User:Paulrut/sandbox

=Assignment One=

Articles & References
Rudyard Kipling

"Rudyard Kipling." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 27 Sep. 2014. Web. 28 Sep. 2014.

Lacrosse

"Lacrosse." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 27 Sep. 2014. Web. 28 Sep. 2014.

Germany

"Germany." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 28 Sep. 2014. Web. 28 Sep. 2014.

Articles & References
Rudyard Kipling

"Rudyard Kipling". Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 2014. Web. 28 Sep. 2014.

Lacrosse

"lacrosse". Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 2014. Web. 28 Sep. 2014.

Germany

"Germany". Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 2014. Web. 28 Sep. 2014.

Search Process & Reflection
For my article selection, I had attempted to search for topics that were either well known to me or were topics that held a special interest to me. In order to narrow down the variety of choices, I had decided to choose three articles that fit one of the following criteria. For the first article, the topic had to have been on an activity that holds a special interest or place in either my life or in my family. For the next article, the topic had to have been on a book or an author that is a personal favourite of mine. Finally, the last topic had to have been on a country that holds a special connection to my family. Once that was settled, I also stressed to myself that the articles must also have other sources of information to go along with the topics, in case of possible article biases or misinformation.

The first topic that I had chosen was on British author, Rudyard Kipling. A friend of mine from back home had introduced me to his work through some of his short story collections. Mr. Kipling is one of my top five favourite authors nowadays, and it is because of that distinction that the topic on him fit one of my following selection criteria.

When I searched for him on Wikipedia, I found that the information on the author was both extensive and detailed on both his life and his work. The article also included opinion pieces on him from all parts of the world, from Great Britain to India. While the opinion pieces were not necessary, I found that they had helped in giving the full article a neutral bias on the author.

For the comparison, I had decided to use Encyclopaedia Britannica on both Rudyard Kipling and the other two topics. I had wanted to use the encyclopaedia because I wanted to use a source that was both academically credible and harder to edit. When I searched for Mr. Kipling in the encyclopaedia, I found that the article there was straight forward, neutral and brief. In this article, Encyclopaedia Britannica focused on the life of Kipling followed by an assessment of his work. While the article was not as extensive as the one on Wikipedia, it was both straight to the point and geared towards assessing the life and work of the author.

The next topic that I had chosen for this assignment was on the sport of lacrosse. Currently, I live in a small town near southwestern Ontario called Orangeville. The sport of lacrosse has always been a part of my hometown since the late 1800s. It also helps that the sport has connections to my own family from grandfathers who played the sport to one of my own brothers who is now an assistant coach of the Calgary Roughnecks in the National Lacrosse League.

When I searched for the sport on Wikipedia, I found that the information in the article was also extensive and very well detailed. This article covered information on both the history, the leagues, and on the basics of how to play the game. I did not find any real biases towards the article and I even found some links that referred to some similar sports.

In Encyclopaedia Britannica, the article on the sport was a lot shorter than the one on Wikipedia. The other difference I found with the article on Britannica was that there was a heavier focus on the equipment used for the sport, along with how to play the sport. Other than those differences, the encyclopaedia covered most of the major sub topics that the Wikipedia article focused on, from the history of the sport to women's lacrosse.

For my final topic, I had chosen the country of Germany. Over the years, I have learned that a part of my family history was based in Germany. Despite the fact that a majority of our background comes from the country of Ireland, Germany has held a special place in my personal interest due to the history and the culture of the country.

When I searched for the country on Wikipedia, I had found that there was a very extensive and well detailed take on Germany. The amount of information on both the history, the culture, the geography and the politics of the nation were all covered well, with both current and past information. The only issue that I had noticed with the article was that it was semi-protected from any forms of article editing, which gives me the impression that the article does get tampered with, from time to time.

The article on Encyclopaedia Britannica was just as extensive and detailed as the article on Wikipedia, as it covered the same main topics as those on the previous web page.

=Assignment Two=

Wikipedia Summary
The Wikipedia article on Rudyard Kipling begins by describing the man as an English writer and poet who was born in British India. The beginning of the article also discusses his work and reputation with other well-known authors. After the introduction, the article describes the life of Mr. Kipling in proper detail. This is done so by splitting segments of his life into separate sections. It is in these sections that the article gives a biographical take on the life of Mr. Kipling, from his early years in Britain and British India, to his adult life in the United States, Britain and South Africa. Afterwards, the article concludes with his life during and after the First World War, along with his passing and legacy in both the literary and global world. The article also includes a section and a Wikipedia web link that contains information on his bibliography.

Encyclopedia Britannica Summary
The Encyclopedia Britannica article begins by giving a short explanation on Rudyard Kipling and his submissions to the literary world. The article then describes the life of Rudyard Kipling, starting by briefly describing his parents and his childhood. Afterwards, the article describes a few other details on his life by combining his childhood and adult years with his writing career. Finally, the article concludes with an assessment on the writing career of Mr. Kipling, and how his reputation had declined due to his imperialist bias.

Comparison of Wikipedia and Encyclopedia Britannica
While both articles are on the same task of describing the life of Rudyard Kipling, they are both heavily different in the way they present the information. The Wikipedia article on Mr. Kipling is split into ten major sections, and they are all give heavily detailed accounts on his life and career. The Encyclopedia Britannica article, on the other hand, is only split into three major sections and they only give a brief stance on his life and career.

The Wikipedia article goes into incredible details when describing the life and career of Mr. Kipling. For example, when describing his childhood, the article explains how his parents met, along with how he received his namesake. The article stated that Rudyard received his name due to the fact that his parents met and “courted at Rudyard Lake, in Rudyard, Staffordshire, England”. The Encyclopedia Britannica article makes no reference to these facts and only briefly describes the parents of Mr. Kipling and what their positions were at the time Rudyard was born.

The Wikipedia article also goes into greater lengths at describing the opinions and viewpoints of the writer, from his views on imperialism to his opinions regarding the First World War. For example, the article highlighted the fact that Kipling was furious over aspects of the conflict, such as the “Rape of Belgium”. He believed that the campaign had turned into “a crusade for civilization against barbarism”. The Encyclopedia Britannica article makes little to no reference of his opinions of the time, as it only manages to give a detailed but brief description of his overall life and literary work.

In the last section of the article on Encyclopedia Britannica, the article does give an interesting assessment on the work of Mr. Kipling. However, this assessment is only done by briefly describing his work and what his storytelling meant to critics and readers alike at the time. The Wikipedia article, on the other hand, goes into greater detail when giving an assessment on the work and life of the writer, as there are a number of examples and quotes taken from other writers who had critiqued Mr. Kipling. For example, there are a number of noteworthy quotes on Kipling that were made by T.S. Eliot, where he had claimed that he did not consider that Kipling’s work contained an imperialist bias as he was quoted in saying that he could not “find any justification for the charge that he (Kipling) held a doctrine of race superiority." . The Encyclopedia Britannica article makes no reference to this quote, but it does make a brief reference to the attempts that T.S. Eliot made to highlight the reputation of Kipling.

In closing, the Wikipedia article acts more like a biographical interpretation on the life and career of Rudyard Kipling, while the Encyclopedia Britannica article glosses over most of the major highlights surrounding the writer.

References and Further Reading
The Wikipedia article on Rudyard Kipling has over 119 references and over 26 references in the further reading section. Most of these references consist of books and online articles that were written by experts who are well versed in the work and life of Mr. Kipling. Some of the major contributions come from the published viewpoints of authors T.S. Eliot and Charles Carrington. During some investigation, it was found that Mr. Carrington was responsible for producing a biography of Rudyard Kipling in 1955 titled Rudyard Kipling: His Life and Work.

In regards to other contributors to the article, Wikipedia does contain a talk sub forum where editors and contributors can make suggestions to the article at hand. In the case of this article, the talk sub forum for Rudyard Kipling has a wide number of contributors and archived data, consisting of past and present edits and suggestions. Most of these contributors are volunteers with some very major credentials in their resume. For example, there is a contributor by the user name of ‘Quiddity’, who had made the suggestion of combining the bibliography of Rudyard Kipling with the link titled Rudyard Kipling: Complete Works. During some investigation, it was discovered that ‘Quiddity’ is both a librarian and a volunteer editor of the Wikipedia Foundation.

The Encyclopedia Britannica article contains over 14 external web site references. The article also contains a brief and somewhat unorganized bibliography, while over 15 contributors have made contributions and edits to the article. The primary contributor of the article is John I.M. Stewart, who has written a major biography on Rudyard Kipling. Unfortunately, the credentials on Mr. Stewart are explained very briefly, as it does not hold a strong sense of credibility to the article.

Final Assessment
While both articles are very similar in their presentation on Rudyard Kipling, the Wikipedia article goes into far better details on the writer compared to the condensed version found in Encyclopedia Britannica. Both articles highlight the childhood and adult years of Rudyard Kipling, but the Wikipedia article dedicates over two major sections with over ten sub sections regarding those periods. This is all while Encyclopedia Britannica dedicates only one major section to briefly discuss the life and career of the writer. . These articles also discuss the reputation of Rudyard Kipling, but while Encyclopedia Britannica briefly describes his reputation, the Wikipedia article goes into greater lengths by highlighting quotes and opinions on Mr. Kipling from other major writers.

While in the talk sub forum of the Wikipedia article, there seems to have been a number of controversial suggestions on edits to the article. Despite the fact that the article was once a featured article on the home page of Wikipedia, there were a number of volunteer users who made suggestions to edit and not edit the viewpoints of Kipling regarding Anti-Semitism and racism. There is also a reference to spamming and vandalism on the article, which gives the Wikipedia article some sense of unreliability. On the other hand, the article in Encyclopedia Britannica gives a very brief description of the primary contributor, which also does not give a good sense of reliability.

Overall, I would recommend both articles but only on the condition that they are not to be relied on too heavily. If someone was looking for a brief description on Rudyard Kipling, I would recommend the article on Encyclopedia Britannica, but if someone was looking for more information on the writer, I would recommend the Wikipedia article.

Additional Resources on Rudyard Kipling
Battles, Paul. "`The Mark Of The Beast': Rudyard Kipling's Apocalyptic Vision Of Empire." Studies In Short Fiction 33.3 (1996): 333. Academic Search Complete. Web. 22 Nov. 2014.

Bilsing, Tracy E. "The Process Of Manufacture: Rudyard Kipling's Private Propaganda." War, Literature & The Arts: An International Journal Of The Humanities 12.1 (2000): 76. Academic Search Complete. Web. 22 Nov. 2014.

Gilbert, Elliot L. "Silence And Survival In Rudyard Kipling's Art And Life." English Literature In Transition, 1880-1920 29.2 (1986): 114-126. Academic Search Complete. Web. 22 Nov. 2014.

Harvie, Christopher. "The Sons Of Martha": Technology, Transport, And Rudyard Kipling." Victorian Studies 20.3 (1977): 269. Academic Search Complete. Web. 22 Nov. 2014.

Ivermee, Robert. "Kipling, The “Backward” Muslim, And The Ends Of Colonial Pedagogy." Nineteenth-Century Contexts 36.3 (2014): 251-268. Academic Search Complete. Web. 22 Nov. 2014.

Kemp, Sandra. "The Archive On Which The Sun Never Sets: Rudyard Kipling." History Of The Human Sciences 11.4 (1998): 33. Academic Search Complete. Web. 22 Nov. 2014.

Kimball, Roger. "Rudyard Kipling Unburdened." New Criterion 26.8 (2008): 22-26. Academic Search Complete. Web. 22 Nov. 2014.

Lackey, Michael. "Kipling's Poems." Journal Of Modern Literature 30.3 (2007): 12-30. Academic Search Complete. Web. 22 Nov. 2014.

Pamboukian, Sylvia. "Science, Magic And Fraud In The Short Stories Of Rudyard Kipling." English Literature In Transition, 1880-1920 47.4 (2004): 429-445. Academic Search Complete. Web. 22 Nov. 2014.

Williams, Gordon. "Alfred Lemm And Rudyard Kipling: Ironic Commentaries On Women's Wartime Shifts." Comparative Literature Studies 40.3 (2003): 265-285. Academic Search Complete. Web. 22 Nov. 2014.