Is wikipedia that acurate??

My Teacher said that wikipedia is inaccurate when searching for book information is this true? because people can just edit a fact and re-edit itis that why she said its so inaccurate? also are the historical informations in wikipedia inacccurate as well? because im using it to study- do you knoow any other good websites to study ww1 and ww2 history?

You have to take it with a grain of salt considering most of the things are done by people. If you want to confirm things, you need to check the sources that are used.

Yep, I know a great site with guarenteed sources... It's called a library.

Wikipedia is pretty good compared to other reference sources. In practise it has about the same accuracy. I know this was tested in the area of science.

However, if it is an hot topic you might find that people are fighting to put their views out on top.

your teacher is correct (in a way), being what it is it has the propensity to be inaccurate.

That said, it is really more accurate than many think. It does have "checks and balances" in place to prevent people from radically altering it and deliberately putting in false information.

For some things I'd trust it more than other sources (technical and computer information for example). some topics would just naturally draw more writers with more specialized knowledge of the subject.

There was a study done awhile back on it. see: http://www.news.com/Study-Wikipedia-as-a...

more on the checks and balances: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:R...

As your teacher should know, even books in a library can be biased and contain inaccuracies. It's always a good idea to verify the writer's sources, whatever reference you use.
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it has been one of the top notch references website and has been used by some schools as a mode of references for assignments.

it is a reknowned website and it should have a certain standard that they need to maintain to run such website with much knowledge and information.

of course, there are times book is still the best as most information on wikipedia i believe are learned and earned from books.

It is a good starting point but your teacher is right. It might not always be fully accurate. Normally the facts are not totally off the wall but they may not be 100% right. My teacher said that encarta.msn.com is a better source. Of course you always have your library too.

not really accurate with some things. some idiots like to mess around with the info like the FBI so dont believe everything u see unless u see it somewhere else and its true

Wikipedia is a site that allows users to edit information. Some of the information can be very accurate but not all information. If you plan on utilizing Wiki, I recommend researching with a couple sources. Making sure there are no discrepancies with the information. You should also make a habit of checking on resources and references yourself. Just because they say this is where they located the information does not mean that that translated it correctly.

I have included a few encyclopedia sites below.

It's really really inaccurate. Anyone, anywhere can write anything they want. Twice i searched up information on it and found gibberish.

It's kinda accurate because people that often edit things wrong and type in crap doesn't seem like they are interested in History much. But it's good, you can trust it 80%. If you are not sure, try google

Your teacher really shouldn't be telling you that a site is unreliable altogether when there are various articles that are reliable. To answer you're question in the most direct way, try not to use Wikipedia as your primary source, because it's not going to be 100% accurate all the time. While Wikipedia is good on some articles, it shouldn't be trusted for everything and should be taken with a grain of salt when you read it. If the article contains an extensive list of references to offsite links, then your probably going to want to read some of what Wikipedia has to say, reference it and research your topic with other sites as well. However, if the Wikipedia article has no sources whatsoever, I wouldn't trust it word for word. I would still reference it for an alternate source, and then do research to see what it says is accurate. World War 1 and World War 2 are fairly popular articles and probably have plenty of source on them, it's ultimately your call to use it or not. My advice is to read Wikipedia, print out the article, do your research, and then if it turns out Wikipedia was correct with it's sources, then use it.

Wikipedia is only as accurate as the poster is. Anyone can put a post on Wikipedia. Depending on the subject, something may not get a whole lot of views. So, an inaccuracy may go unnoticed. However, a popular subject is usually pretty accurate. Such as WW1 & 2. The only way to know for sure is to do more research. Google knows all.

Regards,

Brandon

It is accurate most information that is incorrect is changed back within minutes. Many people put a lot of hard work in the website to make it reliable. It is a good website to use.

that is absolutely true...wikipedia is only for general information, but if you want something specific I suggest you search on google, and click on the bottom pages, they're are always the ones with more information!
hope this helps
take care!