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Welcome to the assessment department of the WikiProject Latin America! This department focuses on assessing the quality of Wikipedia's Latin America articles. While much of the work is done in conjunction with the WP:1.0 program, the article ratings are also used within the project itself to aid in recognizing excellent contributions and identifying topics in need of further work.
The ratings are done in a distributed fashion through parameters in the {{WikiProject Latin America}} project banner; this causes the articles to be placed in the appropriate sub-categories of Category:Latin America articles by quality and Category:Latin America articles by importance, which serves as the foundation for an automatically generated worklist. Index · Statistics · Log
Frequently asked questions
- See also the general assessment FAQ
- 1. What is the purpose of the article ratings?
- The rating system allows the project to monitor the quality of articles in our subject areas, and to prioritize work on these articles. It is also utilized by the Wikipedia 1.0 program to prepare for static releases of Wikipedia content. Please note, however, that these ratings are primarily intended for the internal use of the project, and do not necessarily imply any official standing within Wikipedia as a whole.
- 2. How do I add an article to the WikiProject?
- Just add {{WikiProject Latin America}} to the talk page; there's no need to do anything else.
- 3. Someone put a {{WikiProject Latin America}} template on an article, but it doesn't seem to be within the project's scope. What should I do?
- Because of the large number of articles we deal with, we occasionally make mistakes and add tags to articles that shouldn't have them. If you notice one, feel free to remove the tag, and optionally leave a note on the project talk page (or directly with the person who tagged the article).
- 4. Who can assess articles?
- Any member of the Latin America WikiProject is free to add—or change—the rating of an article. Editors who are not participants in this project are also welcome to assess articles, but should defer to consensus within the project in case of procedural disputes.
- 5. How do I rate an article?
- Check the quality scale and select the level that best matches the state of the article; then, follow the instructions below to add the rating to the project banner on the article's talk page. Please note that some of the available levels have an associated formal review process; this is documented in the assessment scale.
- 6. Why didn't the reviewer leave any comments?
- Unfortunately, due to the volume of articles that need to be assessed, we are unable to leave detailed comments in most cases. If you have particular questions, you might ask the person who assessed the article; they will usually be happy to provide you with their reasoning.
- 7. What if I don't agree with a rating?
- You can ask any member of the project to rate the article again. Please note that some of the available levels have an associated formal review process; this is documented in the assessment scale.
- 8. Aren't the ratings subjective?
- Yes, they are somewhat subjective, but it's the best system we've been able to devise. If you have a better idea, please don't hesitate to let us know!
- 9. What if I have a question not listed here?
- If you have any other questions not listed here, please feel free to ask them on the discussion page for this department; for any other issues, you can go to the main project discussion page.
Instructions
Quality assessment
An article's quality assessment is recorded using the |class= parameter in the {{WikiProject banner shell}}. Articles that have the {{WikiProject Latin America}} banner template on their talk page will be added to the appropriate categories by quality.
The following standard grades may be used to describe the quality of mainspace articles (see Wikipedia:Content assessment for assessment criteria):
For non-mainspace content, the following values may be used:
The following non-standard assessment grades for mainspace content may be used at a WikiProject's discretion:
Importance assessment
An article's importance assessment is generated from the importance parameter in the {{WikiProject Latin America}} project banner on its talk page:
{{WikiProject Latin America|importance=???}}
The following values may be used for the importance parameter to describe the relative importance of the article within the project (see Wikipedia:Version 1.0 Editorial Team/Priority of topic for assessment criteria):
Quality scale
| Class | Criteria | Reader's experience | Editing suggestions | Example |
FA |
The article has attained featured article status by passing an in-depth examination by impartial reviewers from WP:Featured article candidates. |
Professional, outstanding, and thorough; a definitive source for encyclopedic information. |
No further content additions should be necessary unless new information becomes available; further improvements to the prose quality are often possible. |
Peru |
FL |
The article has attained featured list status by passing an in-depth examination by impartial reviewers from WP:Featured list candidates.
More detailed criteria
The article meets the featured list criteria:
- Prose. It features professional standards of writing.
- Lead. It has an engaging lead that introduces the subject and defines the scope and inclusion criteria.
- Comprehensiveness.
- Structure. It is easy to navigate and includes, where helpful, section headings and table sort facilities.
- Style. It complies with the Manual of Style and its supplementary pages.
- Stability. It is not the subject of ongoing edit wars and its content does not change significantly from day to day, except in response to the featured list process.
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Professional standard; it comprehensively covers the defined scope, usually providing a complete set of items, and has annotations that provide useful and appropriate information about those items. |
No further content additions should be necessary unless new information becomes available; further improvements to the prose quality are often possible. |
N/A |
A |
The article is well organized and essentially complete, having been examined by impartial reviewers from a WikiProject or elsewhere. Good article status is not a requirement for A-Class.
More detailed criteria
The article meets the A-Class criteria:
Provides a well-written, clear and complete description of the topic, as described in Wikipedia:Article development. It should be of a length suitable for the subject, appropriately structured, and be well referenced by a broad array of reliable sources. It should be well illustrated, with no copyright problems. Only minor style issues and other details need to be addressed before submission as a featured article candidate. See the A-Class assessment departments of some of the larger WikiProjects (e.g. WikiProject Military history).
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Very useful to readers. A fairly complete treatment of the subject. A non-expert in the subject would typically find nothing wanting. |
Expert knowledge may be needed to tweak the article, and style problems may need solving. WP:Peer review may help. |
N/A |
GA |
The article meets all of the good article criteria, and has been examined by one or more impartial reviewers from WP:Good article nominations.
More detailed criteria
A good article is:
- Well-written:
- the prose is clear, concise, and understandable to an appropriately broad audience; spelling and grammar are correct; and
- it complies with the Manual of Style guidelines for lead sections, layout, words to watch, fiction, and list incorporation.
- Verifiable with no original research:
- it contains a list of all references (sources of information), presented in accordance with the layout style guideline;
- reliable sources are cited inline. All content that could reasonably be challenged, except for plot summaries and that which summarizes cited content elsewhere in the article, must be cited no later than the end of the paragraph (or line if the content is not in prose);
- it contains no original research; and
- it contains no copyright violations or plagiarism.
- Broad in its coverage:
- it addresses the main aspects of the topic; and
- it stays focused on the topic without going into unnecessary detail (see summary style).
- Neutral: it represents viewpoints fairly and without editorial bias, giving due weight to each.
- Stable: it does not change significantly from day to day because of an ongoing edit war or content dispute.
- Illustrated, if possible, by media such as images, video, or audio:
- media are tagged with their copyright statuses, and valid non-free use rationales are provided for non-free content; and
- media are relevant to the topic, and have suitable captions.
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Useful to nearly all readers, with no obvious problems; approaching (though not necessarily equalling) the quality of a professional publication. |
Some editing by subject and style experts is helpful; comparison with an existing featured article on a similar topic may highlight areas where content is weak or missing. |
Latin American Boom |
| B |
The article meets all of the B-Class criteria. It is mostly complete and does not have major problems, but requires some further work to reach good article standards.
More detailed criteria
- The article is suitably referenced, with inline citations. It has reliable sources, and any important or controversial material which is likely to be challenged is cited. Any format of inline citation is acceptable: the use of <ref> tags and citation templates such as
{{cite web}} is optional.
- The article reasonably covers the topic, and does not contain obvious omissions or inaccuracies. It contains a large proportion of the material necessary for an A-Class article, although some sections may need expansion, and some less important topics may be missing.
- The article has a defined structure. Content should be organized into groups of related material, including a lead section and all the sections that can reasonably be included in an article of its kind.
- The article is reasonably well-written. The prose contains no major grammatical errors and flows sensibly, but does not need to be of the standard of featured articles. The Manual of Style does not need to be followed rigorously.
- The article contains supporting materials where appropriate. Illustrations are encouraged, though not required. Diagrams, an infobox etc. should be included where they are relevant and useful to the content.
- The article presents its content in an appropriately understandable way. It is written with as broad an audience in mind as possible. The article should not assume unnecessary technical background and technical terms should be explained or avoided where possible.
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Readers are not left wanting, although the content may not be complete enough to satisfy a serious student or researcher. |
A few aspects of content and style need to be addressed. Expert knowledge may be needed. The inclusion of supporting materials should be considered if practical, and the article checked for general compliance with the Manual of Style and related style guidelines. |
Race and ethnicity in Latin America |
| C |
The article is substantial but is still missing important content or contains irrelevant material. The article should have some references to reliable sources, but may still have significant problems or require substantial cleanup.
More detailed criteria
The article cites more than one reliable source and is better developed in style, structure, and quality than Start-Class, but it fails one or more of the criteria for B-Class. It may have some gaps or missing elements, or need editing for clarity, balance, or flow.
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Useful to a casual reader, but would not provide a complete picture for even a moderately detailed study. |
Considerable editing is needed to close gaps in content and solve cleanup problems. |
Romance languages |
| Start |
An article that is developing but still quite incomplete. It may or may not cite adequate reliable sources.
More detailed criteria
The article has a meaningful amount of good content, but it is still weak in many areas. The article has one or more of the following:
- A useful picture or graphic
- Multiple links that help explain or illustrate the topic
- A subheading that fully treats an element of the topic
- Multiple subheadings that indicate material that could be added to complete the article
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Provides some meaningful content, but most readers will need more. |
Providing references to reliable sources should come first; the article also needs substantial improvement in content and organisation. Improve the grammar, spelling, and writing style; decrease the use of jargon. |
Partners in South-South Cooperation |
| Stub |
A very basic description of the topic. Meets none of the Start-Class criteria. |
Provides very little meaningful content; may be little more than a dictionary definition. Readers probably see insufficiently developed features of the topic and may not see how the features of the topic are significant. |
Any editing or additional material can be helpful. The provision of meaningful content should be a priority. The best solution for a Stub-class Article to step up to a Start-class Article is to add in referenced reasons of why the topic is significant. |
Council of the Americas |
| List |
Meets the criteria of a stand-alone list or set index article, which is an article that contains primarily a list, usually consisting of links to articles in a particular subject area. |
There is no set format for a list, but its organization should be logical and useful to the reader. |
Lists should be lists of live links to Wikipedia articles, appropriately named and organized. |
List of Latin American countries by population |
| Category |
Any category falls under this class. |
Categories are mainly used to group together articles within a particular subject area. |
Large categories may need to be split into one or more subcategories. Be wary of articles that have been miscategorized. |
Category:Latin America |
| Disambig |
Any disambiguation page falls under this class. |
The page serves to distinguish multiple articles that share the same (or similar) title. |
Additions should be made as new articles of that name are created. Pay close attention to the proper naming of such pages, as they often do not need "(disambiguation)" appended to the title. |
Middle America |
| File |
Any page in the file namespace falls under this class. |
The page contains an image, a sound clip or other media-related content. |
Make sure that the file is properly licensed and credited. |
File:Musk Lorikeet jul08.jpg |
| Portal |
Any page in the portal namespace falls under this class. |
Portals are intended to serve as "main pages" for specific topics. |
Editor involvement is essential to ensure that portals are kept up to date. |
Portal:Latin America |
| Project |
All WikiProject-related pages fall under this class. |
Project pages are intended to aid editors in article development. |
Develop these pages into collaborative resources that are useful for improving articles within the project. |
Wikipedia:WikiProject Latin America |
| Template |
Any template falls under this class. The most common types of templates include infoboxes and navboxes. |
Different types of templates serve different purposes. Infoboxes provide easy access to key pieces of information about the subject. Navboxes are for the purpose of grouping together related subjects into an easily accessible format, to assist the user in navigating between articles. |
Infoboxes are typically placed at the upper right of an article, while navboxes normally go across the very bottom of a page. Beware of too many different templates, as well as templates that give either too little, too much, or too specialized information. |
Template:Latin America and the Caribbean topic |
| NA |
Any non-article page that fits no other classification. |
The page contains no article content. |
Look out for misclassified articles. Currently, many NA-class articles may need to be re-classified. |
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Importance scale
The criteria used for rating article importance are not meant to be an absolute or canonical view of how significant the topic is. Rather, they attempt to gauge the probability of the average reader of Wikipedia needing to look up the topic (and thus the immediate need to have a suitably well-written article on it). Thus, subjects with greater popular notability may be rated higher than topics which are arguably more "important" but which are of interest primarily to students of Latin America.
Note that general notability need not be from the perspective of editor demographics; generally notable topics should be rated similarly regardless of the country or region in which they hold said notability. Thus, topics which may seem obscure to a Western audience—but which are of high notability in other places—should still be highly rated.
| Importance |
Criteria |
Example |
| Top | Subject is extremely important, even crucial, to its specific field. Reserved for subjects that have achieved international notability within their field. |
Latin America |
| High | Subject is extremely notable, but has not achieved international notability, or is only notable within a particular continent. |
Spanish colonization of the Americas |
| Mid | Subject is only notable within its particular field or subject and has achieved notability in a particular place or area. |
Javier Hernández Balcázar |
| Low | Subject is not particularly notable or significant even within its field of study. It may only be included to cover a specific part of a notable article. |
Rankings of universities in Latin America |
| NA | Subject importance is not applicable. Generally applies to non-article pages such as redirects, categories, templates, etc. |
Category:Latin American rice dishes |
| ??? | Subject importance has not yet been assessed. |
N/A |
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