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What Counts as Evidence?

What Counts as Evidence?. EA Ch. 18. Rhetoric. Rhetoric is "the faculty of discovering in any particular case all of the available means of persuasion." Aristotle "Rhetoric is the art, practice, and study of human communication." Andrea Lunsford

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What Counts as Evidence?

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  1. What Counts as Evidence? EA Ch. 18

  2. Rhetoric • Rhetoric is "the faculty of discovering in any particular case all of the available means of persuasion." Aristotle • "Rhetoric is the art, practice, and study of human communication." Andrea Lunsford • A rhetorical situation involves understanding the context of a statement: “[the] when, where, and to whom [audience] it is made” (EA 368)

  3. Evidence • Used mainly to convince an audience, reader, or group • The type of evidence and the type of audience depends on the success of the argument • In your research paper, remember to ask yourself how your evidence will convince the audience

  4. Evidence Continued • Evidence as persuasion • Consider the relevance of the evidence: is the evidence anachronistic (out of place) • Consider the Academic Context and the types of evidence that’s considered scholarly and non-scholarly • Use the guidelines regarding the relevance of evidence on pg. 369 to guide you

  5. Firsthand Evidence • Firsthand evidence: collaboratively collecting evidence or singularly—but it involves being involved in a project without consulting an outside source.

  6. Types of Firsthand Evidence • Observation (& perception): Caution! One must proceed OBJECTIVELY. • Example: describing an elephant in 4 different ways; all of them equally valid. • Observation involves knowing what you’d like to understand and conjecturing what you think will occur. See guidelinesp. 370

  7. Types of Firsthand Evidence • Interviews: Talking to an expert enhances your research because she can point you to more sources (scholarly or other experts to speak with) b/c she’s on the ‘inside’, understands the field, and has special knowledge difficult to find elsewhere. • She can simplify complex jargon • Recorded interviews—written consent • Guidelines p. 371

  8. Types of Firsthand Evidence • Surveys and Questionnaires: questions must reflect what the researcher is trying to evaluate and analyze. Be brief and design a user friendly survey. Using a questionnaire with rankings can be very useful. • Guidelines p. 373

  9. Types of Firsthand Evidence • Experiments: difficult to use as a legitimate source outside of the sciences. • Personal Experience: difficult to use as a legitimate scholarly source. This essay should challenge you to move beyond the personal to the public and political.

  10. Secondhand Evidence • Secondary sources outside of yourself—from books, articles, essays, photos, et cetera • WSL has an extensive collection of books, journals, and magazines. • A library database is not the same as a source found on the web. Ex. JSTOR

  11. Secondhand Evidence • Subject heading v. keyword: keyword search is more extensive/comprehensive than a subject heading search • Learn how to use different search strategies • Guidelines/Questions for beginning research pgs. 377-8, QA pgs. 154-157 • Learn the [WSL] Library-http://www.lib.csub.edu/infocomp/infocomp.html

  12. Secondhand Evidence & Research • Online Sources: the Internet is extensive and oftentimes unreliable for scholarly sources

  13. Suggested “Reputable” Search Engines • Megallan.com-sites have been evaluated • Google scholar/scholar.google.com-limits the search to academic articles and books • Librarian’s Index/www.lii.org- evaluates websites • Internet Public Library/www.ipl.org-first of its kind, started by University of Michigan

  14. Suggested “Reputable” Search Engines • Infomine.ucr.edu-scholarly internet source from UC Riverside

  15. Using Evidence Effectively • Audience: establish your credibility by creating a solid argument, substantiated by scholarly sources. DO NOT LIMIT your audience to the professor; expand it to include your peers • Consider their knowledge—your paper shouldn’t be written to a five year old, their interests, find evidence that relates to their concerns but also your topic. • Organization: Great research papers take time and depend on evidence. If you can’t find sources, then you need to revise/change the topic.

  16. Using Evidence Effectively • Organization: • Keep ALL of your articles in your research binder as well as your notes • Start drafting an outline and place your ‘strong’ evidence at the beginning/end of paragraphs • Begin ‘cutting and pasting’ your sources to a paper • Do not expect your research to MAKE the argument for you • REVISE, REVISE, REVISE!

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