What’s wrong with Wikipedia? October 10, 2007
Posted by jhicks in : Citation & bibliography , trackbackWriting papers in college means a lot of resources. Despite the wonderful world wide web, online library catalogues and interlibrary loan, it can still be difficult to find the information you need. The best thing to do is to find a resource librarian. The most tempting, but definitely most illegitmate thing to do is to cite Wikipedia.
“But it’s Wikipedia dot ORG.”
This explanation is delivered over and over again at the Writing Center. Teachers have told us that websites ending with .org or .edu are more likely to be reliable resources. This does not change the fact that Wikipedia is an open-source encyclopedia. Anybody can post anything, generating a great danger of misinformation. Wikipedia may have a plethora of information on your paper topic, but the process by which the articles are assembled is not appropriate for academic use. Look up Wikipedia’s page on “Wikipedia,” and you will find reports of controversy and lack of academic credibility.
Keep Wikipedia out of your citations and bibliography, but…
Wikipedia can be a useful starting point. Because it is open-source, reading an article can give a general idea to culture’s current perspectives on many topics. Some articles within Wikipedia are highly developed, and provide legitimate citations. After checking their credibility, you can use these citations to find reliable, academic resources for your paper.
As always, good luck and good writing. Look for our Blue Light and drop by the Writing Center for all your writing needs.
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