The transformation of the encyclopedia : a textual analysis and comparison of the Encyclopaedia Britannica and Wikipedia

The purpose of this thesis is to explore the following research question: Are there grammatical textual differences between Encyclopedia Britannica and Wikipedia? Specifically, this study will focus on the articles for "Communism" and "Dwight D. Eisenhower" that appear in the online version of Encyclopedia Britannica and Wikipedia. Using a grammatical textual analysis, the study finds there is little difference grammatically between Encyclopedia Britannica and Wikipedia though they are very different types of systems. There are several different types of textual or contextual methods that could expand on this initial approach to find differences between Encyclopedia Britannica and Wikipedia.