User:Ambereyes94/sandbox

Wikipedia MLA Citations
Buffy the Vampire Slayer
 * "Buffy the Vampire Slayer." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 18 Sep. 2014. Web. 18 Sep. 2014.

Douglas Adams
 * "Douglas Adams." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 6 Sep. 2014. Web. 23 Sep. 2014.

Jennifer Lawrence
 * "Jennifer Lawrence." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 22 Sep. 2014. Web. 23 Sep. 2014.

Britannica MLA Citations
"Buffy the Vampire Slayer." Encyclopaedia Britannica. Encyclopaedia Britannica Online Academic Edition. Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 2014. Web. 18 Sep. 2014.

"Douglas Adams." Encyclopaedia Britannica. Encyclopaedia Britannica Online Academic Edition. Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 2014. Web. 18 Sep. 2014.

"Jennifer Lawrence." Encyclopaedia Britannica. Encyclopaedia Britannica Online Academic Edition. Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 2014. Web. 23 Sep. 2014.

Thoughts on the Articles
Basically, my reasons for picking these articles can be summed up by the fact I am a huge nerd. I enjoy cheesy cult-classic television shows such as Buffy the Vampire Slayer, revere the satirical and absurd writings of Douglas Adams, and can't help but admire Jennifer Lawrence's authenticity in the midst of her new-found fame.

Joss Whedon's show, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, was created as a response to Scream (1996 film), with the intention of smashing the damsel in distress stereotype. Both the Britannica article and the Wikipedia article mentions the feminist undertones of the show. However, the reason I choose the show for my assignment is because of other characters who are also worth looking up to. Characters like Rupert Giles, the school’s librarian by day, but Buffy’s demon-hunting mentor by night, and Willow Rosenberg, who exhibits a knack for database researching. Britannica does not go into much detail about the characters, compared to the Wikipedia article, which links to their profiles for more information.

One of my favorite books is The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, written by Douglas Adams. I thought the topic would be appropriate on account that the fictional Guide itself “is a wholly remarkable book. It has been compiled and recompiled many times over many years and under many different editorships" (pg.53) Also, it "has already supplanted the Great Encyclopedia Galactica as the standard repository of all knowledge and wisdom” (pg. 6). Though, as it so happens, I couldn't find a Britannica article on the novel itself, so I chose articles on its author instead, who is also remarkable in his own right. For example, the story goes that Adams thought of the idea for the book while he was lost in a field, drunk, and staring up at the stars.

Jennifer Lawrence, who has starred in such roles as Katniss Everdeen in the film adaptions of the Hunger Games series, and Mystique in X-Men: First Class and X-Men: Days of Future Past, is also a positive role-model for me. Although she is not the only Hollywood figure that I look up to, once again, Britannica has limited my choices with their articles. There were no shortage of other "popular stars," to chose from, but with many celebrities these days, they are conditioned to be distant, perfect, and professional. To contrast, Lawrence is refreshing and hilarious, tipsily admitting at the Academy Awards, "I'm sorry, I just did a shot," and asking an interviewer on the red carpet,"Is there food here?". The Wikipedia article provides a quote from Rolling Stone that mentions Lawrence's talent and individuality.

Summaries
The Wikipedia article begins by describing Buffy the Vampire Slayer as an American T.V show established by writer and director Joss Whedon. It introduces the main character Buffy, and her fated task of being a Slayer. In addition, the article introduction briefly mentions her Watcher and her friends, who help Buffy battle evil throughout the series.

The article then goes into further details regarding the shows origin in 1997, its coming of age themes, the various stages of production and development, character arcs, plot points and spin-offs.

The Britannica article on Buffy the Vampire Slayer starts similarly to the Wikipedia article, but adds some of the themes of the show, such as "comedy, drama and horror". The article then goes on to summarize the premise of the show, that being a teenage girl who must balance fighting the forces of evil, while at the same time, battling her way through the drama of high school.

Also mentioned are her friends, Joss Whedon’s concept of the show, the setting, conflicts and awards the show has won.

Comparisons
Although the Wikipedia article was very thorough in its explanation of the series, it ran quite verbose in length. Unlike the Britannica article, Wikipedia goes into further details about Whedon’s conception of the show, his embarrassment over Fran Rubel Kazui’s 1992 film adaption, and further production specifics. For example, the scripts for the show were handled by Mutant Enemy, however, Whedon himself looked over most of the work for five seasons. Most episodes would feature music from independent bands, and settings such as the high school exterior, the nightclub the Bronze, and the library were originally shot at real locations in Torrance, California.

The article continues by listing the format of episodes, which usually included season long battles with a formidable antagonist (known in the show as the Big Bad), as well as weekly conflicts with smaller monsters like demons, witches, vampires, and ghosts. Wikipedia thoroughly describes main characters, supporting characters, and includes a five paragraph summary of important plot points. The show’s metaphors, themes, spin-offs, and fanbase are also discussed with sufficient detail. Overall, the Wikipedia article is almost fifty paragraphs in length.

The Britannica Online article is considerably shorter, yet manages to summarize the gist of the show with sufficient detail. In the second paragraph, Britannica briefly introduces and describes Buffy’s friends, Willow, Xander and Giles as the shy yet knowledgeable best friend, the relatable, non-magical comic relief, and the wise mentor.

Britannica also mentions Joss Whedon’s hand in creating a series with feminist undertones. However, instead of focusing on the whole origin story like Wikipedia, the article jumps straight into the setting of Sunnydale. The town is a hot spot for malignant and supernatural forces, as it is situated directly above what is known as the “Hellmouth”. Both articles list some of the awards that the series has won, including 14 Emmy nominations, winning a total of three, as well as ranking in TV Guide's "50 Greatest Shows of All Time".

The Britannica article is only four paragraphs long.

Assessment
Which article is more successful, the exhaustively detailed lecture, or the succinct summary that gives just the essential information? This analysis will examine not just article length, but relevancy and accuracy as well.

The information included in the Wikipedia article is comprehensive, from character backgrounds to complete season summaries. On the other hand, Britannica is more of an introduction to the show, giving the basic Who, What, Where, When and Why’s of the series. Because of these differences, it is my opinion that the article's proficiency really depends on what information a reader is interested in researching. The extensive facts presented with Wikipedia wouldn't be fully appreciated by a reader new to the show, while Britannica’s brief summary wouldn't appease a reader with prior knowledge.

Relevancy should also be considered. Throughout the Wikipedia article, it could be argued that much of the information is too elaborated upon. For example, the article doesn't just mention the writers for the scripts, but also has to go into detail about the entire writing process. ""The episode's story was "broken" into acts and scenes. Act breaks were designed as key moments to intrigue viewers so that they would stay with the episode following the commercial break. The writers collectively filled in scenes surrounding these act breaks for a more fleshed-out story. A whiteboard marked their progress by mapping brief descriptions of each scene.""

Buffy the Vampire Slayer's "Talk" pages also has interesting discussion based around relevancy. Wiki User,Supersmola, disputes the current article introduction, saying that the show's conflict isn't actually vampires and demons, but instead use creatures as a metaphor to illustrate challenges in a young girls life. This argument is continued by Orange Mike, contending that Buffy the Vampire Slayer was not marketed as a show about metaphors, and therefore should not be described as one in an article's introduction. While I agree with Orange Mike about keeping the metaphors from the introduction, it is my opinion that they are still justified within the article, as Whedon himself has confirmed that this was his intention.

Britannica does not have as much relevancy issues, as it keeps the information short. This being said, the article is very specific about Willow Roseneburgh being a “powerful lesbian witch”, when her orientation doesn't seem significant to the character description. This was my only qualm regarding Britannica's relevancy.

References in the Wikipedia article are generally well cited. Every two sentences on average will be accompanied by a link to a semi-reliable source. The facts regarding production, writing and broadcasting history are backed up by published works on Joss Whedon and newspaper articles with interviews from cast and crew. This accuracy wasn't what I had expected from a Wikipedia article, but this precision could also be contributed to the vast amount of information on the subject - or a very dedicated fanbase.

The Britannica article provides other articles that Buffy the Vampire Slayer is mentioned, but does not include references where the information had originally been pulled from.

Further Reading and References
In the Wikipedia article, there are one hundred and thirty five references cited and used relevantly throughout the article. As stated in the previous section, most are from pop culture magazines, interviews with the cast, or top television lists. Some examples include, "Scholars Lecture on Buffy the Vampire Slayer" from CTV News, "Whedon's New Frontier" from the Washington Post, and six episodes of "BBC Cult Buffy Trivia".

However, only seven sources for further reading have been listed in Wikipedia. As for contributors and their credentials, the creator of the Buffy the Vampire Slayer article is a lecturer at the University of Michigan. There are an upwards of twenty-five thousand distinct authors of the article, but the last edit was made by a contributor who has “rollback rights” given by Wikipedia and has made more than four thousand live edits.

There are fifteen related books and magazine references cited in the Britannica article, although from a glance, some do not seem to be related at all. For example, the article cites a source entitled Recreation, Leisure, Sport and Dance. The list of contributors for the article includes only two names, which might explain why the article is so short and concise compared to the Wikipedia article. The last time the article was revised was in 2008, six days after it was added to the website.