I found this article kind of funny. It just goes to show that Wikipedia really shouldn't be a trusted source for information. Sure, a good amount of the facts are credited legitimately....but according to this news article one of the top Wikipedia contributors who was believed to be a college professor turned out to be a 24 year old college dropout.
You can read the article here.
I love how he got this far without being found out. I know I won't be using Wikipedia for papers anytime soon.
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What's interesting to me about this article Sean is that it does not claim that this individual offered any incorrect information. Just b/c he doesn't have a PhD doesn't that he isn't brilliant or well-educated. Similarly a PhD is not exactly evidence of brilliance either. I assure you of that fact!
That said, I agree you shouldn't be citing Wikipedia or any other encyclopedia! Not b/c they are inaccurate but b/c they can only provide superficial information.
Any source can be inaccurate. It would be foolish to trust any single source. That's why good sources have extensive citations that demonstrate how their claims connect with the claims of others. And you should still draw on multiple sources when doing research.
We don't ask you to do this to keep you busy! We ask you to do it b/c trusting a single source, wikipedia or not, is unwise.
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