Using Wikipedia for Academic Research

While I was attending CMU for my undergrad, it was definitely common to hear professors throughout the classrooms in Anspach, Dow, and Ronan buildings telling their students not to use Wikipedia for any assignments. Back then, I had to agree. Who would cite and/or use so-called "information" found on a website that can be uploaded and edited by anyone with a DSL or phone-line modem connection???

While today I still do not believe a student should use Wikipedia as a source in any academic work, I have grown to like Wikipedia as a 'starting point' for research. As the video (found below) for this week also points out, Wikipedia can be used as a starting point for academic research if you know a few tricks on HOW to use it properly.

Trick Number One: Developing a Research Plan

Using Wikipedia as a starting point, feel free to see how Wikipedia breaks down the subject/topic by looking at how the information is organized. How does the wiki go over the people, events, and the concepts of the subject? This can be a great start to building your outline for your research.

Trick Number Two: Finding References

Although you may not want to cite the Wikipedia page directly, you can look over the references the Wikipedia page cites for itself and judge for yourself the quality and reliability of the source used. References are located at the bottom of the Wikipedia page and there is usually a footnote within the main content of the page that will direct you to its source.

Trick Number Three: Forming Search Queries

By reading through the Wikipedia page on the subject/topic you are researching, you may find some key words that will aid you in your own research. As the author of the video suggests, you can use a new keyword found on Wikipedia and plug it into your college library search engine. This may lead to different scholarly articles that you may have not come across if you had not used the key word you found on Wikipedia. Personally, I have not thought of this idea and am glad I came across it myself!

Here is the video that was presented on Blackboard and was used as the basis for this blog post.

References:
- bcveen's channel. "Using Wikipedia for Academic Research." Online Video Clip. YouTube. July 22, 2008. Retrieved on July 22, 2014.