Welcome to the assessment department of the WikiProject Venezuela! This department focuses on assessing the quality of Wikipedia's Venezuela 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.
A featured article exemplifies Wikipedia's very best work and is distinguished by professional standards of writing, presentation, and sourcing. In addition to meeting the policies regarding content for all Wikipedia articles, it has the following attributes.
It is:
well-written: its prose is engaging and of a professional standard;
comprehensive: it neglects no major facts or details and places the subject in context;
well-researched: it is a thorough and representative survey of the relevant literature; claims are verifiable against high-quality reliable sources and are supported by inline citations where appropriate;
stable: it is not subject to ongoing edit wars and its content does not change significantly from day to day, except in response to the featured article process; and
a lead: a concise lead section that summarizes the topic and prepares the reader for the detail in the subsequent sections;
appropriate structure: a substantial but not overwhelming system of hierarchical section headings; and
consistent citations: where required by criterion 1c, consistently formatted inline citations using footnotes—see citing sources for suggestions on formatting references. Citation templates are not required.
Length. It stays focused on the main topic without going into unnecessary detail and uses summary style where appropriate.
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.
The article is well organized and essentially complete, having been examined by at least two impartial reviewers from WikiProject Venezuela. Good article status is not a requirement for A-Class. See the A-class review FAQ for specific advice and nomination.
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).
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.
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);
Useful to nearly all readers, with no obvious problems; approaching (but not equalling) the quality of a professional encyclopedia.
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.
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.
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.
The article is substantial but is still missing important content or contains much 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; need editing for clarity, balance, or flow; or contain policy violations, such as bias or original research. Articles on fictional topics are likely to be marked as C-Class if they are written from an in-universe perspective. It is most likely that C-Class articles have a reasonable encyclopedic style.
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.
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 usable amount of good content but is weak in many areas. Quality of the prose may be distinctly unencyclopedic, and Wikipedia:Manual of Style compliance non-existent. The article should satisfy fundamental content policies, such as Wikipedia:Biographies of living persons. Frequently, the referencing is inadequate, although enough sources are usually provided to establish verifiability. No Start-Class article should be in any danger of being speedily deleted.
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. Also improve the grammar, spelling, writing style and improve the jargon use.
A very basic description of the topic. However, all very-bad-quality articles will fall into this category.
More detailed criteria
The article is either a very short article or a rough collection of information that will need much work to become a meaningful article. It is usually very short; but, if the material is irrelevant or incomprehensible, an article of any length falls into this category. Although Stub-class articles are the lowest class of the normal classes, they are adequate enough to be an accepted article, though they do have risks of being dropped from being an article altogether.
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.
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.
(a) It comprehensively covers the defined scope, providing at least all of the major items and, where practical, a complete set of items; where appropriate, it has annotations that provide useful and appropriate information about the items.
(c) In length and/or topic, it meets all of the requirements for stand-alone lists and includes at minimum eight items; does not violate the content-forking guideline, does not largely duplicate material from another article, and could not reasonably be included as part of a related article.
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.
(a) Visual appeal. It makes suitable use of text layout, formatting, tables, and colour; and a minimal proportion of items are redlinked.
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.
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.
Meets the criteria of a stand-alone list, 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.
Subject is extremely important, even crucial, to understanding Venezuela. Most Top-importance articles will be of international interest, and include overviews in areas of politics, culture, geography, etc. Any Vital Articles are normally Top-importance.
Subject is extremely notable, but has not achieved international notability. This is reserved for elements that are necessary for a deeper understanding of Venezuela, particularly an in-depth structural one, but not to fully understand the workings of the country. Most High-importance articles expand on finer areas of the concepts of Top-importance articles, e.g. political parties, subcultures, cities, etc. See also: Default high importance Venezuela categories
Subject is only notable within its particular field or subject and has achieved notability in a particular place or area. Mid-importance articles will be those things which are notable and important within the context of a subject area that has little impact on other areas, e.g. geographical phenomena, most actors, and non-national politicians.
Subject is not particularly notable or significant even within its field of study. This is reserved for things that only relate to one subject area, and which do not bear significant importance within this subject. Sometimes, the article has been made as supplementary, to cover a specific part of a notable article. Specific editions or games within a tournament, events that are very historic with little fallout, and regional-specific minor persons are usually Low-importance. See also: Default low importance Venezuela categories
WikiProjects carry out A-class reviews in the same way the other letter grade quality assessments are made; unlike WP:GA and WP:FA, it doesn't denote standardized Wikipedia value, though it is placed between the two in terms of how good the article should be, particularly in its subject-matter context. There are currently no A-class Venezuela articles.
A-class isn't generally handed out, so if you feel a Venezuela-related article qualifies, please create a subpage via the form below, and create an entry on the Assessment talk page and the Project talk page by adding {{WP Venezuela A-class nomination/YOUR ARTICLE TITLE}} in a new section. Here, editors who have been uninvolved with editing the article to its current standard will assess if the article meets the A-class criteria on the separate review page — this allows the assessment to be archived.
The Wikipedia A-class criteria can be found at WP:A? and WP:ASSESS. An A-class article is considered complete. This means that there is no element of the subject that is not covered to a satisfactory level; this goes further than the GA standard of "appropriate coverage", where all important elements of the subject should be covered to an informative degree, but not as far as the FA "total coverage", where everything that would come up in a google search is included. An A-class article provides a non-subject expert with everything they will need, whereas a GA article may leave a gap where some element may be more comprehensively covered elsewhere, and an FA article should provide for even subject experts, within the constraints of best sourcing practice. An A-class article is assessed by the WikiProject to ensure it is high or top quality in relation to the specific subject; while this is encouraged for GA, it is not essential, and GA articles are Good per cross-Wikipedia standards of style and coverage. FA combines the two.
An A-class article is consistently cited with good and reliable sources. Preferably following a formal citation template, and using a wide variety of sources, though reputable books and online counterparts are still preferred. This is more standardized than GA, but not as rigid as FA. Reviewers should also check that the sources used, and therefore the article content, is representative of the general consensus of the subject matter.
As a rule, an A-class article will not have maintenance tags, and will not need any clean-up. It will be updated when appropriate, and not experience edit-wars. It will be well structured and written, with good prose and illustrated appropriately. There will be no copyvios in text or illustrations.
Generally, articles that are proposed to be A-class will currently be GA, but this is not necessary. They may also have been peer-reviewed or copyedited first.
Any specific WikiProject Venezuela criteria/specifications?
Reviewers should consider the sources used; though a government source is typically seen as more reliable than a web-based news service across Wikipedia, Censorship in Venezuela means this is unlikely so. Please cross-match the source list of articles with the Venezuela RS page, and exercise cautious judgment.
Though a general criteria for GA and above is a stable article, the contentious nature of some Venezuela topics means that the articles may attract more abuse; these articles should be appropriately tagged on the talk page, and well-handled edit wars or quickly-reverted vandalism should not be held against the article or maintainers.
Many editors of Venezuela-related articles have Spanish as a first language; checking that there are no translation errors even when the prose is in good English may be useful, as might manually checking for copyvios against Spanish-language sources as the earwig tool won't detect it. Content translated from Spanish Wikipedia should be tagged on the article's talk page. Venezuela articles of higher quality are consistently written in American English but use DMY date format (except when there is a better choice; e.g. The Revolution Will Not Be Televised, written in Irish English).
The editors of WikiProject Venezuela are likely more familiar with the topics than other Wikipedia editors, and judging the appropriate tone, coverage, background, etc. of an article is left to the assessor's discretion. Because of the contentious nature, it would be recommended to have more than two editors approve of the A-class rating, but this isn't necessary, and can be ignored if the article's subject matter is seen as uncontroversial by the assessors; two reviewers approving the nomination are required.
Any member of WikiProject Venezuela can assess Venezuela articles for A-class, but we ask that you are familiar with the guidelines and criteria.
