User:RM395/Course/Encyclopedia comparisons/SJRick

Topic

I chose to do my comparison on a topic of something which is incredibly broad so I could compare something very specific to something which should not be too scientific. I am doing my comparison on the plant genus of Musa, better known as bananas. I had access to the Encyclopedia of Perennials from the American Horticultural Society and chose the plant from it which is probably the best known.

Comparison

With the Encyclopedia of Perennials the article on Musa already assumes that the reader knows what it is and does not go into great detail about what it looks like. However the Wikipedia articles which is less specialized and more for general knowledge goes into great detail about it. Although both articles touch up on cultivation in great detail, the Wikipedia article only describes the cultivation process. The main point of the articles in the Encyclopedia of Perennials is to show how and where somebody can grow these plants. It goes into detail about what types of soil is needed and what climate works better in more detail than the Wikipedia article. The biggest difference between the articles that I saw was in the threats to the plant. The Encyclopedia of Perennials section about threats was about eight words long and only listed what a couple of the threats were. In comparison the Wikipedia article offered many threats to the plant and then went on to describe how these threats effect the plant and what can be done to prevent them. The print encyclopedia also lists the most popular separate species of Musa and how to grow them which the Wikipedia is lacking in.

Conclusion

The Wikipedia article is hands down the most informative. The print encyclopedia has limited space and can only write so much about each topic making it difficult to compete against a Wikipedia article. Also the layout of the Wikipedia article is more helpful to a reader. All Wikipedia articles have the same general layout with an introduction giving the most basic knowledge and then subsections after that which leads to the more specific information. The print encyclopedia does not have this capability and thus makes it a lot harder to find specific information. It is easier and quicker to find something specific about Musa from the Wikipedia article because you can click on a subsection link and there is also important terms hyperlinked so they stand out making it even more convenient. The Encyclopedia of Perennials belongs to my roommate who majored in horticulture and he told me the purpose of the encyclopedia was to have a knowledge of perennials condensed all into one space. He says it saves time having to research them all separately on the internet. However for this assignment we were only to compare an article on one topic which makes the Wikipedia article more efficient. Also, as a general conclusion I would say that if somebody was doing research to learn as much as possible about Musa at a scholarly level, the Wikipedia article is much better to refer to, but if somebody was looking to grow a banana tree in their backyard then the printed encyclopedia would be the way to go.