User:128.172.35.28/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: Robert Lax
• I am interested in this poet.

Lead

Guiding questions:

• Does the Lead include an introductory sentence that concisely and clearly describes the article's topic?
  • Yes, but it could be better. In addition to being a poet he worked as an editor, which could be mentioned in the first sentence.
• Does the Lead include a brief description of the article's major sections?
  • No, the lead does not include information about his work as an editor or a clown. Nor does it mention his spirituality apart from saying he was friends with a famous monk.
• Does the Lead include information that is not present in the article?
  • Yes, it talks about him accepting visitors, but that isn't mentioned in the article. Also, it is mentioned that he did nothing to gain publicity during his literary career, which may be true but seems in opposition to the part of the article where it lists awards he won for his poetry and when he was the subject of a film.
• Is the Lead concise or is it overly detailed?
  • It is concise.

Lead evaluation

This lead is fine, but with small changes could be made significantly better and more informational.

Content

Guiding questions:

• Is the article's content relevant to the topic?
  • Yes
• Is the content up-to-date?
  • Yes
• Is there content that is missing or content that does not belong?
  • There could be sections on who influenced him and who he influenced. There could be more details about his life.

Tone and Balance

Guiding questions:

• Is the article neutral?
  • Yes
• Are there any claims that appear heavily biased toward a particular position?
  • No
• Are there viewpoints that are overrepresented, or underrepresented?
  • No
• Does the article attempt to persuade the reader in favor of one position or away from another?
  • No

Tone and balance evaluation

The tone and balance is good, but I guess sometimes it emphasizes his association with more well known figures such as Thomas Merton when it could focus more on him and his work.

Sources and References

Guiding questions:

• Are all facts in the article backed up by a reliable secondary source of information?
  • Yes
• Are the sources thorough - i.e. Do they reflect the available literature on the topic?
  • No, there is a biography of Lax that I do not see cited.
• Are the sources current?
  • Robert Lax has been dead for 19 years, so I'm not sure how current the sources need to be. He hasn't published anything new or done anything remarkable in nearly 20 years and the sources reflect that.
• Check a few links. Do they work?
  • All the external links work. The few internal links I clicked also worked.

Sources and references evaluation

None of the sources seem bad, but I know of at least one useful source that isn't used.

Organization

Guiding questions:

• Is the article well-written - i.e. Is it concise, clear, and easy to read?
  • Yes
• Does the article have any grammatical or spelling errors?
  • Not that I saw
• Is the article well-organized - i.e. broken down into sections that reflect the major points of the topic?
  • Yes

Organization evaluation

I think the organization is good.

Images and Media

Guiding questions:

• Does the article include images that enhance understanding of the topic?
  • None, it would be nice to have a pic or Robert Lax.
• Are images well-captioned?
  • n/a
• Do all images adhere to Wikipedia's copyright regulations?
  • n/a
• Are the images laid out in a visually appealing way?
  • n/a

Images and media evaluation

No images or media to evaluate. There should be a picture of Robert Lax, and perhaps if there is a recording of him reading a poem (there may not be) embedding that would be cool.

Checking the talk page

Guiding questions:

• What kinds of conversations, if any, are going on behind the scenes about how to represent this topic?
  • Interpretations of his poems, reasons the article is significant
• How is the article rated? Is it a part of any WikiProjects?
  • It's rated as start class and part of wikiprojectbiography and wikiprojectspirituality
• How does the way Wikipedia discusses this topic differ from the way we've talked about it in class?
  • We haven't talked about this topic in class.

Talk page evaluation

Not much there, but what is there is pretty good.

Overall impressions

Guiding questions:

• What is the article's overall status?
  • It's good but small and could easily be expanded and more useful.
• What are the article's strengths?
  • Overview of his life.
• How can the article be improved?
  • More about his circus life, poetry and spirituality.
• How would you assess the article's completeness - i.e. Is the article well-developed? Is it underdeveloped or poorly developed?
  • Underdeveloped.

Overall evaluation

The article is small and underdeveloped. Without much effort it could be fleshed out and improved upon.

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 with four tildes ~~~~

• Link to feedback: