Week 12: Evaluating Information

This week we discussed the importance of evaluating information in order to see if it is credible or not. On Monday, we did an assignment where we looked at 21 news articles and had to decide if the information was true or not. I only got 15 of them right, what about you? Some of the fake ones were really easy to notice because of things like their titles. For instance, one article was titled, " Maine launches heroin vending machines". This one was obviously fake because it is just common sense that this would not be allowed because first of all heroin is an illegal substance. Another strategy to determine the credibility of articles was to look at the magazine that published the information. An example of this was an article published by the onion. These were just a few of the strategies to determine if the information is true. Some articles are not easy to determine because they might pass the quick eye tests and require more research to determine if they are fake. We even discussed an instance where even some of the biggest news organizations make mistakes at times. Time Magazine wrote an article about screens in Beijing which appeared to be playing the sunrise for its citizens since the smog was blocking the actual sun. This was actually just a commercial on the screen which happened to be playing in the morning, but this scene was quickly taken out of context by many news sources and the information spread like wildfire. This example showed us all the importance of making certain that the news we receive and spread is real.
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Wednesday we were tasked with finding one scholarly article and one that was not. The purpose of this was so we could compare the two in order to see if the non-academic one was credible. We evaluated the credibility by using the CRAAP test which stands for currency, relevancy, authority, accuracy, and purpose. I chose to use the research from my biology class, so I was researching ways to improve transportation to and from college. My scholarly article was written by a group of graduate students attending a college in Europe while my non-academic article was written by University Police at Stanford University. Therefore, it was credible since Stanford is a top notch college. It also passed the test because the information it provided was very relevant to my topic since it discussed some of the ways Stanford is dealing with transportation at their university. Overall, I concluded that both of the articles I selected were credible and relevant to the topic. The test was a good indicator because of all of the steps it went through in order to ensure it was a quality source. What did you think about the test?
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How about your sources? Did you have any sources that didn't pass the CRAAP test? If so why did it fail? As always thanks for reading my blog!

Week 11: Preparing for Registration & Meaningful Inquiry

Hey guys, this week we began class by meeting with Erin, our honors adviser. She gave us some very helpful tips and advice about how to register for classes but also how to get ready before we register. She told us how we can access our advisement notes which is a major help if you lost the sheet like me! The advisement sheet has all of the information that is needed to register. For instance, it has the classes that are required for your major, and it also has your specific RAN which is your registration number. Without that you can't even get into your account to register. Therefore, this information was very beneficial to us as we plan to register for classes tomorrow!

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We were also assigned an article to read titled The Art of Powerful Questions. This showed what a powerful question looks like and tried to show us how we can begin to ask better questions. In order to ask better questions, it taught us that we first need to change the question words we use. We need to use words like why, how, or what instead of who, when, or where. This is important because it creates the opportunity to engage the audience instead of ask a question that can be answered simply without any elaboration. The article also put some emphasis on how the question addresses the audience. Is it directly harsh to someone? Is it in the face of someone? These types of questions are not necessarily bad, but they may prevent the audience from responding or incite their emotions which can lead to emotional responses that don't truly reflect them. Overall, I learned that I need to ask questions that can be more open to everyone and not too narrowly focused, and I need to ask questions that are more thought provoking! What did you get from the article that can be applied to ask better questions in the future?

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In class on Wednesday, we were all asked to give an example of a situation that has happened recently and to propose a question about the issue. I was partnered with Alicia and the first issue we discussed involved someone picking up an extra shift in order to help out a coworker only to get blamed by the other worker for not working hard enough. The question stated, " Why do some people feel as though everyone else should do all of the work and make their lives easier?" We discussed the issue first and realized that this is actually a common occurrence because it happens all the time in the workplace. With that said, as we evaluated the question we realized that it could be stronger if it was worded better. If it was stated differently it might not incite the emotions of the reader and create more thought provoking discussions. Our second situation was about a roommate who is trying to give advice about relationships. However, they realize that their roommate keeps disregarding their advice by continuing in relationships that follow the same patterns. The question was, " How can a person help influence others?" We both immediately saw a problem with who the audience is for the question. It was vague so if we didn't know the background information we would be lost. This would be a stronger question. Why do people ask for relationship advice if they continue to disregard the help others give them? What do you think of this question?

Overall, it was a great week because we learned an important tool by learning how to ask powerful questions. I hope you learned as much as I did! Thanks for reading!