User:Prashanth314/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: 1970s energy crisis
I'm planning on creating a page about an energy crisis for PJHC, and I'm interested in environmental issues.

Lead

Guiding questions:

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

The Lead of this article has a great introductory sentence that introduces the topic of the 1970s energy crisis. After reading, the Lead, I knew exactly what to expect in later sections, and the Lead did not introduce anything that wasn't covered later on the page. However, I felt that this was overly detailed and could have been shortened two 2-3 paragraphs at most.

Content

Guiding questions:

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

All of the content was relevant to the topic. I liked how this page discussed both the history and effects of the energy crisis in the 1970s. Since most of the information is from the 70s, the content is up to date for the part. However, the leading diagram compares the real and nominal price of oil from 1968 to 2006. This diagram would be more effective if the end date went up to 2019. I also thought the Pop Culture section of this page was a bit unnecessary, especially because it only included one sentence.

Tone and Balance

Guiding questions:

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

The article has a few areas where it's not neutral, especially in the discussion about the 1973 oil crisis. This section touches upon issues in the Middle East and relies on quotations that slightly makes the information biased. From the talk page, I can tell that there have been issues with neutrality in the past with this section and that they have been mostly fixed.

Sources and References

Guiding questions:

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

After clicking on a few links, all of the ones I checked worked. All of the sources are reliable and are by credible institutions such as the Department of Energy and the NBER. Although most of the sources were created a few years in the past, this issue took place over 40 years ago. Each source is thorough and detailed. However, there are a few places in the article which have a "citation needed" error which should be fixed.

Organization

Guiding questions:

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

This article is well-written and well-organized. I especially liked how each section has a link to a parent article for more information about the respective section. I was unaware of any grammatical or spelling errors.

Images and Media

Guiding questions:

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

All of the images in this article were graphs that enhanced my understanding of the information presented. Each caption was detailed, and I had no confusion about the information represented in each diagram. However, the creator of the page had a few diagrams that were not cited. Although the author may have created these graphs, they should have still added a citation to convey where they got the numbers for the graph from. The placement of each image fit will, but I would have chosen a more interesting picture for the Lead. Additionally, a few of the diagrams are outdated and could be updated.

Checking the talk page

Guiding questions:

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

As I discussed before, there was a bit of a discussion about the lack of neutrality about the Middle East issue in the oil crisis section. However, I can tell that the author has listened to these messages and has worked to make the article more neutral. This is currently a C-Rated Article and is part of WikiProjects United States and WikiProjects Energy. Additionally, I thought it was a bit contradictory that this article was rated both as high importance and low importance simultaneously.

Overall impressions

Guiding questions:

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

Overall, this article is well developed but still needs improvements in terms of maintaining a neutral tone. Additionally, the images should reflect comparisons between the 70s and 2010s rather than 2000s. Although the credibility of the sources the author pulled from is great, there are numerous places in this article that do not have proper citations, including the images. This detracts from the validity of the topics being discussed. I also think someone should take another try at developing this article by adding sections about a loss of biodiversity and either removing or developing the currently short, incomplete Pop Culture section. Nevertheless, this article still has strengths with its structure, sources, lead, and diagrams.

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: Talk:1970s energy crisis#Suggestions