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Wikipedia is a free online encyclopedia that anyone can edit. The name comes from the Hawaiian word "wiki," meaning fast, and "encyclopedia," so it means "fast encyclopedia." It's one of the most popular websites in the world, ranking 13th globally. Many students use it for their assignments, but most teachers, tutors, and librarians warn that you should be careful when using Wikipedia.
Wikipedia is good
Wikipedia is good
Wikipedia has many strengths, which is why it's so popular. Its goal is to make information widely available, and it's been successful at that. It's always up-to-date, with pages that can be created or updated quickly, making it great for current events, sports, pop culture, and other fast-changing topics. Wikipedia also offers a lot of information, and everything is openly licensed, so you can use text and images without needing permission. Studies show that Wikipedia is just as accurate as traditional sources like Encyclopedia Britannica.
Wikipedia is bad
Wikipedia is bad
Wikipedia is an internet site that anyone can edit, meaning anyone, even if they're not an expert. While it has many volunteers working on it, most of them are amateurs. This means there's nothing stopping someone who knows little about a topic from editing a page on any random thing. While mistakes are often corrected, you can't always trust that the information is accurate. Wikipedia also has some problems with diversity and representation of all topics equally .Â
Wikipedia is not a good reference source
Wikipedia is not a good reference source
Wikipedia is a useful site, and the internet is better because of it, but it shouldn't be used for college assignments. There's no guarantee that the information is accurate. While mistakes do get fixed, it can take hours, days, or even longer for errors to be corrected.
"The Brazilian Aardvark"
"The Brazilian Aardvark"
In 2008, a 17-year-old American student edited the Wikipedia page for the coati, a South American mammal, claiming it was sometimes called the "Brazilian aardvark." Before the student admitted to making it up, this false "fact" spread to hundreds of websites, news articles, and even a book published by the University of Chicago. It was hard to remove from Wikipedia because the claim was supported by other websites, newspapers, and the book, creating a problem called circular referencing. This happens when one source cites a "fact" from another source, but that second source also cites the first one. As a result, there's no way to independently verify the information because the sources just keep repeating each other.
"I never said that" - Maurice Jarre
"I never said that" - Maurice Jarre
In 2009, an Irish student added a fake quote to the Wikipedia page for French composer Maurice Jarre just hours after his death. The quote was nice, so it quickly spread to websites and newspapers. Even after it was identified as fake and removed from Wikipedia, it stayed on many obituaries for Jarre, including one on the Internet Movie Database (IMDb), where it remained for over 10 years. The quote is still listed on some websites (as of May 2023).
The student later said, "I am 100 percent convinced that if I hadn't come forward, that quote would have gone down in history as something Maurice Jarre said, instead of something I made up."
This shows that even experienced researchers and journalists can be tricked by Wikipedia. If it can happen to them, it can happen to anyone!
How to use Wikipedia
How to use Wikipedia
Do's
Do's
Proceed with caution - remember, anyone could have written the article.
Ignore anything that does not have a source outside of Wikipedia
Check all sources of information used by a Wikipedia article - where did they get their information?
Think of Wikipedia as a starting point - look at the references for an article and read them - they might lead you to better resources
Look at the table of contents and headings in pages - they might give you an idea of terminology and words associated with your topic that you can use to search ore reliable sources
Don'ts
Don'ts
Don't believe anything you read on it unless you can verify the information elsewhere
Don't rely on Wikipedia as your only source of information
Don't cite Wikipedia articles in assignments
Don't assume that a Wikipedia article is free from bias, opinion or has been fact-checked
Credit: https://www.etbi.ie/
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