Does wikipedia count as one source or do i cite it for everything?

[platinumike]

Im writing a paper and ive used wiki to pull up info on a few different things and i quote wiki within my paper. Does wiki only count as one source or many sources?

 

[BigJ]

YOU DON'T USE WIKIPEDIA AS A SOURCE!

 

[AgaBoogaBoo]

Use it as a starting place... not your source of information.

 

[platinumike]

Originally posted by: BigJ
YOU DON'T USE WIKIPEDIA AS A SOURCE!

!!!! wait wait. please explain. Its not really too late, but im runin outa time here. Im thinkin ill just turn it in anyways

 

[Farang]

Wikipedia is not a source. Are you in high school?

 

[platinumike]

well i know wiki is edited by users, but it is an encyclopedia. What alternatives do i have? do i use encycopedia.com?

 

[FleshLight]

YOU USE THE SOURCES CITED IN WIKI

EDIT:

well i know wiki is edited by users, but it is an encyclopedia. What alternatives do i have? do i use encycopedia.com?

Nope. You can't cite encyclopedias. Just accept the guaranteed C and move on.

 

[platinumike]

Originally posted by: FleshLight
YOU USE THE SOURCES CITED IN WIKI

ok. imdb.com is one of thoose sources, is that a source?

 

[KarmaPolice]

You dont use wiki as a source ever. Wiki is a useful tool but you cant use it in a paper cause its not really necessarily correct. The thing that Wiki is good for are the sources at the bottom. Most of the time people have actually done their homework and have cited where they got their info from. Follow their path and then cite thos.

 

[Born2bwire]

Originally posted by: FleshLight
YOU USE THE SOURCES CITED IN WIKI

EDIT:

well i know wiki is edited by users, but it is an encyclopedia. What alternatives do i have? do i use encycopedia.com?

Nope. You can't cite encyclopedias. Just accept the guaranteed C and move on.

You can cite encyclopedias, but I wouldn't place wikipedia as one.

 

[tfinch2]

If something can be edited by anyone, it is not a reliable source.

 

[SacrosanctFiend]

Originally posted by: Born2bwire

Originally posted by: FleshLight
YOU USE THE SOURCES CITED IN WIKI

EDIT:

well i know wiki is edited by users, but it is an encyclopedia. What alternatives do i have? do i use encycopedia.com?

Nope. You can't cite encyclopedias. Just accept the guaranteed C and move on.

You can cite encyclopedias, but I wouldn't place wikipedia as one.

Since when? Every paper I wrote in college stated that encyclopedias were not countable as sources.

 

[Farang]

Originally posted by: Born2bwire

Originally posted by: FleshLight
YOU USE THE SOURCES CITED IN WIKI

EDIT:

well i know wiki is edited by users, but it is an encyclopedia. What alternatives do i have? do i use encycopedia.com?

Nope. You can't cite encyclopedias. Just accept the guaranteed C and move on.

You can cite encyclopedias, but I wouldn't place wikipedia as one.

Encyclopaedias are not scholarly sources. If you are in high school, in a lower level college course, or your professor is unfamiliar with source standards, then you may get away with citing them.

 

[ghostman]

As others have said, Wikipedia shouldn't be used as a source. Some schools don't allow it:

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/21/educa...93c4fa0&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss
http://abcnews.go.com/Business/wireStory?id=2871042

 

[Pepsi90919]

why don't you just edit the page and insert your own BS, then cite that page.

 

[KarmaPolice]

Originally posted by: SacrosanctFiend

Originally posted by: Born2bwire

Originally posted by: FleshLight
YOU USE THE SOURCES CITED IN WIKI

EDIT:

well i know wiki is edited by users, but it is an encyclopedia. What alternatives do i have? do i use encycopedia.com?

Nope. You can't cite encyclopedias. Just accept the guaranteed C and move on.

You can cite encyclopedias, but I wouldn't place wikipedia as one.

Since when? Every paper I wrote in college stated that encyclopedias were not countable as sources.

Hrmmm...I dunno. My teachers never really came out and said you couldn't use one but I never really tried.

 

[KillerCharlie]

Good grief... I hope you fail.

 

[Born2bwire]

Originally posted by: Farang

Originally posted by: Born2bwire

Originally posted by: FleshLight
YOU USE THE SOURCES CITED IN WIKI

EDIT:

well i know wiki is edited by users, but it is an encyclopedia. What alternatives do i have? do i use encycopedia.com?

Nope. You can't cite encyclopedias. Just accept the guaranteed C and move on.

You can cite encyclopedias, but I wouldn't place wikipedia as one.

Encyclopaedias are not scholarly sources. If you are in high school, in a lower level college course, or your professor is unfamiliar with source standards, then you may get away with citing them.

I've never cited them in college, but I don't seem to recall them being taboo in high school. Though back then encyclopedias were in printed form.

 

[maziwanka]

Originally posted by: KillerCharlie
Good grief... I hope you fail.

what an ass thing to say. you f-ing douchebag.

there were good responses in this thread OP. don't ever use wikipedia as a direct source. if you must, start there and check the sources it cites.

 

[Born2bwire]

Ha! I know why the idea that citing encyclopedias may be viable came to my mind. I just read a paper the other day published in IEEE APM by Dr. Robert Collin and he cited the Encyclopedia Britannica as one of his sources in talking about the general history of Hertzian dipoles over lossy half space. Though the edition that he cites is from 1902.

 

[RaynorWolfcastle]

Just to drive home the point others have been saying, Wikipedia isn't a valid source for a formal paper (it might be OK in some slightly less formal situations). Instead, look up Wikipedia's sources and cite them (preferably peer-reviewed documents).

 

[HombrePequeno]

Use the sources that Wiki cites. Unfortunately those sometimes point you to dead links. It can be a real bitch looking for another copy of their source.

 

[HN]

I don't know if this analogy really works but here goes:

Imagine wikipedia as a little self-contained search engine -- you put in a term, it brings up the most relevant article/page. that article has links to other related topics within in the article. You gather information, look at the other sources, find more information.

Now imagine if you did the same with let's say Google. You put in a term, it brings up results, you find sites/sources of which some you use directly for info and others lead you to even more sources.

When you're all done and ready to do your bibliography/references, you wouldn't list "Google", would you? That's just wrong and your teacher or prof. would probably dock you for that.

Same with Wikipedia.

 

[KnickNut3]

Wow, I haven't considered using a basic encyclopedia as a source (especially a publicly edited one) since about 8th grade.

Do people still take classes that require a certain number of sources?

 

[Jawo]

LexisNexis FTW!!!

You are not always going to find (enough) peer reviewed documents (especially when dealing with a current topic). You have to be able to analyze sources and determine the bias, the report that in the paper. I have written on controversial topics, and it is interesting to see different POVs. The biggest problem these days is the educational system is so set on teaching to the test, that students cannot determine bias in a source.