Wikipedia Blog Post

One of the most popular go-to sites on the web to find any type of basic information is Wikipedia. Everyone has probably jumped on the site even briefly, whether it was to get a quick foundational knowledge of a specific subject before starting a research project, to find some extra references, or even just to prove a point at the dinner table. But as useful and easy as Wikipedia is, we have to be cautious with how we use it. As it is ok to get some basic knowledge on a subject before starting a project, one should never reference Wikipedia in any type of report or academic paper. Even though I knew that Wikipedia was not completely reliable I was still amazed to hear that only 1% of articles provide enough information to be considered at level of an encyclopedia! Although most people are aware, I was also completely shocked when we were told how easy it is for anyone to make edits on Wikipedia. Anyone with a computer can make an account and edit whatever they please without having any qualifications or anything! On the plus side, there are users constantly patrolling the site and immediately checking any changes made to a page.

Laura talked about how difficult it was to limit herself to 300-600 words in her blog post, http://lmcsporran.blogspot.ca/ as she had so much information that she wanted to add to her stub. I, on the other hand, actually struggled slightly trying to find enough information to add as there was already a significant amount of information present on a very small topic. I actually had to pick a new stub about halfway through the week because my first stub, Chronic Insulin Treatment: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chronic_Insulin_treatment did not have enough information on the topic to add at least 300 words. It was unfortunate because I had found out some really interesting information and was really enjoying researching the topic.

One thing I never thought to use Wikipedia for is to find more references on a specific subject. This could be extremely helpful when doing a research paper in which many citations are needed. Often, many of the pages have a long list of references at the bottom, some of which even contain the link right to the page. The majority of the references are peer-reviewed or reliable sites, made by qualified individuals in that area, making them great references to use for that research paper!

Also, you can use a Wikipedia page to help you find something you don't know the exact name of. For example, if you're looking for a specific type of nutrient, you can search “nutrient” in Wikipedia and on that page you can find hyperlinks to all the different nutrients so not only can you find the name but you can also find the link right to the page.

Ohhh, the possibilities of Wikipedia!

Check out the stub on CHILD Syndrome that I edited: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CHILD_syndrome