ENCYCLOPĘDIA AMERICANA AND ENCYCLOPĘDIA BRITANNICA - COMPARING CHARACTERISTICS

A detailed Summary of ENCYCLOPĘDIA AMERICANA AND ENCYCLOPĘDIA BRITANNICA - COMPARING CHARACTERISTICS

Encyclopędia Americana and Encyclopędia Britannica are two of the most popular English Encyclopędias. They have long history and have been developed for many years and now they meet the need of various adult audience. However, there are some differences between I will try to expose. Encyclopędia Americana and Encyclopędia Britannica will be compared according to the following areas: authoritativeness, purpose, scope, currency, physical makeup, organization, arrangement, indexes, aids tot he reader, and strong and weak points.

Encyclopędia Britannica (EB) is older than Encyclopędia Americana (EA). EB is originally published 1768-1771 in Edinburgh, Scotland. At the beginning of twenty century it is reissued by Encyclopędia Britannica, Inc, Chicago with the general contribution of the reputable University of Chicago. EA is first published 1829 by Grolier Incorporated. It is the first Encyclopędia published in United States, as a standard general reference work. Many American and international contributors (more than 6,000 for each Encyclopędia) aid preparing both EA and EB. However, EA's contributors are mostly American, and EB has a great network of international contributors through the entire world. Both EA's cont

Concerning the physical makeup, both encyclopędias are made in standard way, hard covered, and traditionally sized. Encyclopędia Americana has a little bit smaller volumes but font size is larger and the text is more clear and readable. EA holds nice appearance, well designed clear smooth pages, providing a lot of helpful colour illustrations that cover all branches of knowledge. Encyclopędia Britannica don't look as good as EA. The font size is small, and the text is not very readable. There is no good contrast between text and page background. Pages are rough and not so pleasant for touching. Encyclopędia Britannica do not provide as many illustration as Encyclopędia Americana. Its illustrations are rarely coloured, small sized, and often difficult to understand.

Encyclopędia Americana covers well all subject areas equally without special emphasises. There are no articles biased towards one particular country or topic. All countries of the world are presented in the same way as United States or Canada. EB's Micropaedia also covers all subjects equally. In addition, there is Macropaedia (Knowledge in Depth) that emphasises on general topics from certain subject areas as geography, science, arts, history, humanity. It is a very strong point for Encyclopędia Britannica. EB's weak point is that United States and Canada are broadly covered than other countries. There are main entries just for U.S. and Canada in Macropaedia. Other countries are covered either in Micropaedia, or in Macropaedia under Continents /Countries headings. I couldn't find any topics avoided or only treated marginally in both encyclopędias. For example, under abortion there is three page article with subheadings in EA, and two page article in EB's Micropaedia. Superior features for Encyclopędia Americana are: glossaries defining technical or difficult terms accompany many articles. Full list of glossaries appears in the index entry glossary; There are separate articles on significant historical documents, important works of literature, philosophy, economics, and Bible; a lot of illustrations are used functionally to clarify and supplement the text (drawings, diagrams, graphs, maps, charts). Inferior feature is that there is no subject classification with suggested readings - reader will spend a lot of time for finding all available information on a subject in Encyclopędia Americana. The unique Table of Contents in Propaedia makes Encyclopędia Britannica not just "a storehouse of facts" but "a systematic survey of all departments of knowledge". It is like a systematic subject catalogue or analysis of the materials contained in it. The organisation of EB is its strongest point. All three parts have significant value and meet the needs of really broad audience. There are small articles for fast reference searchers in Micropaedia, and there are also Propaedia (Suggested readings) and Macropaedia (Knowledge in Depth) for thorough research. Well constructed broad index using a lot of cross references and subheadings is another EB's strong point. Bad typeface and illustrations' insufficiency are EB's inferior features.

ributors and EB's contributors are specialists in their fie

Some common words found in the essay are:
Encyclopędia Americana, Encyclopędia Britannica, Micropaedia Macropaedia, Knowledge Depth, Americana Annual, EB EA, Britannica Propaedia, EA EB, American EB, Macropaedia Micropaedia, encyclopędia americana, encyclopędia britannica, ea eb, suggested readings, branches knowledge, cross references, using cross references, academic scientific, strong weak, using cross, available information, easy readable public, eb encyclopędia americana, special charts abbreviation, classified list articles,

Approximate Word count = 2136
Approximate Pages = 9 (250 words per page double spaced)

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