How to Use Wikipedia

screenshot of wikipedia page

Since middle school, you’ve probably heard teaches say “Don’t Use Wikipedia.”  This is not without merit.  As an encyclopedia that anyone can edit, Wikipedia is not the most reliable scholarly source, as it is subject to trolls and misinformed individuals. Then again, as an encyclopedia that anyone can edit, Wikipedia does have access to more fact-checkers than many presidential candidates.

Wikipedia is most helpful in giving you a basic overview of information that you know almost nothing about.  Let’s say you are assigned to write a paper on George Washington and you know nothing about him.  Wikipedia isn’t a bad starting place.  You’ll get a basic overview of his early life, the wars he was involved him, and his presidency.  Not bad!

Any paper that you write should have a variety of sources. Your paper shouldn’t consist of you paraphrasing a Wikipedia page, but it also shouldn’t consist of you paraphrasing any singular scholarly source. Once you have a basic overview of information you can decide what parts of George Washington’s life you want to focus on or where you want to go into better detail.

Wikipedia can help you find sources, too.  Wikipedia has a references section where it cites (almost) every statement that it makes, giving you a reliable source from which it came. These sources you can use. You shouldn’t have any facts in your paper that only come from Wikipedia; they should all be backed up by a more reliable source, so it is fortunate that Wikipedia helps provide such sources.

This does not mean that you should rely entirely on Wikipedia for facts or for sources.  You should still do research of your own.  Google scholar can help with this, as can your school’s library.

However, if you use it correctly, Wikipedia can be a valuable tool in providing information about subjects that you know very little about, and helping to direct you to sources you can use for your papers.