How to Use Wikipedia to Find Sources

When you are assigned a term paper at the high school or college level, maybe even earlier, one of the first thing the teacher seems to say is not to use Wikipedia as a source. The problem is that much like the encyclopedias our parents and grandparents used, Wikipedia isn't an original source. Everything there has been compiled from a bunch of other sources.

Worse yet, Wikipedia is an open access program that allows just about anyone to update a page with whatever information they want. And no one checks to make sure that it is correct. So how can you use Wikipedia to write an academic paper?

Use Wikipedia for Background Information

If you are assigned a term paper on a topic you are completely unfamiliar with, Wikipedia can be a great place to start learning about your topic for your research paper. Remember the caution from earlier that not everything on Wikipedia is right, but then go ahead and look up your topic.

Chances are Wikipedia will tell you something about the topic. This can be extremely important when the topic is particularly obscure. For example, reading the Wikipedia page about a place may give you an idea of important things that have taken place or important people that lived there. Then, you can use those names to help you do a Google or Amazon search for information that comes from a good source.

Wikipedia may also be able to provide you with proper spellings or the right years for an event. Just because you can't use Wikipedia as a source for information that you cite in the term paper doesn't mean it can't be great for providing you with the background information you need to start your research.

Use Wikipedia to Help You Narrow Your Topic

Another great way that Wikipedia can help you with your academic research is in narrowing the topic. When you are writing a term paper, finding a topic that is too narrow means you won't be able to find enough to write about. A topic that is too broad will leave you floundering trying to figure out what pieces of information to include.

For instance, writing a report about the Vietnam War would be too expansive a topic for most term papers. But a quick review of the Wikipedia page about the Vietnam War might provide a list of major offensives that could be the topic of your report.

Use Wikipedia to Find Sources

While some Wikipedia pages are completely unsourced and full of nothing but opinions and made up facts, many of them have footnotes throughout the articles. At the bottom of the page, after the information about the topic is completed, you'll find a list of the sources that the Wikipedia writer used to research the information that is included on the page.

Voila!

You may be able to find these sources at your local library or available of the web. Some of them may even be hyperlinked from the Wikipedia site, helping you to get your research started.

So the next time the professor says no Wikipedia as a source for your research paper, just smile and nod. You know how to use Wikipedia the right way.