User:Salmonsister7

I am a Running Start student in the Pacific Northwest. I plan to major in illustration, and enjoy experimenting with different sketching and drawing styles. Besides drawing, I also love hiking through the Pacific Northwest. The countless evergreen trees, towering mountains, and constant rain are some things I don't think I could live without. However, just like countless other college students, I love my Spotify playlists and a good Netflix binge. A couple of my favorite bands are Bastille and Kodaline, and it would not be uncommon to catch me watching The Office or The Great British Baking Show on a Friday night.

I have never had a real interest in Wikipedia before, but after learning about it in my English 101 class, I have started to find this online encyclopedia quite interesting. Since Wikipedia was rarely given a good reputation in classes I've had in the past, I never thought about or realized how much real effort was put into it. Now I can begin to admire the steps that people have taken to make Wikipedia a reliable source of information for anyone to use. I hope to expand my knowledge on navigating Wikipedia and learn how to improve it myself throughout this quarter.

Article Review

I recently discovered the musical artist Maggie Rogers and began to research her background.  After poking around her page on Wikipedia, I realized that there was an article specifically about her very first single, "Alaska."  Unfortunately, the article was riddled with notable flaws. I visited the Alaska (Maggie Rogers song) article on Wikipedia and found three aspects of it worth commenting on: its lack of citation, its lack of information in the opening, and its extreme content of plagiarism.

Missing Citation

The first flaw I noticed in this article was the lack of a citation after an important sentence in the introduction.  The sentence states that after a video of Pharrell Williams' reaction to listening to "Alaska" was put on the internet, Rogers’ song went viral; however, there is no citation to direct me to where the information is from, or where I can efficiently access the video.  I searched the video on YouTube and found it easily, but the sentence needs a proper citation.

Poor Introduction

Another problem I came across in the article is that although the introduction is decent, it is lacking basic information.  For instance, it fails to state that "Alaska" is Rogers’ first single.  It also does not give background on why Pharrell Williams visited Rogers’ school, or what school Rogers was attending at the time.  The introduction manages to give a basic overview of the song but leaves me rather unsatisfied.

Plagiarism

The most overwhelming flaw found in this article is plagiarism.  In fact, the entire “Background” section of the article is plagiarized.  Instead of rewording the information they found, the last editor simply copied and pasted an entire paragraph onto the Wikipedia article, complete with quotation marks and a citation.  Besides the “Background” section of the article, there is also plagiarism riddled through both the “Critical reception” and “Music video” sections. Unfortunately, the content of plagiarism in this article is larger than its content of reliable information.

Summary

Overall, I would rate this article as “okay.”  The information provided is adequate, but most of it is presented in an inappropriate way according to Wikipedia's standards.  If certain citations were added, and if the article’s plagiarism was erased and reworded, Alaska (Maggie Rogers song) would be much closer to becoming a reliable Wikipedia article.  Although it does provide the reader with decent information, the article is missing vital characteristics which would make it a more successful and reliable source.

(sidenote: As part of this assignment, I reworded the last sentence of the article's introduction and added a citation.)