User:Crou0036/sandbox

=Assignment One=

Alice Roosevelt Longworth
"Alice Roosevelt Longworth." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 17 Sep. 2014. Web. 20 Sep. 2014.

"Alice Roosevelt Longworth." ''Encyclopaedia Britannica. Encyclopaedia Britannica Online Academic Edition.'' Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 2014. Web. 20 Sep. 2014.

Malcolm X
"Malcolm X." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 19 Sep. 2014. Web. 20 Sep. 2014.

Ferran, Christine. "X, Malcolm 1925-1965." Contemporary Black Biography. 1992. Encyclopedia.com. 20 Sep. 2014.

Suffragette
"Suffragette." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 25 Sep. 2014. Web. 27 Sep. 2014.

JOHN CANNON. "suffragettes." The Oxford Companion to British History. 2002. Encyclopedia.com. (September 27, 2014).

Overall Thoughts
When beginning my search for these three articles, I first decided on a few topics that are interesting to me, personally. Then, when searching for them on Wikipedia and other encyclopedia sites, I narrowed it down to three topics, based on which of them had the most, and most accurate, information, both on Wikipedia, and one other site. Some topics I was initially interested had a great deal of information on Wikipedia but very little information on other encyclopedias, and other topics found the opposite true.

To be perfectly honest, I did not see much of a difference between Wikipedia and the other sites that I used. The Wikipedia articles all seemed well written, professional sounding, and thorough. While I would not solely use Wikipedia for research, and I would not cite it in a report, it seemed to be a great starting point for the subjects I searched, and the information found there was comparable to what was found on Encyclopedia.com, and Encyclopedia Britannica. All information found on Wikipedia should be double checked for accuracy, but will often hold up under scrutiny, I believe.

=Assignment Two=

Wikipedia
Wikipedia’s entry on Malcolm X is a very thorough article. The page is semi-protected, meaning that only registered users who have been auto confirmed or confirmed are allowed to make edits to the page, making this article more trustworthy than the average Wikipedia article. It begins the same way that most biographies do – a brief summary of who Malcolm X was, and then describing his early years. From there it goes into detail explaining events in his life that happened during the period in his life in which he was a part of Nation of Islam, such as his time in prison, running a temple, marrying and starting a family, and how “Malcolm X first came to the notice of the American public in 1957”. All of these aspects of his life are adequately detailed.

The article then goes on to explain why and how Malcolm X left the Nation of Islam, and what he did after leaving. He founded his own church Muslim Mosque, Inc., met Martin Luther King, Jr. “for the first and only time—and only long enough for photographs to be taken”, and later converted to Sunni Islam. Starting with a pilgrimage to Mecca, Malcolm X travelled many countries before returning to the United States, the reasons for the travels and what he did throughout the trip explained in the article.

The threats that the Nation of Islam began to direct towards Malcolm X is explained next, and how they were handled by law enforcement. The details of his assassination and the event directly leading up to it are explained, as well as what transpired afterwards. The article goes on to talk about Malcolm X’s funeral; how many attended, the big names who came, where it was held. A eulogy that was delivered by Ossie Davis is included. There are sections detailing Malcolm X’s philosophies, and the legacy he left behind. There is then a list of films and stage productions that portrayed him, and where different memorials of Malcolm X are. There is then a very extensive work cited section, ending the article with a ‘Further reading’ section, suggesting where to go for more information.

Encyclopedia.com
This starts out with a snippet from an interview Malcolm X’s daughter, Attallah Shabazz did about her father and the impact his life had and continues to have on the world, and his childhood. Then there is the subheading ‘At a Glance’, giving a very brief summary of who Malcolm X was and why we still know of him today. It goes on in mostly the same order as the Wikipedia article; detailing Malcolm X’s troubles with the law, and his religious beliefs at that time. Encyclopedia.com then has a section explaining the differences Malcolm X had with Martin Luther King, Jr., and their views about one another. The article goes into his departure from the Nation of Islam, and briefly talks about his travels outside of the United States.

The last section of the article discusses Malcolm X’s return to the United States, the new message he brought back with him, and his assassination. The article discusses an attack on Malcolm X’s family, where “(h)is home was firebombed on February 14, 1965—his wife and four daughters were unharmed, but the house was destroyed”. It ends with a sources section.

Comparison
Wikipedia and Encyclopedia.com share much of the same information on Malcolm X' s life and death. The information about his childhood are very similar, the facts are the same, but each article focuses on different aspects. Both articles give background about Malcolm's family, though Encyclopedia.com mentions the abuse that Malcolm's father gave to the family, while Wikipedia does not talk about that at all, instead focusing on other parts of Malcolm's childhood.

Wikipedia goes into much greater detail about Malcolm X's prison sentence, how while he was in prison "several of his siblings wrote to him about the Nation of Islam, a relatively new religious movement preaching black self-reliance" and how he came to be part of the Nation of Islam. Ecyclopedia.com did also explain how he became part of the church, but not in as much detail.

Besides one sentence about Malcolm X meeting Martin Luther King Jr, the Wikipedia article does not really mention how the two of them effected each other in any way, whereas encyclopedia.com detailed the two men’s interactions, and their similarities and differences when it came to their beliefs. As they were both active round the same time, fighting for the same rights in different ways, this is a very interesting part of each of their lives to look at, and while neither of them focused too much time on the interactions between the two men, Encyclopedia.com certainly had more information on that particular subject.

The Wikipedia article goes into much more detail surrounding the threats made by the Nation of Islam than the Encyclopedia.com article does. Encylopedia.com only mentions the firebombing of Malcolm X’s family home, but not any of the other threats the Nation of Islam made on his life before they successfully assassinated him in 1965. Wikipedia mentions that "[i]n February a leader of Temple Number Seven ordered the bombing of Malcolm X's car", and that he was threatened "that hypocrites like Malcolm should have their heads cut off" in March. As these events lead up to his assassination, I think these are facts that are very important to include in an article about Malcolm X's life.

The layout of Wikipedia's site is much more user friendly. It is clear from looking at it that it was made to be online; it has all of the links on the left-hand side of the article that all Wikipedia articles have (citing, the article in other languages, etc.), links in the article to bring the reader to other pages (for example, the first time the Nation of Islam is mentioned, you can click on it to be brought to the Wikipedia page about the group), and many pictures throughout the article. Encyclopedia.com's article is mostly just in text format, and not very interactive.

Wikipedia’s headings and sub-headings are much more functional than those of Encyclopedia.com. Each main topic is sectioned into fourteen parts (Early years, Nation of Islam period, Leaving the Nation of Islam, Activities after leaving the Nation, Death threats and intimidation from Nation of Islam, Assassination, Philosophy, Legacy, Published works, See also. Notes, References, Further reading, External links), and many of those are sectioned even more specifically. If someone were to go onto this page to look for a certain fact or figure regarding Malcolm X, these headings make it very easy to navigate through the article to find what he or she is looking for. The Encyclopedia.com article is not quite as well headed, with eight heading titled At a Glance, Trouble with the Law, Discovered Islam, Began Ministry, Differences With Rev. King, Became Disillusioned With Nation of Islam, Returned to U.S., Selected writing, and Sources. While these headings sound good, they do not accurately label what is being discussed in each section. For example, under 'Trouble With the Law', only three sentences out of four paragraphs talks at all about any legal problems Malcolm had, the rest other information, like that he lived with his sister for a while, and a talk he gave about white standards of beauty. It's not that these things had not place in the article, but they did have no place under that heading.

There are many more sources on Wikipedia article than are on the Encyclopedia.com one; Wikipedia has over twenty with almost three hundred in-text citations, where Encyclopedia.com has only seven sources. Being a shorter article (and it really is much shorter), it is expected that Encyclopedia.com were to have fewer sources, but it does show how much more time and effort was put into the creation of the Wikipedia article. While both articles have valid and honest information, I think that Wikipedia is a better source to use in this particular instance.