LIR 30: Week 4

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LIR 30 Week 4

• Evaluating Annotating Sources

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Class Announcements

• Class notes page, lots of stuff
• Lab rules
• Class questions

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This Weeks Class

• Starting on p.4 of Class Reader section for Weeks
  34
• Evaluating information sources
• How to write annotations for the final project

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Evaluating Sources
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Why bother?

• Knowledgeable perspective
• Discern between reliable questionable
  information
• Hone in on useful information
• Internet environment

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Evaluating Sources the Basics

• Lets recap
• Primary or secondary resource?
• Objective or Subjective?
• (New!) Popular or scholarly?

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Primary

• Or Secondary?

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Primary Sources Review

• First-hand accounts or direct sources
• the horses mouth

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Pack on My Back

• Example of a Primary Source

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• I jumped out of bed and pulled on my pants.
  Everybody in the house was trying to save as much
  as possible.
• I tied my clothes in a sheet. With my clothes
  under my arm and my pack on my back, I left the
  house with the rest of the family. Everybody was
  running north. People were carrying all kinds of
  crazy things. A woman was carrying a pot of soup,
  which was spilling all over her dress.

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Citing Electronic Primary Sources

• Citation example in Reader
• How to Cite Electronic Primary Sources from the
  Library of Congress
• http//memory.loc.gov/learn/start/cite/index.html
• Use the general MLA format for non-electronic
  sources
• http//www.santarosa.edu/library/guides/mla.pdf

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Secondary sources Review

• Interpretations or reviews of research
• Represents majority of sources

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Example of a Secondary Source History of the
Great Chicago Fire

• Upward of 500 families were fleeing from the
  seeming wrath to come. The streets were almost
  impassable

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Example of a Secondary Source History of the
Great Chicago Fire

• Then the fire reached over the street, and while
  that terrible southwestern wind howled onward
  Then it got into the lumber yards and into the
  railroad shops, and the round houses were soon
  wrapped ill its dead embrace.
• Citation examples in class Reader

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Objective

• Or Subjective?

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Objective Information Review

• Factual, undistorted by emotion or personal bias
• Source can be objective, even with subjective
  quotes or subject matter

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Subjective Information Review

• Conclusions based on personal opinions,
  background
• Does not include conclusions based on research,
  study!

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Popular

• Or Scholarly?

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Popular Sources Review

• Intended for general audiences, not experts
• Usually no in-depth analysis or research

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Scholarly Resources Review

• Audience with background in the field
• In-depth treatment of specific aspect of topic
• Peer review

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Popular vs. Scholarly

• Colino, Stacey. Six Surprising Reasons You're
  Not Losing Weight.  Redbook Jan 2005 44-46
• Abstract Colino explores six reasons of weight
  gain despite best efforts to lose it. Among
  others, researchers from Deakin University in
  Australia found that people who watched between
  one and two-and-a-half hours of TV per day were
  93 percent more likely to be overweight than
  those who watched less than an hour per day.

• Dunstan, D., Salmon, J., Owen, N.,  Armstrong,
  T.  et al. Physical Activity and Television
  Viewing in Relation to Risk of Undiagnosed
  Abnormal Glucose Metabolism in Adults.  Diabetes
  Care.  27.11  (2004) 2603-10
• Abstract Dunstan et. all seek to assess the
  associations of physical activity time and
  television time with risk of "undiagnosed"
  abnormal glucose metabolism in Australian adults.
  Their findings suggest a protective effect of
  physical activity and a deleterious effect of
  television time on the risk of abnormal glucose
  metabolism in adults. Population strategies to
  reduce risk of abnormal glucose metabolism should
  focus on reducing sedentary behaviors and
  increasing physical activity.

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Scholarly sources

• appropriate for college papers!

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Evaluating Sources

• The Next Level

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Criteria for Evaluating All Sources START (The
Fab Five)

• Scope/Coverage
• Treatment/Reliability
• Authority
• Relevancy
• Timeliness/Currency

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Not so much a checklist

• Indicators!

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Strategies for Evaluating Scope/Coverage

• Whats it all about whats covered?
• Table of contents
• Index
• Intended audience?

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Strategies for Evaluating Scope/Coverage

• How is topic covered broad overview or specific
  subtopic?
• Graphics, tables, statistical information?
• Chapters (books), sections (articles), pages
  (website)

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Scope/Coverage Example

• Whitby Museum James Cook Web Site

• Excellent site for Cooks early days
• Coverage does not include his famous voyages

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Strategies for Evaluating Treatment/Reliability

• A toughie!
• Sources cited, complete bibliography?
• Statistics, references cited?
• Information valid, well-researched or
  questionable, unsupported by evidence?
• Intent of the source?

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(No Transcript)
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An Expert?

• Demand more from your sources!
• A better example
• lthttp//blogs.princeton.edu/wri152-3/f05/eharwood/
  degas_turns_his_back.htmlgt

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Evaluating Authority

• Authors background
• Expert in his/her field?
• Specific credentials, degrees in the subject?
• Training, education, experience in field?
• Other works by author in field?
• Publisher a known publishing house, university
  press, professional organization?

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Strategies for Evaluating Authority

• Where to find information about an author
• Periodicals
• End or beginning of article text
• Contributors page
• Click on authors name in online database
• Books
• Book jacket, introduction or notes
• Check online databases
• Online search
• Website
• About Us information
• Check linking pages Alexa

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Evaluating Authority

• Example, for a source about Seasonal Affective
  Disorder
• Joe Schmo has a PhD. in Environmental Psychology
  from Really Big University. His research in the
  area of S.A.D. began in 1982. His published
  works include the books Rain, Rain Go Away and
  Stormy Weather. He is currently an instructor at
  Small But Prestigious University and provides
  commentary on the Weather Channel.

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Authority Example

• FactCheck.org - Annenberg Political Fact Check

• Unusually detailed About Us section
• Includes information about site, funding, staff

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Strategies for Evaluating Relevancy

• How does it answers your questions?
• How does it fill your information need?
• Why is it right for your project?
• Should fit parameters of your project
• If not, pick another source

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Strategies for Evaluating Timeliness/Currency

• Age of information?
• Up-to-date for topic?
• New discoveries, or related events taken place?
• Does it matter?
• Topic changing quickly or fairly stable,
  requiring more background information?

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Timeliness/Currency Example

• http//www.bartleby.com/107/pages/page1292.html

Interesting source, but not appropriate for
current information!
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In-Class Worksheet

• Evaluating an Information Source

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Evaluation Exercise

• Groups of 3-4 Include your names!
• Review source, complete worksheet

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Homework for Next Week

• Evaluating Sources

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Evaluating Sources

• Establishing Points of View

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Points of View

• Very difficult to eliminate from human
  communication

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Points of View

• Examples
• Bias
• Spin
• Propaganda

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Intent of Source

• Commercial
• Persuasion
• Spin
• Propaganda

Doesnt necessarily mean information is faulty
Not quid pro quo
Rather, a factor or indicator
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Bias From Both Sides

• Information source
• Authors opinion or point of view that may
  influence the presentation or content of
  information source
• easier to spot when you disagree!

• Reader/Viewer/Listener
• Preference or inclination inhibiting impartial
  judgment
• Partiality preventing objective consideration of
  issue

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Spin

• From pbs.org
• The particular interpretation or emphasis
  applied to information to enhance the public
  image of, or to minimize political damage to, a
  politician.
• Applies to organizations, groups
• Generally used to sway public opinion
• Uses selective evidence/facts to support

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Propaganda

• In The Research Process, Bolner and Poirer define
  propaganda as

• Material that is systematically distributed to
  advocate a point of view or a strongly held
  interest on an issue.

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Propaganda

• May play on emotions of reader/viewer/listener
• Fear
• Weakness, helplessness
• Uses emotionally charged words
• Highly subjective
• May appear to be based on fact

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How to Evaluate Information Validity

• For fun and profit

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Evaluating for Information Validity

• Facts check multiple sources
• Data check source, methodology
• Research results
• Read methodology carefully
• Examine data
• Graphics
• Tables, charts, etc.

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Checking Research

• From Gender and the Internet by Hiroshi Ono and
  Madeline Zavodny
•  Social Science Quarterly, March 2003.

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Check the Research

• Objective This article examines whether there
  are differences in men's and women's use of the
  Internet and whether any such gender gaps have
  changed in recent years.
• Methods We use data from several surveys during
  the period 1997-2001 to show trends in Internet
  usage

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What would you check next?
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Check the Research

• We use several data sets from different points
  in time during 1997-2001.
• Multiple data sets give a more complete picture
  of Internet usage patterns each survey asks
  slightly different questions about Internet
  activities.
• Identifies surveys

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Check the Research, cont.

• Results Women were significantly less likely
  than men to use the Internet at all in the
  mid-1990s, but this gender gap in being online
  disappeared by 2000. However, once online, women
  remain less frequent and less intense users of
  the Internet.
• Concepts unclear? Check definition and
  measurement method

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Though it takes timethis kind of detective work

• provides details for your annotations

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Annotations

• They Make Life Worth Living

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General Guidelines for Annotations

• In your Reader and online
• http//online.santarosa.edu/homepage/jfilkins/anno
  tations.html
• Note about online version

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What is an Annotated Bibliography?

• List of citations to books, articles and
  documents (e.g. sources)
• Followed by brief (200-250 words) descriptive and
  evaluative paragraph the annotation
• Informs reader of the relevance, accuracy, and
  quality of sources cited

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Annotations vs. Abstracts

• Abstracts
• Purely descriptive summaries often found at the
  beginning of scholarly journal articles or in
  periodical indexes

• Annotations
• Descriptive and critical
• Expose the author's point of view, authority
• Evaluate reliability, timeliness of information
• Relevance to your research

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Before Writing Your Annotation

• Locate books, periodicals, documents
• Sources should support all aspects of your topic

• Examine and review, choose works that provide a
  variety of perspectives on your topic

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Before Writing Your Annotation

• Books
• Not necessary to read in entirety
• Read or use scanning technique
• Periodical and Internet sources
• Must be read completely
• No newspaper articles or book reviews
• Cite each book, article or document using MLA
  style

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Now youre ready to write your

• annotation!

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Writing Annotations

• A ten step program

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Annotation Workshop

• Dont write a review!
• Using separate piece of paper, write down 5
  criteria
• Scope/Coverage
• Treatment/Reliability
• Authority
• Relevancy
• Timeliness/Currency

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Remember

• Annotation is subjective but information should
  be subjective!

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The Final Project!
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What will the final project look like?

• 5 sources
• 5 citations
• 5 annotations
• Link to mock-up available on Lecture Notes Page

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Homework for Next Week

• Read through class reader section for Weeks 5 5
• Evaluating Information Sources sheet