Question

What are scholarly sources? Why are they important?

In your opinion, is Wikipedia scholarly, or does Wikipedia lead you to scholarly sources?

Find at least 2 inaccuracies on Wikipedia and post them here. Does this change your thoughts about the credibility of Wikipedia?

Answer 1

Ans 1. Any study begins with the review or survey of secondary literature available such as scholarly articles, books and other sources (e.g. dissertations, conference proceedings) relevant to a particular issue. This is done to find out about the methods and the theory employed in previous studies. This is an essential part of any study as it provides the theoretical framework for the new study. More so, undertaking a new study involves aspirations to produce a new finding that adds to the stock of knowledge. This can be achieved only when you are aware of the gaps in the previous studies. Furthermore, at the time of doing the analysis again, the secondary sources come in handy. The new information is always collated with the secondary data. This establishes what is new in your research and what is complementing to the previous studies.

Ans 2. The quality of research you do immensely depends on the source you refer and cite. The topmost website to avoid when doing research is the Wikipedia. Its entries can be written and edited by anyone. The information presented on this website is unsubstantiated and in some cases, inaccurate. Other popular websites to avoid are blogs. Anyone can write a blog and mostly they are anonymous ones so you are not able to verify the author’s credentials. Dot-com sites also fall in the category. These dot-com sites are interested in marketing and the people hosting the sites are trying to sell you something. The best choice is to refer to peer-reviewed journals books, encyclopedias and dot edu sites.