Do you use Wikipedia?

[Jaylock]

Do you, or have you ever used Wikipedia to look up information or to use for a research project / paper?

Do teachers now allow people to use it as a credible source?

[Deleted]

Wikipedia is fine as long as you do not use it as an actual source, use the sources that wikipedia links instead.

[Rukentuts]

Do you, or have you ever used Wikipedia to look up information or to use for a research project / paper?

Do teachers now allow people to use it as a credible source?

Yes. Just give the date you accessed it and often just jump to the sources the Wiki article cites directly.

[Tzalix]

Yes, as long as you check the sources on the page, as you should check the sources no matter what site you get your facts from, I don't see the problem.

[Endus]

Wikipedia is a really solid introductory secondary source.

That said, if you're doing any kind of research at all past the high school level (and arguably even the later years there, if you're academically-focused), you shouldn't be citing secondary sources very often. You should be aiming for primary sources where possible, and using secondary sources for the arguments presented therein (something Wikipedia avoids engaging in, as they're trying to be informative, not make an argument).

Basically, you cite it under the same circumstances you'd cite an encyclopedia. If you're writing a paper for college, that is "never". Because it's assumed everyone knows that stuff already, not because it isn't a reputable source.

And if you want a shortcut to jump-start a research paper, Wikipedia is a great source for sources. A lot of their references are books or journal articles, which while they may not be available online, should be available in your academic library.

[Deleted]

My teachers told me not to use Wikipedia. Well, fuck them, they were born in the 60s and are unable to load up a simple video. As long as you use the sources provided, all is fine and good...

[Romeo83x]

Just use the sources at the bottom of each Wikipedia page.

[Tradewind]

I used it in college lol...but that was also a technical college and the classes I needed to actually write papers for were completely fucking useless so I am pretty sure they didn't give a shit.

[Kamiyomi]

Nowadays, Wikipedia is a very credible source. The main site requires verification on changes by experts. Many teachers now don't want us to use Wiki because it makes things too easy. It devalues the research aspect, which does need to be taught.

[MasterHamster]

Wikipedia is not a source. And by now anyone intelligent enough to write an essay should know that they must refer to the sources, not the wiki page.

[Tokru]

It's great to get started or for the general information about a subject. I would never cite it though.

When you just need to know what a specific term means there is nothing better than Wikipedia. For instance I often need short informations about historical sites. Where they are exactly, maybe a plan, or who discovered something there. You would have a hard time finding that information in such condensed form like on Wikipedia in a real library in such a short time with only one action. You would likely have to look into multiple dictionaries.

[Anetulan]

My one collage professed didn't mind if we used it as a source, as long as it wasn't the only one. It's a good place to start at least, learn what you can from it, use the sources it provides, and don't base your claims solely off it.

[Veyne]

Studies have shown that on math and science related topics, Wikipedia is just as accurate as Encyclopedia Britannica, with essentially the same margin of error.

It'll be a long time before it's acceptable as a valid source. The biggest thing with wikipedia is that it's usually a tertiary source. The sources cited for wikipedia article are usually secondary sources. Most research-based assignments in school/college typically want secondary sources at the least, and often prefer primary sources. But Wikipedia really has come a very VERY long way since its early days.

[Pitkanen]

The purpose of some projects is to teach you how to research topics. Using Wikipedia is like asking your phone to get you to an address via gps-mode, when the point of traveling somewhere was to learn to use a compass and map.

It's a good start though, getting a general overview of a topic helps you learn the topic since it gives your mind a framework on which to lay down the details from the more in-depth sources.

[Deleted]

Wikipedia is fine as long as you do not use it as an actual source, use the sources that wikipedia links instead.

Precisely. It is a great finder of reliable sources, both from sites and books.

[Underverse]

Wiki is great for pulling together a lot of sources. It doesn't create information. It just makes it look pretty. Fortunately, all of the sources are right there on the page.

[shadowmouse]

they were born in the 60s and are unable to load up a simple video.

Yep, and I missed being born in the 50s by a couple of months. Don't get your diapers in a bunch, I can handle video too and I've noticed that somewhere along the way I stopped having to put the telephone handset into the modem.

The biggest potential problem with Wiki is that it can be edited to slant the information presented; however, it is often assumed to be a neutral, factual source. Although Wiki does try to address the problem, things sometimes slip through.

Endus also gave a solid chunk of advice on secondary sources in general. College should be helping you learn to form opinions from data. Sometimes we are less successful than we would hope, but just regurgitating whatever gets passed around the Internet (hopefully without copy pasta) makes that even less likely.

What most students forget, in the arcane rituals of citation, is that there is a practical reason for it. You may, someday, go on to be the expert that people cite. You aren't there yet. Showing your reader that you have solid sources helps bridge that gap. Look at what happens here, somebody posts something and if the source is weak or controversial, it can become a target. That's life -- APA, MLA, Chicago, those are just rules for consistency.

[Orcindauh]

I use Wikipedia whenever I hear someone mention something(or someone) and I have no idea wtf they're talking about. Wikipedia gives me a small idea what they were referring to.

[Flame6]

Only to find a great base of source links. Once I did a research paper on alien abductions and couldn't use it or any of the sources because it was all very unreliable.

P.S.

I love to use Wikipedia to find information about media. It's a great way to quickly check if your favorite show will be returning for more seasons or was cancelled due to the death of an actor.

It's also a great way to look up an author's bibliography. True these aren't 100% but it's still a decent place to find someone random info quickly.

[Tziva]

I wouldn't ever cite it for an academic paper. I might pull source ideas from it, though.

But as far as use it because "shit, what is the capital of Jordan again?" Sure, all the time.