Students should avoid citing Wikipedia in papers because it lacks credibility.
However, Wikipedia is a valuable tool in the beginning stages of research. Where do web-savvy people go when they need basic information about almost anything, and rather find the best essay writing service for their paper research?
Why, Wikipedia, of course, is a free online encyclopedia with over three million entries. With such a great online resource available to college students everywhere, does this mean that professors are excited about having students use Wikipedia for their research papers?
Well, no. Many academics have some serious concerns about the use of Wikipedia in research papers. This doesn’t mean this massive resource cannot be used at all by college students, but it does mean they need to know how to use this resource properly in an academic setting.
Wikipedia, Credibility Issues, and Laziness: How Not to Use Wikipedia
Generally, it is rarely a good idea to cite a Wikipedia page in a college research paper. Why not?
Inaccurate Information: The main reason why students should not cite Wikipedia in research papers is that the material on the site lacks credibility. In other words, there’s no guarantee or reasonable estimation that the information on Wikipedia is accurate.
Does this mean Wikipedia is full of inaccurate information? Not necessarily. Much of the content of Wikipedia is written by experts, and in all likelihood, most of the material on Wikipedia is perfectly accurate. However, Wikipedia pages can be edited by anyone.
This means that inaccurate information can make its way onto Wikipedia, either because an editor is malicious or simply misinformed.
Taint of Laziness: The other reason why students should not cite Wikipedia in a research paper is that most professors consider this to be extremely lazy. They may or may not be correct, but regardless, making a good impression on a professor is an important part of getting a good grade, so citing Wikipedia is a bad idea.
Back when students used paper encyclopedias (remember those?), it was considered lazy to cite these in papers as well, and the ability to cut-and-paste information from Wikipedia gives these kinds of citations an even more severe taint of laziness.
Professors want to see students display real research skills that involve going to the library and learning how to hunt down information.
One last note on the subject of how not to use Wikipedia: never plagiarize from Wikipedia. Not that plagiarism is ever a smart idea, but cutting and pasting information from such an easy-to-find source is monumentally stupid.
Professors who suspect a paper contains plagiarized information need only to plug some phrases into a Google search, and Wikipedia pages will probably be the first ones to pop up.
How to Use Wikipedia in a Research Paper
Problems aside, Wikipedia is a fantastic source of information for college students. While using Wikipedia as a source is a bad idea, there are better ways to use Wikipedia that are quite beneficial.
Gather Information: First, Wikipedia is a great place to go to start gathering information before looking at other sources. Not only are Wikipedia pages full of information, but they also link to dozens of other pages filled with related information.
Reading through these related sets of pages is a great way to gain familiarity with a topic, and will make writing a paper easier. To get a strong overview of a topic, it’s also useful to look at how topics are outlined on Wikipedia pages.
Concerning this, searching through Wikipedia is a great way to get topic ideas for just about any kind of research paper or ask for help from pro essay writers as an option for students. By starting at one page that looks like a possible topic, students can then link to other pages with related information and find different and related ideas.
Use Bibliography for Your Advantage: Another great way to use Wikipedia is to take advantage of the bibliography of sources at the end of most articles. Many or most of these will be credible sources that actually can be used in a research paper.
In addition, Wikipedia can be very helpful any time that a student encounters a term, name, or another bit of information that’s unfamiliar. Before Wikipedia, students were urged to look up strange terms from the readings or lectures in the dictionary.
Now that detailed information can be obtained quickly on Wikipedia, dictionaries no longer seem as valuable.
Wrapping Up
It’s important to use Wikipedia as a starting point for research instead of as a crutch and to avoid citing Wikipedia directly because of issues of credibility and perceived laziness.
However, this doesn’t mean the site has no value for college students. Wikipedia is an outstanding resource that students of years past could not even imagine, and students should take advantage of the information on this site.