given the subject matter. The images are properly cited and adhere to Wikipedia's copyright regulations. The images compliment the text well, reinforcing the ideas stated within it.

Talk page discussion
Some general things brought up included somebody wanting more reliable sources and another was about somebody asking for further information about the history of visual communication. The article is rated as "Start-Class" on the quality scale and "High-Importance" on the importance scale of the graphic design wikiproject. We haven't really talked about visual communication a lot in class, but the information is presented in a similar format.

Overall impressions
The article is well-developed and the information is presented in a way that can be universally understood. It is strong in description, but given the nature of the subject matter more pictures would help greatly to provide good examples of ideas presented. It feels complete and a full read through gives the reader a good understanding of visual communication.