Wikipedia is an online encyclopedia accessible for anyone. The website is written collaboratively by anonymous sources; an abundant amount of people contributes to Wikipedia, which causes many people are constantly correcting Wikipedia’s information. Due to the nature of Wikipedia’s writing, Wikipedia should not be used for scholarly evidence, because there is an issue of credibility. A fundamental aspect of a scholar is to examine the reliability and credibility of any information source. Thus, Wikipedia entries are preliminary web research because they cannot be trusted in an academic setting.
The first issue within the article is the references that are not supported by sources. For example, section 5.1(Debt Slavery): paragraph 1 depicts the Roman usage of Nexum. “Nexum was a debt bondage contract in the early Roman Republic. Within the
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It's important to cite sources because then the writer accentuates credibility to the reader and is the sure proof way to avoid plagiarism. Therefore, as a reader we must evaluate the information. It is as simple as doing a google search; if there are numerous sources refuting the source’s claims, then it is best to be untrusting of the information. Regarding this article, the information seemed accurate, so there is no need to explain the lack of contradictions.
Nothing on Wikipedia is truly credible; by allowing anonymous sources to edit public information, Wikipedia creates an atmosphere of lack of credibility. The authors of this article are unknown, which is highly problematic. With academic writing, the author needs to be held to a credible position. By using anonymous sources, the Wiki article remains untrustworthy. To combat this issue, Wikipedia should make authors known, and provide a feasible background of them. Instead of using Wikipedia, students need to use primary and secondary sources for academic