1.Encyclopedias gives a fundamental and fast understaning of issues in general but on the other hand those informations are not detailed.(shallow). Also there are no futher sources that support information obtained from the encyclopedia cupled with the fact that those availble information in them have no specific authors.
Wikipedia is very easy and fast to access online. It goes straight forward to the topic and they bring out more current articles. Some weak points about wikipedia is that it is a free encyclopedia therefore ,some informations on them may not be stable because people will keep adding their own view and make changes to some information but not all ,so it will really need one to bring out time to evaluate some wikipedia to determine how reliable they are interms of publishers and currency. Also wikipedia is good on providing information about events and new technology but is not very good on controversial issues.
2. I found two print encyclopedias in my library catalog prostitution through advance search.
3. I found two E-encyclopedia through advaned search.
4. I think that print encyclopedia will be more appropriate for my research because it is recognized by a group of people who came up with information and also have a good knowledge about them. Unlike wikipedia some information might be biased especially on my topic that is controversial.
Hi Nkeiruka,
ReplyDeleteThank you for your post on encyclopedias and Wikipedia.
From one of the encyclopedias that you found in the library catalog, did you go to the Reference section to locate an entry on prostitution? How did it meet the evaluation criteria that we discussed in class? How did the Wikipedia entry meet the evaluation criteria that we discussed in class? Based on what you discovered from both entries, what would you say about encyclopedias and Wikipedia in terms of usefulness/relevance for academic audiences?
I look forward to your response.
Sincerely,
Professor Wexelbaum
Nkiru,
ReplyDeleteIt's seems you prefer Encyclopedia to Wikipedia based on your conclusion here. However, I think Wikipedia is doing a great job this days. More so, that the information on Wikipedia is updated rapidly compared to print encyclopedia. Nice job anyway!