In the Writing Spaces reading, "Wikipedia Is Good for You!? the author James Purday makes the case that "yes" it can be good for you if used appropriately. Purday breaks down Wikipedia as a a potential source for information to use for cited works. He also recommends even posting information yourself to get use to sharing and revising information as you would when successfully writing a research-based paper. The author makes a lot of convincing points and uses examples of others who have used Wikipedia as a source to make his case that the bad rap that Wikipedia gets is often because people mis-use it rather than take advantage of the source of opportunity. I appreciated and learned quite a bit while reading the article, especially regarding the Wikipedia interface and the opportunities to post in the discussion page. I was convinced as well that if you actually go to the sources where the information is cited that you can actually use Wikipedia as a great starting point. Teachers often say how incorrect Wikipedia is and recommend to not use it but from reading this article I beg to differ. Along with any source from the Internet, books and encyclopedias information can sometimes be wrong. It was noted in the article that some information previously in the Encyclopedia Britannica was wrong before. So in conclusion just like any other source of information Wikipedia can make or break you. Use precautions and good judgement but more importantly use it!
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