Wikipedia:WikiProject National Register of Historic Places/Assessment

Welcome to the Assessment Division of the National Register of Historic Places WikiProject. This department focuses on assessing the quality of articles under the scope of the National Register of Historic Places project. The resulting article ratings are used within the project to aid in recognizing excellent contributions and identifying topics in need of further work.

The assessment is done in a distributed fashion through parameters in the {{WikiProject National Register of Historic Places}} project banner. The banner automatically adds articles to categories based on quality and importance.

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. 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 National Register of Historic Places}} to the talk page; there's no need to do anything else.

3. Someone put this project's banner 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's talk page (or directly with the person who tagged the article).

4. Who can assess articles? 

Any member of the National Register of Historic Places 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's quality? 

Check the quality scale below 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 that must be followed; this is documented in the assessment instructions.

6. How do I rate an article's importance? 

Check the importance scale below and select the level that best matches the subject 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 for an article to be added to some of the higher importance levels, the project must be notified in advance on the project talk page.

7. What if I don't agree with a rating? Can I request that someone else rate an article? 

Of course; to do so, simply remove the current quality or importance rating already present on the article's talk page. If no rating is currently there, be patient; a member of this project will eventually get around to rating it. If you'd like, you can drop a note at the project talk page to bring the specific article to the attention of our volunteers.

9. What if I have a question not listed here? 

For any other issues not covered in this FAQ, leave a message on the project's talk page, and someone will respond to your query directly.

Assessment instructions

By quality

An article's quality assessment is generated from the class parameter in the {{WikiProject National Register of Historic Places}} project banner on its talk page:

{{WikiProject National Register of Historic Places|class=???}}

The following values may be used for the class parameter to describe the quality of the article:

FA (for featured articles only; adds articles to Category:FA-Class National Register of Historic Places articles)		FA
A (adds articles to Category:A-Class National Register of Historic Places articles)		A
GA (for good articles only; adds articles to Category:GA-Class National Register of Historic Places articles)		GA
B (adds articles to Category:B-Class National Register of Historic Places articles)		B
C (adds articles to Category:C-Class National Register of Historic Places articles)		C
Start (adds articles to Category:Start-Class National Register of Historic Places articles)		Start
Stub (adds articles to Category:Stub-Class National Register of Historic Places articles)		Stub
FL (for featured lists only; adds articles to Category:FL-Class National Register of Historic Places articles)		FL
List (adds articles to Category:List-Class National Register of Historic Places articles)		List

For pages that are not articles, the following values can also be used for the class parameter:

Category (for categories; adds pages to Category:Category-Class National Register of Historic Places articles)		Category
Disambig (for disambiguation pages; adds pages to Category:Disambig-Class National Register of Historic Places articles)		Disambig
File (for files; adds pages to Category:File-Class National Register of Historic Places articles)		File
Redirect (for redirect pages; adds pages to Category:Redirect-Class National Register of Historic Places articles)		Redirect
Template (for templates; adds pages to Category:Template-Class National Register of Historic Places articles)		Template
NA (for any other pages where assessment is unnecessary; adds pages to Category:NA-Class National Register of Historic Places articles)		NA
??? (articles for which a valid class has not yet been provided are listed in Category:Unassessed National Register of Historic Places articles)		???

The class parameter should be assigned according to the quality scale below.

Quality scale

The following grading scheme is generic, not customized to WP:NRHP articles.

WikiProject article quality grading scheme

Class	Criteria	Reader's experience	Editing suggestions	Example
FA	The article has attained featured article status. More detailed criteria The article meets the featured article criteria: A featured article exemplifies our 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— (a) well-written: its prose is engaging, even brilliant, and of a professional standard; (b) comprehensive: it neglects no major facts or details and places the subject in context; (c) 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; (d) neutral: it presents views fairly and without bias; and (e) 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. It follows the style guidelines, including the provision of— (a) a lead: a concise lead section that summarizes the topic and prepares the reader for the detail in the subsequent sections; (b) appropriate structure: a system of hierarchical section headings and a substantial but not overwhelming table of contents; and (c) consistent citations: where required by criterion 1c, consistently formatted inline citations using either footnotes (<ref>Smith 2007, p. 1.</ref>) or Harvard referencing (Smith 2007, p. 1)—see citing sources for suggestions on formatting references; for articles with footnotes, the meta:cite format is recommended. The use of citation templates is not required. Media. It has images and other media where appropriate, with succinct captions, and acceptable copyright status. Images included follow the image use policy. Non-free images or media must satisfy the criteria for inclusion of non-free content and be labeled accordingly. Length. It stays focused on the main topic without going into unnecessary detail (see summary style).	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.	L'incoronazione di Poppea (as of August 2010)
A	The article is well-organized and essentially complete, having been reviewed by impartial reviewers from a WikiProject, like military history, 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:How to write a great article. 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 matter would typically find nothing wanting.	Expert knowledge may be needed to tweak the article, and style issues may need addressing. Peer review may help.	102nd Intelligence Wing (as of March 2010)
GA	The article has attained good article status. More detailed criteria The article meets the good article criteria: A good article is— Well-written: (a) the prose is clear and concise, respects copyright laws, and the spelling and grammar are correct; and (b) it complies with the manual of style guidelines for lead sections, layout, words to watch, fiction, and list incorporation. Factually accurate and verifiable: (a) it provides references to all sources of information in the section(s) dedicated to the attribution of these sources according to the guide to layout; (b) it provides in-line citations from reliable sources for direct quotations, statistics, published opinion, counter-intuitive or controversial statements that are challenged or likely to be challenged, and contentious material relating to living persons—science-based articles should follow the scientific citation guidelines; and (c) it contains no original research. Broad in its coverage: (a) it addresses the main aspects of the topic; and (b) it stays focused on the topic without going into unnecessary detail (see summary style). Neutral: it represents viewpoints fairly and without 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 images: (a) images are tagged with their copyright status, and valid fair use rationales are provided for non-free content; and (b) images are relevant to the topic, and have suitable captions.	Useful to nearly all readers, with no obvious problems; approaching (although 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.	Usain Bolt (as of November 2009)
B	The article is mostly complete and without major issues, but requires some further work to reach good article standards. More detailed criteria The article meets the six B-Class criteria: The article is suitably referenced, with inline citations where necessary. It has reliable sources, and any important or controversial material which is likely to be challenged is cited. The use of either <ref> tags or citation templates such as {{cite web}} is not required. 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 it certainly need not be "brilliant". The Manual of Style need not be followed rigorously. The article contains supporting materials where appropriate. Illustrations are encouraged, though not required. Diagrams and 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. Although Wikipedia is more than just a general encyclopedia, the article should not assume unnecessary technical background and technical terms should be explained or avoided where possible.	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 also be considered if practical, and the article checked for general compliance with the Manual of Style and related style guidelines.	KV55 (as of November 2009)
C	The article is substantial, but is still missing important content or contains a lot of irrelevant material. The article should have references to reliable sources, but may still have significant issues or require substantial cleanup. More detailed criteria The article is better developed in style, structure and quality than Start-Class, but 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.	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 address cleanup issues.	Architecture of Sweden (as of May 2009)
Start	An article that is developing, but which is quite incomplete and may require further 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 MoS compliance non-existent; but the article should satisfy fundamental content policies such as notability and BLP, and provide sources to establish verifiability. No Start-Class article should be in any danger of being speedily deleted.	Provides some meaningful content, but the majority of readers will need more.	Provision of references to reliable sources should be prioritised; the article will also need substantial improvements in content and organisation.	Real analysis (as of November 2006)
Stub	A very basic description of the topic. 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.	Provides very little meaningful content; may be little more than a dictionary definition.	Any editing or additional material can be helpful. The provision of meaningful content should be a priority.	Geodia gibberosa (as of July 2009)
FL	The article has attained featured list status. 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. (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. (b) In length and/or topic, it meets all of the requirements for stand-alone lists; 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. (b) Media files. It has images and other media, if appropriate to the topic, that follow Wikipedia's usage policies, with succinct captions. Non-free images and other media satisfy the criteria for the inclusion of non-free content and are labeled accordingly. 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.	Avatar: The Last Airbender (season 3) (as of February 2009)
List	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.	List of aikidoka (as of June 2007)

By importance

An article's importance assessment is generated from the importance parameter in the {{WikiProject National Register of Historic Places}} project banner on its talk page:

{{WikiProject National Register of Historic Places|importance=???}}

The following values may be used for the importance parameter to describe the relative importance of the article within the project:

Top (adds articles to Category:Top-importance National Register of Historic Places articles)		Top
High (adds articles to Category:High-importance National Register of Historic Places articles)		High
Mid (adds articles to Category:Mid-importance National Register of Historic Places articles)		Mid
Low (adds articles to Category:Low-importance National Register of Historic Places articles)		Low
Related (adds articles to Category:Related-importance National Register of Historic Places articles)		Related
NA (adds articles to Category:NA-importance National Register of Historic Places articles)		NA
??? (articles for which a valid importance rating has not yet been provided are listed in Category:Unknown-importance National Register of Historic Places articles		???

The importance parameter should be assigned according to the importance scale below.

Importance scale

Label	Criteria	Examples
Top	Articles about the NRHP itself Sites agreed at wt:NRHP to have truly exceptional importance Top level list-articles of NHLs, of NRHPs	National Register of Historic Places National Historic Preservation Act of 1966 State Historic Preservation Office National Park Service National Register of Historic Places listings in the United States
High	National Historic Landmarks NRHP-listed sites with NPS designations (NMON, NHS, etc.) Architectural styles reflected in 500 or more NRHPs Architects of 100 or more buildings on the NRHP Geography-organized NHL lists, and top NRHP list for each state A few exceptions to be discussed at wt:NRHP	Manzanar Greek Revival architecture Frank Lloyd Wright List of National Historic Landmarks in Alabama
Mid	Listed individually on the NRHP, plus other state or local significance. Click [show] for more information.  Most NRHP-listed sites are of low importance. However, as a rule of thumb, 10%-15% of sites in a state or region should be rated at higher importance. These sites could include: structures or locations associated with a particularly important local historical event structures or locations associated with a particularly well-known person or organization structures which are the best or most influential work by a well-known architect structures that are particularly representative of a certain architectural style structures or locations that possess some locally unique trait (for example, the oldest building in a large city) historic districts which include a number of individually significant structures structures or locations that are relatively well-known, whose articles are likely to be more widely read Nearly all of these sites should be rated mid-importance. However, a very few exceptional sites may merit a high-importance rating. Please propose these exceptions at the project talk page. Thematic Resources/MPS studies Architectural styles reflected in 50 or more NRHPs Architects with 50 or more buildings on the NRHP County/parish/city list-articles; other top-level list-articles	Atalaya Castle Herkimer Home State Historic Site Boundary Markers of the Original District of Columbia Land of the Cross-Tipped Churches Shingle Style architecture Albert Kahn National Register of Historic Places listings in North Side Chicago
Low	All other NRHP sites or districts Architects with 10 to 50 buildings on the NRHP List-articles subordinate to other NRHP articles List-articles covering specific types of properties Lists of NRHP listings inside another district, park, or entity other than a city, county, parish, or state	Los Angeles Plaza Historic District Ward Wellington Ward List of properties in Hartford City Courthouse Square Historic District List of bridges on the National Register of Historic Places in New York National Register of Historic Places in Yosemite National Park
Related	Contributing properties Delisted properties Broad lists of properties, many of which are on the NRHP Event articles that are significantly related to the history of NRHP listings	Soulé Steam Feed Works Kinzua Bridge List of plantations in the United States Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire (event at the Brown Building) Great Fire of 1910 (motivation of North Idaho 1910 Fire Sites TR)
NA	Non-article pages	Template:Infobox NRHP Category:National Register of Historic Places articles by importance