User:Ria Chawla/Evaluate an Article
Evaluate an article
This is where you will complete your article evaluation. Please use the template below to evaluate your selected article.
- Name of article: Crime of apartheid
- Briefly describe why you have chosen this article to evaluate.
I chose this article to evaluate because while it was concise, it still covered a good amount of information in a chronological order. This contributed to the flow of understanding the main topic effectively.
Lead
- Guiding questions
The Lead of this article had a strong introductory sentence with respect to describing the article's topic, however, it could have included a bit more information with regard to including information to the section about accusations of apartheid by country as I would not have gauged that by the current Lead. Further, the title is a bit misleading as it doesn't hint at this being an article on understanding the definition of the title, rather one would expect a more specific overview and description of specific crimes on reading the just the title. It does, however, describe the main sections on the definition of the crime of apartheid and supporting material.
- Does the Lead include an introductory sentence that concisely and clearly describes the article's topic?
- Does the Lead include a brief description of the article's major sections?
- Does the Lead include information that is not present in the article?
- Is the Lead concise or is it overly detailed?
Lead evaluation
Content
- Guiding questions
The article's content is most definitely relevant to the topic as it includes information on the history of the topic, which is good for establishing content. There are also links to related relevant pages to better understand the context of the article, which I think contributes to the strength of the article. However, I found the sections describing apartheid crimes by country interesting because they placed the issue of apartheid in an international context rather than the commonly known issue of apartheid in South Africa, which offered a more general understanding of apartheid. And since that is the essence of the article, I find the content extremely relevant and effectively delivered. Given that this was in a more general understanding of the crimes of apartheid, and not restricted to South African apartheid, the content is quite outdated, the most recent being a source from July, 2013.
- Is the article's content relevant to the topic?
- Is the content up-to-date?
- Is there content that is missing or content that does not belong?
Content evaluation
Tone and Balance
- Guiding questions
The article did offer a neutral stance and did not reflect any particular biases as it was simply providing information on definitions and international context. Therefore, there was no room to make heavily biased claims or attempts to persuade the reader to lean towards a particular stance. I do believe it felt short in balancing the information it provided for sections describing crimes of apartheid by country.
- Is the article neutral?
- Are there any claims that appear heavily biased toward a particular position?
- Are there viewpoints that are overrepresented, or underrepresented?
- Does the article attempt to persuade the reader in favor of one position or away from another?
Tone and balance evaluation
Sources and References
- Guiding questions
In terms of sources and references, I found that the article's sources weren't reliable. And although all the facts were backed up by sources, a few links did not work, the links were not scholarly credible sources, and they were outdated in the context of this topic.
- Are all facts in the article backed up by a reliable secondary source of information?
- Are the sources thorough - i.e. Do they reflect the available literature on the topic?
- Are the sources current?
- Check a few links. Do they work?
Sources and references evaluation
Organization
- Guiding questions
The article is well-organised and easy to follow as it covers the information in a chronological order, and its sections reflect the main points of the topic which lends to this ease of reading.
- Is the article well-written - i.e. Is it concise, clear, and easy to read?
- Does the article have any grammatical or spelling errors?
- Is the article well-organized - i.e. broken down into sections that reflect the major points of the topic?
Organization evaluation
Images and Media
- Guiding questions
The article does not include any images that enhance the understanding of the topic, and therefore, there is no way to judge the article on this section.
- Does the article include images that enhance understanding of the topic?
- Are images well-captioned?
- Do all images adhere to Wikipedia's copyright regulations?
- Are the images laid out in a visually appealing way?
Images and media evaluation
Checking the talk page
- Guiding questions
The article is listed as a level-5 vital article and so has a good amount of relevant articles linked, however it also received a C-Class. rating, alluding to the fact that it is not yet considered complete. There are conversations where WikiUsers make others aware that they are removing or editing information but most of it is titled "problems" with particular sections of the article, which is definitely a red flag. There were also modifications made to external links. The article is a part of 3 WikiProjects which is interesting given its rating and credibility. However, I do believe the article made us step out of South Africa and look at apartheid in an international context, which I wasn't aware of.
- What kinds of conversations, if any, are going on behind the scenes about how to represent this topic?
- How is the article rated? Is it a part of any WikiProjects?
- How does the way Wikipedia discusses this topic differ from the way we've talked about it in class?
Talk page evaluation
Overall impressions
- Guiding questions
Overall, I don't believe the article is a good one in terms of credibility and trustworthy information. However, I do like the perspective it offers because it made me think of apartheid in a more general and wider sense than restricted to my knowledge of the South African Apartheid. In terms of improvement, I would suggest more relevant images, better sources that are scholarly in nature and would contribute to the topic in a more specific manner. In turn, this would help give the article a more completed look, as right now, it does seem incomplete in some aspects.
- What is the article's overall status?
- What are the article's strengths?
- How can the article be improved?
- How would you assess the article's completeness - i.e. Is the article well-developed? Is it underdeveloped or poorly developed?
Overall evaluation
Optional activity
- Choose at least 1 question relevant to the article you're evaluating and leave your evaluation on the article's Talk page. Be sure to sign your feedback
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