Wikipedia: The door to a first

Coursework season is over. Students are basking in the sun and enjoying their free time before heading off into the big wide world, or preparing for another year of deadlines. Regardless of which group you fall into, you will have been told, at some point during your university career, that copying from Wikipedia is bad practice. After hearing this, you might think otherwise.

Imagine this situation (for some of you this will take less brain activity that others).

It is 10pm the night before your essay is due.  A cold sweat begins to course through your body as the realisation suddenly hits you that you have a very important piece of work due in mere hours. Desperation grows ever present as that all important deadline consumes your thoughts, it’s all you can think about. The books you desperately crave have been taken out by the evil student, that one you know is a serial book hoarder, and you have no way of getting hold of sneaking a glance at them. Your footnotes and bibliography are more arid than Liquid and Envy…where do you even start.

It’s no good, I’ll never get this essay done

Of course, you could have avoided this. However, as usual, you have decided to throw caution to the wind and spend your days binge eating or drowning yourself in Jagerbombs on nights out. Essays you say? What essays? However, there is a way that those references can be padded out, and your work can include sources other people might not have used. It’s Wikipedia.

Yes I said it, haters go’n hate. Most teachers look down on this online encyclopaedia with utter distain. Tell them you use it, and they will look at you like you have just committed murder. Wikipedia is the root of all ills they will tell you. It isn’t an academic source, it isn’t reliable, it is wrong.

But I say, don’t use Wikipedia in a sort of hushed shame, fearing the wrath of your teachers and fellow students alike. No, scroll with pride, for you are a Wikipedian now! Or whatever you want to call yourself. For it is a vast fountain of knowledge that can save your essay! With 3.5 million articles and a staggering 400 million users every month, it can provide you with a quick, knowledgeable outline of your topic that is unrivalled anywhere else. No longer will you have to wait what seems like an eternity placing holds on various introductory textbooks.

For a concise summary of what you need, Wikipedia is the daddy of them all. And here is the most unkept secret off them all folks. Scroll down to the bottom of a Wikipedia article and you will find a welcome range of sources that you really can actually reference! No longer will you have to run the gauntlet of delving into the inner depths of the David Wilson library to find that last book, whilst you incur the wrath of the passive-aggressive “quiet patrols”. Wikipedia is your salvation. Ok, I exaggerate, you will still need to use the library, a lot, but you get my point.

It’s a gold mine of resources

We must shed our unjustified snobbery of Wikipedia. From now on, when you scroll down those white pages, scroll with pride. Wikipedia will become your best friend at University. A bright glow of hope in the ever darkening despair of essay deadlines and exam timetables. But of course, you could just do the work earlier and save yourself all the hassle? But who am I kidding, those drinks aren’t going to down themselves. So if that is how it is going to be, then Wikipedia it is.