User:Tom Wulfric/Evaluate an Article

Which article are you evaluating?
I am evaluating the article on the Mòcheno language.

Why you have chosen this article to evaluate?
'''I chose this article to evaluate because I have been studying Italian since my first year of college, and although the language is not related to Italian, it is spoken in a region of Trentino within several small communities. The language follows more closely to German and Bavarian. I thought this was an interesting language to be spoken in Italy. The language jumped out at me amongst all of the others available on the Endangered languages map. Besides choosing the article for my own interest, the language is also endangered, thus relating to our course. This also makes it essential to cover and secure.'''

Evaluate the article
Lead Section


 * Does the lead include an introductory sentence that concisely and clearly describes the article's topic?

Yes.


 * Does the lead include a brief description of the article's major sections? Not within the text itself, but a contents box is provided with links to each section.
 * Does the lead include information that is not present in the article? (It shouldn't.) No.
 * Is the lead concise or is it overly detailed? The lead is very concise, and does not push the boundary of what an effective lead should be. Somebody who would need to know a perfect overview of the language could read the lead and be satisfied.

Content

 * Is the article's content relevant to the topic? Yes.
 * Is the content up-to-date? To an extent. Some of the data in the Geographical Distribution section comes from a census from 2011, without providing a census beyond that date.
 * Is there content that is missing or content that does not belong? All of the content is relevant to the article. There could absolutely be more information provided, specific examples of grammatical structure, pronouns, titles, etc.
 * Does the article deal with one of Wikipedia's equity gaps? Does it address topics related to historically underrepresented populations or topics? The article does not deal with equity gaps in the sense that this question is imposing, but it does deal with an underrepresented language.
 * Overall, the information given in the article is thorough despite being a short page. All of the information is relevant to the article, without bantering or entering unrelated areas. The information could definitely be more up to date, especially in the Status section, where the facts are especially vague, not giving any dates besides "Starting in the 1990's." This section could use more care and research to bring it up to date. Despite this gap, the article is coherent, easy to read, and provides valuable information.

Tone and Balance
Wikipedia articles should be written from a neutral point of view; if there are substantial differences of interpretation or controversies among published, reliable sources, those views should be described as fairly as possible.


 * Is the article from a neutral point of view? Yes.
 * Are there any claims that appear heavily biased toward a particular position? No.
 * Are there viewpoints that are overrepresented, or underrepresented? No.
 * Are minority or fringe viewpoints accurately described as such? There are not any.
 * Does the article attempt to persuade the reader in favor of one position or away from another? No.
 * The article is very neutral, only covering the facts and knowledge on the Mòcheno language. There are no opposing viewpoints or viewpoints biased towards the language that skew information. Being so brief, there is not much room to include clashing viewpoints, and being such a simple topic, it would be difficult to create or involve bias when covering the language.

Sources and References
A Wikipedia article should be based on the best sources available for the topic at hand. When possible, this means academic and peer-reviewed publications or scholarly books.


 * Are all facts in the article backed up by a reliable secondary source of information? No, more links to sources should be provided for the facts given.
 * Are the sources thorough - i.e. Do they reflect the available literature on the topic? The sources are all very thorough, although there could be more. The sources include statistics and actual census recordings from areas that use the Mòcheno language. There are also images of text from the language and other useful links provided.
 * Are the sources current? Some of the sources are dated, most of the census recordings date to around 2011-2012. However, there is a link to the Ethnologue covering this language from 2020. Overall, the sources could definitely be more current.
 * Are the sources written by a diverse spectrum of authors? Do they include historically marginalized individuals where possible? There are many different publishers, writers, and sources used for the sources. There is no heavily used single source for information. In fact, in the "Further Reading" section, names and links to many other writings which could guide research of the Mòcheno language are included.
 * Are there better sources available, such as peer-reviewed articles in place of news coverage or random websites? There are a surprising amount of sites and coverage of the language, probably due to it being protected in the Trentino region. Here is an example of a website with excellent coverage of the language:https://omniglot.com/writing/mocheno.htm. As far as articles are concerned, I could not find many. However, there is a book titled "Grammar of Central Trentino" which covers the language in some of the text.
 * Check a few links. Do they work? The links are all functioning as of when I tested them.


 * Overall, the sources provided in the article are extremely helpful and factual, however some of the information and facts stated in the text are not directly cited or backed up by a source. This is somewhat troublesome, and can probably be corrected with some editing and digging through the sources provided. There is a broad array of sources given, with many perspectives covering several topics discussed in the article including census information, geographic distribution, language origin information, and basic necessary information on the language. If need be, my online search found that there are plenty of extra sources available to broaden the article.