Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Reliable Reference?

In all reality Wikipedia is not 100% ACCURATE. The creators of Wikipedia despite assumptions are the first to admit that not every entry is going to be fully accurate. This is why using Wikipedia as a cited source for information is considered unacceptable on research papers depending on the teacher or professor. There are ways to determine whether or not the sited source is accurate or not.
1. Look to see if the article sites more than one source, and that the text of the definition is properly balanced.
2. Reinforce the articles main points
3. While using Wikipedia as a source for research papers you should research what the author has "supposedly" researched already.
4. See if the contributors who are giving their personal opinions are confident and experts
5. Use Wikipedia as a second source of reference but never the first.
Entries are not always completed they are sometimes paused right in the middle of the sentence and never gotten back to for completion. The key points the contributors engage in might not always be the main focus points. This causes confusion or lack of better reasoning. Without knowing that the information placed in front of you is completely accurate it causes you to second guess yourself. You also may not get the complete grade or satisfaction that you deserved based off of false or uncompleted sources. 

Wikipedia often fails to cite where they got their original resources, but if you research the research you might find what your looking for. I would rather get information from a resourceful website from the beginning and bypass the complication of checking to see if someone else mistakes are corrected.

1 comment:

  1. How does this relate to the reading, or editing assignment?

    ReplyDelete