To more fully participate in this sharing, they might even register and create a profile so other contributors and readers know who they are and can contact them.

One way to engage in a conversation like Chesmar does is to construct a dialogue between your sources like the dialogue on a Wikipedia article discussion page.

he “discussion” tab provides access to the conversation surrounding the article, how it is being written, and the topic being written about. On this page users can, among other things, suggest changes to an article, justify changes they made to an article, and ask why other users made changes to an article. You can partici-pate in this conversation.

Wikipedia Is Good for You!?211Utilizing Wikipedia as a gateway to other sources should not re-place going to the library or using your library’s online databases. In fact, reviewing the Wikipedia article on your topic can help you better discover sources in your school’s library. You might read Wikipedia articles to help you generate search terms to use for finding sources in your school library’s catalog and online databases. Ashley Gill (who, like all students quoted in this essay, consented to the use of her real name) explains how she used Wikipedia in this way for an award-winning research project for her school’s first year composition class:For this project, I began on Wikipedia, knowing that results were not accurate, but also knowing I could find useful search terms there.

If you quote or paraphrase a Wikipedia article as an authoritative source, then, you are potentially making a claim based on wrong information, and using incorrect information is not a good way to make a convincing argument. Of course, misinformation isn’t limited to Wikipedia.