On-Demand Letter :)

Dear Mr. Leeper,

            In Mr. Roberts’s class, we conducted an experiment on the accuracy of Wikipedia.  Most teachers, professors, and schools really don’t like that students use Wikipedia because of the lack in accuracy. So our class decided to test that out. Our experiment was to go on to the Wikipedia site, research an article, and change some information to make it false. The class followed these instructions and we waited to see how long it would take for Wikipedia to change the errors we made.

            The next day we were in class, Mr. Roberts checked to see our progress in the experiment. We all gave him our times to let him know how long it took the site to change our false facts. The results were shown to be that 89% of the errors were fixed in a short period of time. In conclusion, our experiment proved to be that Wikipedia is in fact a reliable source to get information.

            One reason why I think Wikipedia is a good search engine and should be used in schools is because their information is accurate. Most of the changes that were made by our class were changed in a matter of a few hours. By saying so, it is obvious that Wikipedia has people to check for false information. That way when people try to research things, the articles are carefully monitored so false information isn’t being addressed to other places.

            Another reason why I think Wikipedia is a good search engine is because at the bottom of every article, there are sources leading to other sites to let you know where they found that information. So the people at Wikipedia aren’t just making up all this information, they actually are backing it up with other sources. The sites they give you also give you further information about the topic you are researching.

            The last reason why I think Wikipedia is a good search engine is because people can edit what is written in their articles. For example, if some information wasn’t correct and someone sees it, they can edit it to fix the error into a fact. Wikipedia is a widely known site where there are many people who read everything it has to offer. So all of these people read, check and correct anything that they find is incorrect.

            In conclusion, Wikipedia is a site that should be allowed in school systems. The information is accurate, there are other sites that show you where they got their information, and everything is corrected by others in the Internet. Everything is monitored to keep all the info correct.