User:JamesMcMuffin

Biography

About Me

I'm a student, athlete and lover of nature. I am from the Pacific Northwest, and I plan to stay in the general area for the rest of my life. In my opinion, the hikes, scenery and vast opportunities for adventure are unmatched elsewhere. I grew up playing soccer every day. After many years, my interest in the sport began to fade for reasons I, myself, cannot explain. However, I recently took up the challenge to learn tennis and enjoy playing in my free time. Although modern tennis was designed in England, the concept originated in France where the sport was known as jeu de paume.

My Wikipedia Interests

I am a fairly new volunteer here on Wikipedia. Personally, I find Wikipedia an intriguing, innovative platform because people from around the globe have access to edit articles and discover new information on a daily basis. I plan to contribute to articles about animals and sports as well as significant historical and current events.

Article Evaluation

Introduction

Personally, I have always found Alaska to be an intriguing state. To me, it is somewhat “mysterious”, as it is geographically isolated from the 48 states that comprise mainland United States. Although I have never visited, I have heard that Alaska has beautiful scenery- which piques my interest as a lover of nature and exploration. In order to specify my research, I narrowed the results down to a specific region of the state. I visited the Southeast Alaska article on Wikipedia, and found three aspects of it worth commenting on: citations, age, and structure.

Citations

This particular article has many facts about the region, as it should. However, there are only ten citations. To provide an example, one fact provided (that is not cited) states: “Southeast Alaska is also the only region in Alaska where the average daytime high temperature is above freezing during the winter months…”. While there are some citations scattered throughout, two of the links are dead and many claims are not supported. That said, this article lacks verifiability.

Age

Moreover, the last update to the article was on August 9, 2022. Even though this is fairly recent, the most recent (cited) piece of information was from a 2020 population census of major cities and towns in Southeast Alaska. In addition to this, data from a 2010 census remains under the “Demographics” section of the article, which can be misleading as it is likely that the population of Southeast Alaska has changed within 12 years. As for the references list, many of the sources are outdated with the years ranging from 2011-2020.

Structure/Completeness

Lastly, the overall structure of the article is adequate. Information about basic aspects of the region is included, such as: geography, demographics, culture, climate and economy. It is important to note that the “Culture” portion of the article is too brief, with only two sentences. However, the other sections (including a few not listed above) are relevant to the topic and hold enough information to be considered a decent amount of insight.

Conclusion

Although this article includes many facts about Southeast Alaska, most claims are drawn from outdated sources or not cited at all. The structure and composition of the page provide essential facts about different aspects of Southeast Alaska in an organized manner. Despite this, much of the information in this particular article is essentially insignificant as it is outdated and lacks verifiability on many occasions.