encyclopedia vs. wikipedia

                Some pros for using the encyclopedia would be that it’s a very easy thing to get a hold of. Encyclopedias have a lot of very useful information that can help go into depth on really any subject.  A con for using an encyclopedia is that it doesn’t really go into depth as far as needed for say college students. For high school students it could most likely give you a good chunk of what you need to know on the subject, but sadly I just don’t believe it’s enough for college students, at least those who would like to get a decent grade.  Wikipedia is the free online encyclopedia used by everyone I know! Some pros for Wikipedia is that it’s very handy, if you’re near a computer you can use Wikipedia and it is filled with some very useful and fast information. Although it seems like a very nice thing to have, I believe, as well as many others, that this may not be the case. Wikipedia’s information can be changed by absolutely everyone! For most searches, you can’t really prove that Wikipedia is giving you all of the right information.  Even the founder of Wikipedia, Jimmy Wales, is saying that it may not be suitable for academic research. Though many things on Wikipedia can be right or at least point you in the right direction to finding a good source for that information, I would not use it as my base source.

                I found one print book when typing in poverty in MN. The book is called fighting poverty, I am unable to see the contents of the book though, so I am not quite sure if it would be a useful source or not.

                I didn’t find any e-encyclopedias on my topic. I tried many different titles and ways to possibly get encyclopedias on my topic but I had no luck. Maybe that’s something I’ll have to continue trying to do, maybe I’m going about it the wrong way or just have not had enough experience with this to be as successful yet.

                I most definitely think that an encyclopedia is more beneficial for my research project.  Although I can’t deny using Wikipedia for many things, I will most likely just use it to point me in a good direction while researching. The encyclopedia is just more reliable than Wikipedia, it makes me feel more comfortable using it.