Wikipedia

Using or citing Wikipedia has become a question in controversy in academic writings. Wikipedia has become one of most popular encyclopedias on the internet since it was put into the internet (Martin, 2008). Nowadays, Wikipedia is one of biggest encyclopedias on the internet, and familiar to many internet users as a source of wisdom easy to learn. However, because of overuse of Wikipedia, some schools decided to forbid using or citing Wikipedia in academic writings. It is a controversy, because Wikipedia helps students to get correct information, and common knowledge. There are three arguments that support forbidding using or citing Wikipedia, which are abuse of it, its untrustworthiness, and its interfering with another encyclopedias.

First, Wikipedia is connected to school cheating. Some students quote these words from Wikipedia without reference. The same things happen in my university too. I used to taken an English/ French history class, and we had to hand in a paper for English/ French history of about five pages in our own words. However, three or four students copied English/ French history backgrounds from Wikipedia. We are going school for learning, not getting good scores in the exams.

Second, Wikipedia is untrustworthy as a web encyclopedia. Wikipedia has a big difference with some other encyclopedias; that is, everyone can put words into and edit it. “Wikipedia is an encyclopedia compiled by the voluntary contributions of hundreds of writers and editors. Anyone can write an article and post it to Wikipedia; anyone else come along later and edit the article. It’s a kind of open, voluntary, work in progress. As such, it’s the most up-to-date encyclopedia you’ll find” (Lengel, 2007, para. 6). Therefore, if wrong information on the website, it makes many people to misunderstands.

Last, Wikipedia is a free access encyclopedia; therefore, it interfering with other reliable cost encyclopedias. Wikipedia has become popular because it’s free; everyone can access it and get some information, but it invades other encyclopedia; even though their information is uncertain. It is the most important fact that schools want to forbid using or citing Wikipedia.

In conclusion, schools should prohibit using or citing Wikipedia in academic writings because of its abuse, untrustworthiness, and it’s obstructing another encyclopedias. Wikipedia is famous as easy to get wisdom but also famous for its role in school cheating. Also, students overuse Wikipedia without making sure the information is correct. Furthermore, Wikipedia, which is untrustworthy as a free encyclopedia, disturbs other credible cost encyclopedias on the web. Schools can’t prohibit students from looking at Wikipedia to get information, but they should ban using or citing Wikipedia in academic writing.

Lengel, J. (2007, February 2). Teaching with Technology. Retrieved on April 23, 2008, from http://www.powertolearn.com/articles/teaching_with_technology/article.shtml?ID=12

Martin, N. (2008, January 21). Wikipedia clamps down on ‘unreliable’ editors, Telegraph.co.uk. Retrieved on April 23, 2008, from http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/09/20/wiki20.xml