User:Pinkfire103/sandbox

Wikipedia Article: The Beatles
The Beatles article in Wikipedia starts off with a very general summary of what "The Beatles" are and who they consist of. The basic summary also describes the genres, their early legacy, the name of their albums, their breakup and the deaths of members. Finally, it also describes the band's continuing legacy. The article then goes into very distinct detail (almost month by month) by chronologically describing the Beatles' career, and aftermath of their career. It even goes as early as to describe the earliest members of the band, Stuart Sutcliffe and Pete Best, before the "Fab Four." The article goes even deeper by describing their "Musical style and development," which includes their influences, and genres. The Wikipedia article then describes their "Legacy," "Awards and Achievements," "Discography," and "Song Catalogue," which described who had a share in the profits of the songs. Overall, the article goes into a very detailed chronological history of the Beatles and their career.

Britannica Article: The Beatles
The Encyclopedia Britannica article describes something very different of the Beatles,"a global cynosure for the hopes and dreams of the generation that came of age in the 1960's." The article goes into detail, albeit brief, of the early to late career of the Beatles, discussing the addition of George Harrison, and Pete Best, among other early events. The article goes on to describe their career chronologically, also showing their influences (such as Elvis Presley) and other artists of comparable success. Finally, the article shows the achievements of the Beatles, even years after they've broken up.

Comparison and Contrast
Both articles that I looked at contain just about the exact same information, with Wikipedia obviously reaching a far spectrum of information. The headings in the Wikipedia article are more specific, in terms of the chronological timeline. For example, "1957-1952: formation, Hamburg and UK popularity," and "1963-66: Beatlemania and the touring years." In describing the early years of the Beatles, both articles tell us about Stuart Sutcliffe and Pete Best, the early members of the band. In the sidebars on the Wikipedia article, it provides a plethora of information. The years active, the past and current members, labels, associated acts, and website. Another sidebar in the Wikipedia article also provides further articles for more information, such as "Collaborations with the Beatles" and "Beatlemania in the United Kingdom."

The Wikipedia article broadly describes the Beatles stay in Hamburg, spanning many paragraphs while the Britannica article only has a few sentences mentioning the Beatles stay in Hamburg. One of the pieces of information that the Britannica article doesn't mention is the death of Stuart Sutcliffe, due to a brain hemorrhage and how it affected the Beatles. The Britannica article also doesn't mention that Best and Paul McCartney got arrested for arson for setting fire to a tapestry in their room at a club owned by Bruno Koshminder. There are very many differences that Wikipedia has over Britannica, but describing them all in full would take up too much time. One thing that Britannica has over Wikipedia however, is the fact that Yoko Ono, John Lennon's wife, landscaped a park named "Strawberry Fields" in Lennon's honour after his death.

Assessment
Both articles, from Wikipedia and Encyclopedia Britannica are good articles in my opinion. There is no warning label at the top of the Wikipedia article, which is definitely a good sign. I believe that both articles provide a good amount and variety of information. What I really like about Britannica's article is that it is concise, but provides a good amount of information on the Beatles.

Looking at the history page I can deduce that this is a well kept and organized Wikipedia article. There are a lot of edits by user GabeMc, who is a senior editor and recipient of the Beatles award of excellence. There seem to be edits almost everyday on this article, keeping it in tip-top shape. The Beatles article is recognized as one of the best articles in Wikipedia. In Britannica, the primary contributor is James E. Miller, author of the Rise of Rock and Roll, 1947-1977. He seems to have the authoritative know-how that Wikipedia may lack, however Wikipedia may use authoritative sources. The talk page of the Wikipedia "the Beatles" article, is ripe with conversation, actually speculating on what should be included within the article.

Wikipedia, as previously stated, is filled with vast amounts of information on its "The Beatles" article. It even includes quotes from the "Fab Four," which the Britannica article lacks. This gives the Wikipedia article a bit more personality on what the Beatles were really like, by what they said.

Resources
Bancroft, Colette. "AND MORE BEATLES; The band has also inspired a musical encyclopedia, a graphic biography and a mystery novel. Plus, for kids, a book by a Beatle!." Tampa Bay Times (St. Petersburg, FL) 2014: General OneFile. Web. 3 Nov. 2014

"Battle of the Beatles: who was the fabbest of the four?." New Statesman (1996) 2014: 30. Literature Resource Center. Web. 3 Nov. 2014.

Brown, Bryan. "Beatlemania! The music of the Beatles--not to mention their clothes and their hair--first rocked the world 50 years ago." Junior Scholastic/Current Events 2013: 10. General OneFile. Web. 3 Nov. 2014.

Cooper, Lee B. "Love Me Do: 50 Songs that Shaped the Beatles." Popular Music and Society 2013: 550. Academic OneFile. Web. 3 Nov. 2014.

Egan, Sean. The Mammoth Book of the Beatles: the fullest ever anthology of writing about the fab four. Philidelphia: Robinson. 2009. Print.

Perone, James E. The Beatles: With The Beatles (1963). n.p.: ABC-CLIO, LLC, 2012. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 3 Nov. 2014.

Shipton, Paul. The Beatles / Paul Shipton. n.p.: Harlow, Essex, Eng. : Pearson Education, 2008., 2008. Algonquin College Library Catalogue. Web. 3 Nov. 2014.

Swan, Noelle. "The Beatles: 50 years after 'Ed Sullivan,' they're everywhere, in everything." The Christian Science Monitor 2014: General OneFile. Web. 3 Nov. 2014.

"The Beatles: 59 unreleased tracks to be put on iTunes by Apple; Copyright laws force record company Apple to release 59 Beatles outtakes, bootlegs and demos as The Beatles Bootleg Recordings 1963." The Telegraph Online 2013: InfoTrac Newsstand. Web. 3 Nov. 2014.

"They love them - yeah, yeah, yeah; ++ The Beatles take America: 50 years on ++ ++ The Beatles take America: 50 years on ++ As the world marks 50 years since the Beatles broke America, music writer Jade Wright looks back at a weekend that changed pop music forever." Liverpool Echo (Liverpool, England) 2014: InfoTrac Newsstand. Web. 3 Nov. 2014.

My Chosen Wikipedia Articles
Edgar Allan Poe

"Edgar Allan Poe." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 10 Sep. 2014. Web. 24 Sep. 2014.

The Beatles

"The Beatles." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 26 Sep. 2014. Web. 28 Sep. 2014.

Sherlock Holmes

"Sherlock Holmes." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 17 Sep. 2014. Web. 24 Sep. 2014.

My Articles in their Encyclopedias
Edgar Allan Poe

"Edgar Allan Poe." Encyclopaedia Britannica. Encyclopaedia Britannica Online Academic Edition. Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 2014. Web. 24 Sep. 2014.

the Beatles

"the Beatles." Encyclopaedia Britannica. Encyclopaedia Britannica Online Academic Edition. Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 2014. Web. 28 Sep. 2014.

Sherlock Holmes

"Sherlock Holmes." Encyclopaedia Britannica. Encyclopaedia Britannica Online Academic Edition. Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 2014. Web. 24 Sep. 2014.

Discussion
Wikipedia, being the type of encyclopedia that it is, means anyone can edit it for free. This can cause some inaccuracies, however professionals on a specific subject are able to edit/fix up the articles as well. Does that make Wikipedia better or worse than an encyclopedia such as Britannica? Let's see.

My first article I chose to detect the changes between Wikipedia and Britannica is the article of the American Horror author, Edgar Allan Poe. I chose Poe because some of my favourite short stories are "The Black Cat" and "The Tell-Tale Heart", both by POe. The Wikipedia article for Poe is definitely more extensive, going into great detail of his early life, and Military Life, some of which the Britannica article lacks. However, the Britannica article does give a sort of opinionated aspect as shown under the "Appraisal" section, praising Poe for his literary prowess. The Wikipedia article is definitely quite long, covering a lot of information.

My second article I chose is The Beatles, a British rock band. I chose this article because The Beatles are one of my favourite artists and my grandfather's favourite as well. As said before, Wikipedia's article is definitely more extensive, while Britannica only covers the band broadly.

The final article I chose is the famed literary detective, Sherlock Holmes. I chose him because I find him fascinating and I love his modern interpretation in the show, "Sherlock". Wikipedia goes into the literary life of Holmes much more extensively, including the inspiration for the character and even going as far as describing his Habits and Personality and his lengthy legacy. The Britannica article is much shorter and compacts information into simple short paragraphs than long paragraphs with headings.

My initial thoughts between Wikipedia and Britannica, (which could probably serve as an example of other encyclopedias as well) is that Wikipedia's articles are definitely more extensive, while Britannica's are more broad and choosing more specific information to include. One thing I've noticed about Wikipedia is that it tries to include as much information about a subject as possible. Wikipedia can be used to find a ton of information, especially in it's reference section, while Britannica can be just a jumping-off point.