----- "Fred Bauder" <fredbaud(a)fairpoint.net> wrote:
From: "Fred Bauder"
<fredbaud(a)fairpoint.net>
To: "English Wikipedia" <wikien-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org>
Sent: Monday, 11 August, 2008 00:26:47 AM GMT +00:00
Subject: Re: [WikiEN-l] The dangers of not citing Wikipedia
The problem is that we have tens, even hundreds, of thousands of
students
who routinely consult Wikipedia when doing research, but don't cite
it,
and perhaps are not allowed to. There are a lot of folks who don't
understand plagiarism, thinking it applies to copying material, but
not
to use of information.
The typical response is "Well, I look at the Wikipedia article, but
don't
use it. I use the sources it cites... Using those sources is using
information from the article. They are part of it. To say nothing of
orienting themselves regarding the subject by reading, and using the
ideas from the Wikipedia article.
Fred
Maybe I am in a different academic field that doesn't emphasise the train of sources,
but I have never referenced the articles that I used to get the sources I use for quotes
or ideas in my articles... Nothing personal against authors who have really good reference
lists, it is just that I reference ideas directly without the chain of evidence I guess.
Cheers,
Peter