Tuesday, August 11, 2009

Wikipedia

Safa Suleiman sent me the following question:

I'm curious to know how my colleagues in the affiliate faculty feel
about Wikipedia. Since anyone can contribute to the articles the
chance of inaccuracies is high. Would you mind posting a question
asking if faculty ban or discourage the use of Wikipedia as a source
for papers, essays, etc?

This is an excellent question. I only allow it as a starting point for research. Anybody else?

2 comments:

Elizabeth Clark said...

I sometimes even use Wikipedia myself as a starting point for research--especially for popular or technological topics because it often has links to sites that are credible.

However, I do NOT allow students to use Wikipedia as a source for their research papers.

Elizabeth Clark
Affiliate Faculty
English Department

Prof. Jenn said...

I teach at DU as well, and it's never considered a "legit" source.

I like to call it a "springboard" fo research. But until they get it more peer reviewed, it just can't be worthy of school paper research.

Jenn Zuko Boughn
Affiliate, English / Theatre