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Why do most college students use Wikipedia when doing research?

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Reading the paper in your question reminded me strongly of another paper I read which was related to Wikipedia.

In "Toward an Epistemology of Wikipedia" (< http://dlist.sir.arizona.edu/2400/ >), Don Fallis argues that Wikipedia's epistemic flaws (e.g. potential unreliability) are outweighed by its epistemic virtues. In particular, Fallis mentions "power, speed, and fecundity" as epistemic virtues of Wikipedia. "Power, speed, and fecundity" are respectively described as "how much knowledge can be acquired[, …] how fast that knowledge can be acquired, and how many people can acquire that knowledge" (emphases omitted).

It occurs to me that, for college students, these epistemic virtues are probably more immediately *useful* than reliability (I'm not making a case for unreliability, however). This seems to be reflected in the input of students which was given in the article you cite in your question (< http://www.projectinfolit.org/pdfs/PIL_P... >): for example, one student suggests that she "spend[s] so much more time on researching, just trying to find information than [she ever uses] on writing the paper", a frustration that suggests that speed is a concern for her.

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Thoughtful consideration of some of the issues raised by the question.
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  • Owner of MyWikiBiz answered 6 years ago
    Fred, I will surely expand on my answer, if your quest proves legitimate. But, for now, may I ask you to elaborate (you may update your question details) -- do you know the difference between "presearch" and "research" in a college setting, as described in the PDF link that you provided above?

    Furthermore, do you understand the difference between "everyday life research" and "course-related research", as also described in the PDF report?

    What would you say about the type of collegiate-level thinking that transmits "now I’ve got some citations and stuff" as one of the benefits of launching presearch at Wikipedia (also, per your PDF file)? Why was one student "embarrassed to say" they use Wikipedia? Why did another mention "public humiliation in class" if discovered to have used Wikipedia for course-related research?

    What do you think about (n=86)? How were the discussion groups recruited? Do you think that the most accomplished and advanced students took time away from their academic pursuits to participate in the study? Why was the data collection limited to those in humanities and social sciences? Why were even summary data about the "information literacy competency" of each of the participants withheld? Sixteen percent of the sample was from what we'd call an "elite" institution. Do you wonder about how their responses might differ from those, say, at a community college? Did the use of a $15 iTunes card skew the sample? Are “refer a friend” incentives an unbiased means of recruiting study participants? Why were 70% of the participants female?

    Lastly, do you feel qualitative data can and should be projected to larger, universal populations?

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  • Chaille L answered 6 years ago
    Well, why not?

    The content in Wikipedia, though not that accurate, is informative, and good as a starting point. College students tend to have little time, so they should go there first to get a basic information about the material they're looking for.

    I personally would not rely on a reference that could be edited by anyone else freely. Wikipedia is good as a starting point, but using it as a whole reference... a big no.
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  • Ulo B. Ject answered 6 years ago
    It's because wikipedia has become the most reliable source of information and most of the time wikipedia supplies the most information needed. But sometimes, if you enter an article name wrong, go to google and there will be a search result from wikipedia.
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  • fiction answered 6 years ago
    because its quick and easy. When you start doing research it tends to be the first thing that comes up on google and us students are lazy. If like me students are last minute people the Internets often the only resource to write an essay with and wikipedia tends to be good for an overall summary, although inaccurate gives you a general pointa towards the main aspects you should look at in better detail.
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  • Richard W answered 6 years ago
    my housemate is a student and he was telling me a few days ago that someone was forced to re-do an essay because they had only used wikipedia for sources and the lecturer said that there was "no reliable source of information in the whole essay"

    personally I agree with the lecturer, as wikipedia can be an insightful reference source that can be an inspiration for authors and other references, but as a reference in itself it is totally unreliable and has made many well known mistakes (the most notable was when the conservatives changed an MP's birth date to win an argument)
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  • Most college students use Wikipedia when doing research because there are tons of articles with complicated and numerous informations.
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  • James B answered 6 years ago
    honestly ....coz u as a generation are lazy :D

    we tell you .... because the information is easy to access and research is time efficient

    i don't see why Wikipedia is that bad tho.... sure any1 can rite anything on Wikipedia ... but cant any1 write a book (if they can be stuffed :S) lol
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  • Bong answered 6 years ago
    This is because wikipedia contain many information and can be search easily, you do not need to search in google or yahoo one by one
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  • ALT answered 6 years ago
    Cause wikipedia gives alot of details about just about everything.
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  • Why do most college students use Wikipedia when doing research?
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  • Skywalker S answered 6 years ago
    it is because Wikipedia contains a large expanse of information beside other websites and it is a single web contains huge information,Google mostly recommends wiki.
    it is helpful as it gives you the info. about the thing,sometimes,graphs,statistics,census...
    you can just submit a report about wiki itself.
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  • spark Deepak : answered 6 years ago
    coz we are lazyyyyy !!!!
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