Does this word need "the"?

Question

I wrote this sentence

In some cases,such as surfing the articles of an encyclopedia or when archiving a news article for offline reading, it is convenient to get rid of such irrelevant fragments

Do I need "the" before "articles"? Actually I am confused about using "the" in of-phrases, as most the time I have seen them with "the".

Answer 1

If you feel it necessary to include "of an encyclopedia" I would keep it, although this is not essential simply a stylistic choice. Preferably I would simplify the sentence to something like:

In some cases,such as surfing encyclopedia articles or when archiving a news article for offline reading, it is convenient to get rid of such irrelevant fragments.

Or

Sometimes, like when surfing or archiving articles, it is convenient to get rid of irrelevant fragments.