Yesterday at the foster clinic there was a woman with a litter of tiny, tiny kittens, one of whom was a beautiful orange and white creamsicle. I told her, “I love orange boy cats, they are all so stupid.” and the foster mom said to me, with tears of love in her eyes, face glowing with maternal pride, “He is only 6 days old and I can already tell that he’s going to be so stupid!”
Teachers: Wikipedia is very unreliable *Hands out 25 year old textbooks instead*
Alrighty guys ,gals, and other genders and lack thereof I’m gonna teach ya a thing.
A lot of teachers will go on about not using wikipedia as a source.
“It’s bad,” they say. “I will deduct points if you do it.”
Well wikipedia is actually a great source of information and fuck what your teacher said, you absolutely can use it.
The key though is knowing
A.How to use it.
B. How to source it.
and
C. whether it is good info or trash.
NowFirst Lets look up something on wikipedia. Say your writing a paper on Gregor Mendel and Mendelian Inheritance.
So you zoom over to the Wikipedia page on Mendelian Inheritance.
Now there is a lot of information here. Not all of it is strictly necessary for that essay you are writing. So you read through and suddenly you see something that is good info for your essay.
Boy oh boy this information is useful. To bad your teacher said No Wikipedia Ever.
However there is a loophole.
It’s right there.
No. Go closer.
You see that little four? Its a citation number. Think of wikipedia as it’s own essay. It got it’s information from other sources out there. Just like you are trying to right now. And since there is a citation, it’s going to be listed at the end of the wikipedia article.
Look at citation number 4
Look at that you have your first citation. From Wikipedia.
And look. Do you see it. There is a link. It’s the blue words with the boxy arrow thingamajig.
That thing. Click it.
Why did you leave wikipedia you ask? Wikipedia is great. You have several sources from there. But There is more than what the put in to that wiki article. Those sources Wikipedia gave you are helpful. And now that you are at the source, you can utilize it.
But what if its a book that’s the source.
You can either head to your local library and see if they have it, order it, or avoid the book source. Online sources are just as valuable.
Also do not quote directly from the wikipedia. Quote from the source and then use quote citation.
And MLA citation. Use MLA citation. Since you are linked to the sources cite them. Not the wikipedia.
Your teacher will never know. And now you can finish that sweet essay you got planned.
You’re on your way to greatness.
For anybody not aware you can abuse the absolute fuck out of Wikipedia for any papers!
I’m an academic librarian and I 100% endorse this post
I am also an academic librarian and I 100% endorse this post. CITATIONS are important.
the whole mutual thing is really overhyped on this site. sometimes interests don’t match up and that’s the only reason why there isn’t a mutual following. if you’re a regular in my inbox or my notifications, i have visited your blog before. if i didn’t want you around for any reason, you would be blocked. so yeah. you can spam my notes and/or talk with me (and possibly become my friend) even if i’m not following you back. no worries.
i wish i can just read good novels, watch great movies, listen to my favorite songs, travel, see beautiful things, eat whenever im hungry and sleep when im tired but no no, i have to go to school, graduate, find a job and struggle.
listen I don’t “like” things, I either read a book/watch a show and forget 0.2 secs later or change my entire lifestyle based on what it was until I find something new
