1. Early in schooling, I was told multiple times Wikipedia is not a reliable source to get information from. In high school, most of my English teachers reminded my classmates to not use Wikipedia because anyone can go on to Wikipedia to change information or write false information, so it was not a good source to use, especially on research papers. After reading Purdy’s essay I realized that even though Wikipedia cannot be used as a source, it can still be useful to students in many ways. I used to think Wikipedia was just a trap for students to fall into believing everything they read. But I learned that Wikipedia is a source where you can exchange knowledge.
2. One of the ways Wikipedia can be a useful tool to me as a student and other scholars is that it can help generate ideas and findings of other links and texts. This is a very interesting way of how Wikipedia can help make my research stronger, it is almost like a gateway to all known service to generating different points of views, angles, and different argumentative points. Another way Wikipedia can be a useful tool is by how it provides sources that can be related to the topic you are researching. In college, students need to have sources that are written by professionals and reliable articles that give them accurate information. Wikipedia can also give sources that might be reliable.
3. After reading about how Wikipedia works and the process guide of Wikipedia, I am surprised to say that I would consider it a community platform. That is because Wikipedia is a place where professionals or even just any individuals who do know about a topic, can write an article or their research, it’s open to anyone. I think that now Wikipedia should have policies and regulations to stop vandalism and prevent false information. I was not aware of the conversation taking place over every article edit, I rarely visit Wikipedia and I also didn’t know it contributes to revising and depend on each other to work to complete a task. I think it is interesting and fascinating because giving writers and authors the space to respond to other contributes and talk about why they made certain changes to me means that Wikipedia definitely is a community platform.
Hey Afiea,
Before reading this article I did not know that Wikipedia was like a community platform and that they were like a collaboration work. I agree with you that Wikipedia should have policies to stop the propagation of inaccurate information. Yet, we need to be aware of the sources we are using in our research as college students.
For me, this article was very helpful because now I have a better understanding of why Wikipedia is not a good source to cite and how can be used in a safe matter.