WEEK 9: EVALUATING SOURCE OF EVIDENCE

·         Primary and secondary source:

v  Primary – start off from the time and place of the event

v  Secondary – written about the event (later)

·         Searching for evidence:

v  Using the references – foundation material does exist. It enclose what the author state

v  Leading questions – where can i discover that information

·         Authenticity and Validity:

v  Authenticity – can be verify that the say is right

v  Validity – proof may not be convincing if it is not genuine, it meets the requirement agreed.

·         Currency and reliability:

v  Currency – still applicable in the current. Eg: published recently.

v  Reliability – if proof is trustworthy, it can be trusted especially from someone you know to be trustworthy or from a recognise expert.

·         Relevant and irrelevant evidence:

v  Relevant – gives a good understanding of the issue, it may be so by having supports for the conclusion.

·         Representative Sample:

v  Features of that person can be used to signify other individuals.

·         Sampling:

v  Having major dissimilarity among individual

·         Representative Sample:

v  Making conclusion about the whole inhabitants based on a few people

·         Certainty and Probability:

v  Certainty – arguments cannot always be proving 100% certainty.

v  Probability – whether the conclusion are likely to follow from the reasoning and supporting evidence.

·         Generalization:

v  Concluding that the say is true about a group based on what we find out from the sample (group of people)

·         Variation in a population:

v  The larger the variance between the samples, the overview result will become less trustworthy.

·         Risk:

v  The lower the risk, the lesser sample size and rate needed before someone can start overview.

·         Analogy and generalization:

v  Both of this argument having a common. They begin with a sample, identify properties of that sample, and conclude that the sample is shared by others.

·         Triangulation:

v  Examine and evaluate different sets of proof to see whether they hold each other or whether they oppose each other.