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Why is Wikipedia not a Strong Source for Papers?

By Dr. Andree Swanson Wikipedia is not considered a valid and reliable reference.  Most professors will not accept citation or reference from Wikipedia.   First, it is most likely copied and pasted from the web.   Second, the information may not be accurate. In April 2006, when I first wrote this article, this paragraph looked like this: The content of Wikipedia is free, written collaboratively by people from all around the world. This website is a wiki, which means that anyone with access to an Internet-connected computer can edit, correct, or improve information throughout the encyclopedia, simply by clicking the edit this page link (with a few minor exceptions such as protected articles)...On Wikipedia...you are welcome to...edit articles yourself, contributing knowledge as you see fit in a collaborative way. Today, the anonymous authors have been busy and changed the content.   Here is how the above paragraph looks today in December 2013: Wikipedia is writ

Academic Writing Tips

By Dr Andree Swanson Artwork: Dr.  Murad Abel You have been tasked to write your first paper and the instructor gave you feedback.   It read: “This is not appropriate for an academic paper.”   You are now at a loss to understand what defines an academic paper. Here are a few tips to remember when writing. Most importantly, you are creating a document that is in your own words.   It is imperative to properly research the paper.   It is not unusual to have parenthetical citations after each sentence.   The reason this happens is that you have conducted a great deal of research on your topic.   You are now reflecting on what you have read, so the bottom line is...   you are not presenting new information .   Let me restate this.   You are presenting someone else’s information .   In fact, you may be presenting more than one person’s information and must properly cite each source. Your paper is filled with ideas that came from many journals, web sites, and bo