I'm making flashcards for my Intro to Theatre final (and this time I have enough, so I won't have to color any black and write over them like last time), and I just wrote out a card for the term "Rock Musical," which my teacher has defined as "a musical theatre work with rock music."
I realized that I didn't have an example of a rock musical written down, and the term wasn't in the glossary of my textbook, so I hopped onto Wikipedia to find a good example.
What's the first sentence on the Rock musical Wikipedia page?
"A rock musical is a musical theatre work with rock music."
Here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rock_musical
It looks like my teacher pulled his definition straight from Wikipedia.
I could be wrong, of course. My teacher could have pulled that definition from one of the sources listed at the end of the article. He could have found the exact same phrase on a different website or in a book. But it certainly looks suspicious.
Of course, there's nothing inherently wrong with Wikipedia. I love Wikipedia. It's just that professors usually bring the hammer down on you if you dare to cite it as a source for anything. It's not exactly the most reliable source of information.
Okay, man. Getting through grad school. Teaching a lecture about musicals you like and some of the info isn't in the book. Using Wikipedia 'cause ain't nobody got time for research. I can dig it.
This falls into the category of shenanigans partly because my teacher is probably teaching us something right off of Wikipedia and partly because I'm poking fun at him for it.
So all information is derivative of something else. Like everything in Wikipedia was copied and pasted from other sources. It's not like the Wiki Writers are doing original research. I'm sure back in the cave man days, the first dude to made a noise, "Uggg!". And then all the other dudes and dudettes sitting around the fire pit starting going "Uggg!". And then the first dude says, "Rrrrrr!", which is cave man speak for, "Can't you all come up with your own catch phrase you bloody plagarists!" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tYBNoFcvcWI
ReplyDeleteBefore I begin, I must thank you for that very amusing caveman video. Loved it. Funny movie.
DeleteLike I said, I love Wikipedia. But I've also seen some garbage on Wikipedia before. I don't see it often, but I've seen it. When a teacher has access to a gigantic library full of books on every topic as well as the numerous databases that the library provides through its website, it seems a little unprofessional or silly to use Wikipedia. I'm not completely condemning him for it-- I just got a really good laugh out of it.