Encyclopedias are reliable as experts write the materials on them.
And their resources are well cited.
They are great sources of information.
Encyclopedia is more detailed and explicit as compared to wikipedia.
Encyclopedia on the other hand can appear very boring as they are lengthy and also have different volumes.
While Wikipedia thought they are easy to get information from and they have a lot of information, they are difficult to work with. As many different individuals edit them.
Also the sources given in an encyclopedia are clear and follow a particular format, but the sources in a wikipedia do not follow any specific format as anyone adds their own source.
Wikipedia however as compared to encyclopedias have a lot of information too, but not very reliable.
Wikipedia are great in that, in the resource section they have an area for further reading, links or references. This is one great place to look at. For me I usually follow the links and get more idea if I doubt a Wikipedia information.
I could not find any print encyclopedia, I don't know if it is because I did not put in the right words when searching for it. But I plan to go into the library and ask if they have something related to that.
I found some E-encyclopedia with great information online, but not on the Library catalog. Again I don't know if my keywords are put in are not the best. But will be going to the library to ask.
I think an encyclopedia is more appropriate for my project. Because the information is clear and easy to grasp. The sources are reliable too.
Hi Yvonne,
ReplyDeleteThank you for your post on encyclopedias and Wikipedia.
Be careful with generalizations! Are ALL encyclopedias well-cited? Based on the types of encyclopedias that we reviewed in class, are they ALWAYS great sources of information? What if they only have a three sentence paragraph on your topic?
What makes Wikipedia difficult to work with?
What makes the information in some Wikipedia entries not reliable?
What search string did you use to look for encyclopedias in the online catalog?
What was the title of the E-Encyclopedia that you found online? Why was the information good?
How do you know that an encyclopedia entry is better to use for your topic than a Wikipedia entry if you did not find a print encyclopedia as well as an online encyclopedia?
I look forward to your response!
Sincerely,
Professor Wexelbaum
You are right. Not all encyclopedias are always great sources. For me one reason being that I looked at one encyclopedia online it had some information about drug abuse. It was just about one page. It was not enough information that I needed. So I Googled something about marijuana Wikipedia and had some great information. Solely about what I was looking for.
ReplyDeleteFor me Wikipedias are a little bit difficult to work with because of the too many information and the details. Which is great, but I really wish it could be direct. Also the fact that different people edit it someone could add an idea that is not so connect with the previous idea. I like to look at different Wikipedias before drawing my conclusion on what material to use. Some times the information from one Wikipedia to another varies that is why I think it is not so reliable.
ABout the online catalog. I realized that I was doing it all WRONG. I was searching for Encyclopedia entries using thesame search strings taht I will use if I were searching for some information on Google. Or even searching for a book. At firstI put in, "(drugs or marijuana or weed, or pot)and (effects). Then I tried Marijuana and effects on college students, then I also tried Marijuana and effects. But I did not get any useful information.
But yesterday I tried Encyclopedia as a search string and had more than enough results. I decided to narrow it down. I tried Drug Encyclopedia and had about 31 results but when I tried substance abuse Encyclopedia I had not results.
Here is a link to the E- Encyclopedia http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/marijuana.aspx
now that I am thinking about it, it is not very useful as I thought it was. It is Entitled Marijuana. So this Encyclopedia has all the information about Marijuana and its use. But when it comes to the effects, it is just one paragraph. I thought I could include the history and all other details about the article in my research, but I am not very sure at this point.
I found an on-line Encyclopedia on Google and a Wikipedia too so I could do the comparison.
Thank you for your response, Yvonne. I am thinking that the drug encyclopedia would have some information about what would happen if you abused particular drugs, yes?
ReplyDeleteThe E-Encyclopedia entry cites soume good sources (although there may be more recent studies out there about marijuana usage/benefits/side effects), and addresses the positive and negative aspects of marijuana. Unfortunately, no one can update that entry now...it is frozen in time...
Sincerely,
Professor Wexelbaum