It’s never too late for a new start over your studies and impress your teachers with your academic writing and be inspired with new ideas. The main task can be summarized like searching for the most appropriate sources and selecting the most suitable information to make your essay, report or research paper engaging and offering good insight into the subject matter.
Wikipedia is very popular with students all around the world, as it offers substantial articles on various topics, detailed explanations, and historic reviews. The main task for students is to master the skills for using this kind of Internet source in a proper way. It’s clearly understood that when you mention any article taken from Wikipedia within your references list, your teacher or professor will consider you absolutely an idler to choose the easiest way for writing your paper – and that’s when you can forget about your high grade and good results at the end of the semester (Turner, 2007).
So it’s high time to disclose some secrets of using Wikipedia the right way and making the best possible use of it.
The articles in Wikipedia are composed in a very good manner – they are simple and clearly understood. Besides, they contain numerous links, indicating places where you can find more information matching your topic. In terms of high academic levels, such as college and university, where you are expected to present profound, deep study of the issue, this feature is of key importance.
Keep in mind that to avoid misunderstandings with your teachers, you must know how to make use of this Internet resource.
Surfing Wikipedia is a good beginning for any kind of research (Wax, 2011). Consulting the references related to your topic this Internet source suggests will enable you to form a fundamental ground for study. But remember that Wikipedia is considered to be a very general source that is too universal. Your professor may direct you to something more specific. That’s why it is better not to compose a suitable academic list of sources and not to include Wikipedia in the list of references or cited sources (Turner, 2007).
First of all, it is a good idea to get a better understanding of the issue you write about, by reading the background information presented in the Wikipedia article. Getting insight into historical, social, political, and economic circumstances can equip you with all the needed information for your studies of the issue (Wax, 2011).
As well as, many of the articles contain famous quotes from outstanding people, and thus relate to the topic directly. Using quotes will make your paper look serious and credible.
Another benefit of articles from Wikipedia is that they are full of keywords. In case your writing task presupposes making up a list with keywords, this special feature of articles presented by Wikipedia may help you a lot!
In addition to this, the list of books and articles, which were used to compose the definite article is generally added at the bottom of each article (Turner, 2007).
Summing up the tips suggested above, it’s worth it to underline the necessity of using such reliable and properly composed sources, as Wikipedia. Use every possibility to write a good academic paper; fill it with quotes and terminology; don’t be afraid to show the connection with other topics, refer to relevant books and articles. In a word, use everything that you can find in an article from Wikipedia to make your academic paper first class! All your academic writing effort will definitely pay off!