User:Linguagul/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: Legal translation
• I have done some translation, and I know for a fact that legal translation is a lot more different and requires specialized work, considering all of the terminology that comes with it. I wanted to learn more about it.

Lead

Guiding questions

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

I think the introductory sentence encapsulates the main definition of the term Legal Translation and also provides information on its most important feature, that is its being linguistically transparent.

• 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?

Content

Guiding questions

• Is the article's content relevant to the topic?

The article's content is relevant to the topic. It is an informative on the specific matters one need to bear in mind when it comes to legal translation. It informs about the different approach in technique and the technical, linguistic, and cultural reasons behind it. It was however, rather a dull article. Subtitles would help break it into parts and maybe introduce more interesting aspects to the topic.

• Is the content up-to-date?
• Is there content that is missing or content that does not belong?

Tone and Balance

Guiding questions

• Is the article neutral?

I believe the article is written fairly in a neutral manner. It is an informative article which does not really leave room for being biased. It neurally informs about how most legal writing is done, and what the special techniques it entails.

• 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?

Sources and References

Guiding questions

• Are all facts in the article backed up by a reliable secondary source of information?

The author has not given any in text citation marks to reference to certain resources they listed under the relevant literature section. This is troubling because in order to find the true reference to a claim made in the article, one must go through all of the resources to figure out where it was mentioned, which is tiring and time consuming. In-text citation should be provided for the readers to be able to link the necessary part to the given resources, if need be.

• Are the sources thorough - i.e. Do they reflect the available literature on the topic?

I was surprised to find that one of links given under the relevant literature section did not work; it directed me to an unrelated webpage. The other links worked, and they looked like they were what the author of the article claimed to be. The resources however seem to be from various countries by a variety of researchers. The articles used as resource do not seem to be biased.

• Are the sources current?
• Check a few links. Do they work?

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?

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?

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?

Overall impressions

Guiding questions

• What kinds of conversations, if any, are going on behind the scenes about how to represent this topic?

This article has been apparently rated as Start-Class on the project's quality scale. It is said to provide a comprehensive, standardized and up-to-date resource for the legal field. However, "Cyberbot II" has detected that page contains external links that have either been globally or locally blacklisted. Apparently links tend to be blacklisted if they present a history of being slaps, or are considered inappropriate for Wikipedia. In the talk page it was mentioned that it does not have to be due to the fact that it is a spam; it could be a wrong detection as well. The author just needs to double check. In fact I thought this might be the link that directed me to the unrelated webpage.

• 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?

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: