Ever look at a book rack and find a row of similar books but can only wonder the contents it might hold. Or even felt scared seeing a book with so many continuations?
Image sourced from Google Images (http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:Encyclopaedia_Britannica_15_with_2002.jpg )
You can now rest easy as encyclopaedias are just a set of books which works like a dictionary where it helps us understand things in a more layperson term.
With the introduction of online encyclopaedias, we are now able to access the information we need quicker and almost anywhere we go. One online encyclopaedia which I most often hear would be Wikipedia (www.wikipedia.org) because it is easy to understand as the definitions are written by people for people. Hence allowing a more suitable and effective method of informing people.
Although website users usually navigate to multiple sites with non-linear pathways as readers’ pathways can be multi-directional (Walsh 2006). Wikipedia is able to capture the attention of users by allowing users to touch up on errors which may have occurred and still keep the information in laypersons term.
Moreover, with the usage of hyperlinks, users are able to ensure that the information that they are receiving is accurate or interpreted in the correct manner, thus developing credibility.
However, it would be wiser not to directly quote from Wikipedia as the definitions are usually to help ease readers understanding and may no be proper for academic purposes.
Reference
Walsh, M. 2006, Textual shift: Examining the reading process with print, visual and multimodal texts, Australian Journal of Language and Literacy, vol.29, no.1, p.24-37
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