Wikipedia Edits

When I first started college my English 101 teacher told us two things. Always check your grammar and NEVER trust Wikipedia. Obviously there was a reason behind her distrust of the source. Wikipedia was an interesting idea. People are able to come together and compile bits of useful and useless information. The problem with this is that anyone can alter Wikipedia. This new tracker that Griffith invented shows just how much companies and politicians have used Wikipedia to make themselves look better. It always disturbs me when I see someone using Wikipedia as a source on a research paper. For example an entry on George Washington could have been done by a ten year old and not the professor the student assumed would have done it. Anyone can play with Wikipedia. This is what makes it fun and useless at the same time. One of my professors said if she saw Wikipedia as a source she would throw the paper in the trash and that student would receive a zero! Companies are posting things that may not necessarily be true and Wikipedia and people are buying it without even questioning who the author was! It’s very important that people take the time to think about who wrote what they are reading and what their motivations could be. I for one will never trust Wikipedia again!