question about wikipedia?

Question

I'm doing a term paper for a community college class. I need 10 sources and two of them have to be books.

I used 2 "online encyclopedias" as my books. The ones I chose were

wikipedia
wacklepedia

I understand that they are sites where information is collected by internet users then proofread over to make sure its accurate. I'm doing my bibliography cards now and I need to put down something for either an author or an editor... can anyone help me?

Answer 1

below is the link in Wikipedia "how to cite Wikipedia"; having said that, you may get a ding for not using a book, so beware; usually a book means something that was published as a book. Online encyclopedias like Wikipedia are not accepted by many instructors AT ALL (see their disclaimer in the link) so you may want to find a source that is a published book, but is available onthe internet...good luck.

Answer 2

An online encyclopedia is not a book.

I don't know anything about "wacklepedia," but I do know that Wikipedia just doesn't cut it as a reference. Use it as a starting point. I say this because there is no vetting process to determine who is qualified to contribute. Anyone can write an article. Errors can remain for quite awhile before someone in the know even discovers the article or even bothers to register to edit the article.

One example of Wikipedia inaccuracies includes the erroneous report that "Bat," the name the of my city's bus system, stands for "Bangor Area Transit." "Bat" doesn't stand for anything.

If you read the entry on Wikipedia, you'll see that the entry starts out by claiming "Bat" stands for "Bangor Area Transit," then reports that "Bat" doesn't stand for anything, and then goes on to say people in Bangor call the "Bat" "Bangor Area Transit" (we don't).

Answer 3

Wikipedia can be considered peer-reviewed, which gives it some credit.

Since only two of your ten sources are online wiki's, I'd say it's okay. You could try to find the same information you gleaned from the wiki's in published sources like published encylcopedias and articles on JSTOR, and cite them instead if they contain all the info you used.