Chapter 8 Evaluating and Interpreting Information Technical Communication

Chapter 8 Evaluating and Interpreting Information Technical Communication, 12 th Edition John M. Lannon Laura Gurak © 2011 Pearson Education, Inc. , publishing as Longman Publishers. 1

Questions to Ask When Evaluating Sources Ø Is the source up-to-date? Ø Is the printed source dependable? Ø Is the electronic source trustworthy? Ø Is the information relatively unbiased? Ø How does this source measure up to others? © 2011 Pearson Education, Inc. , publishing as Longman Publishers. 2

Evaluate the Evidence Ø Is the evidence sufficient? Ø Do you need more information to reach a conclusion? Ø Is this hard evidence or soft evidence? Ø Can it be verified? Is it opinion or speculation? Ø Is the presentation of evidence balanced and reasonable? Ø Is there any overstatement, omission of vital facts, or deceptive framing of the facts? Ø How are the facts being framed? Ø Does it attempt to obscure the real issue? Relay facts in a more positive light? © 2011 Pearson Education, Inc. , publishing as Longman Publishers. 3

Interpret Your Findings Ø What level of certainty is warranted? Ø Do you need the ultimate truth, a probable answer, or would an inconclusive answer suffice? Ø Are the underlying assumptions sound? Ø To what extent has personal bias influenced the interpretation? Ø Are other interpretations possible? © 2011 Pearson Education, Inc. , publishing as Longman Publishers. 4

Avoid Errors in Reasoning Identify and evaluate all possible causes and rule out unlikely ones Select the most probable causes and evaluate them Identify the definite or immediate causes © 2011 Pearson Education, Inc. , publishing as Longman Publishers. 5

Avoid Statistical Fallacies Give examples of each of the following type of erroneous or misleading statistic: Ø The sanitized statistic Ø The meaningless statistic Ø The undefined average Ø The distorted percentage figure Ø The bogus ranking Ø Confusion of correlation with causation Ø The biased meta-analysis Ø The fallible computer model Ø Misleading terminology © 2011 Pearson Education, Inc. , publishing as Longman Publishers. 6

Acknowledge the Limits of Research Ø Obstacles to validity and reliability Ø Flaws in study design Ø Sources of measurement error Ø Sources of deception © 2011 Pearson Education, Inc. , publishing as Longman Publishers. 7

Any Questions? For additional help reviewing this chapter, please visit the Companion Website for your text at http: //www. ablongman. com/lannon. © 2011 Pearson Education, Inc. , publishing as Longman Publishers. 8