In my paper I would look to write about whatever will prove my points and make them stronger. For the sake of this assignment I chose to write on nonverbal communication and you can determine signals and symbols people may be relaying intentionally or unintentionally that we can decipher. When looking for sources I would definitely have to find myself going into a library and start my search off for credible resources. In order to evaluate if the source is credible I would definitely have to look at where the source came from and if the material they are saying can even be used in my paper. You never want to really get information off the Internet in today’s age because people lie and twist facts around to the point where the information is completely bogus. Most of the information that I have found to be credible has come from either books or magazine articles or face-to-face interviews. For instance one credible resource I would use to absorb as much information as I could out of, would be Dr. Bushnell who teaches Nonverbal communication here at the university and has an abundance of knowledge on the subject.
I would think anyone who is trying to get a good grade would definitely evaluate the sources credibility. For one you don’t want to put something in your paper that is false or has so many errors that it hurts your paper more than it helps. Second, you don’t want to plagiarize. So many students get caught with plagiarism because they use sources from another paper instead of actually doing the work and finding the correct sources.
The value of the information usually is great but sometimes it is irrelevant to the topic and the points that I would be trying to give in my paper. You want to definitely gather tons of information whether you may actually use all of it or not. It gives you a variety of things to choose from and it doesn’t set you up to depend on one or two sources. The more information you gather, the more chances you have at reading less believable information because their are too many portals and ways of communication in which information usually gets altered or changed to be readable instead of believable. With the information you have gathered you can choose and select which information may come off as less believable because usually you’ll have the same information from another source that is either more credible, or has more facts which can make it easier to be more believable in the long run.
One definite way i would evaluate the research skills of a student of mine would be to check the resources myself. Though it would be a great deal of work if I have over 50 students in my class, I feel that if I want to have students cite five or ten sources they used in their paper and expect them to be credible and evaluate them at the same time, then I as the teacher or professor must do some work and double check the resources by looking them up myself. Obviously that would take too much time so instead of doing all of that work I would probably just check one or two sources whichever were cited the most in the paper to help evaluate the student.
Ritts, Vicki. “Six ways to improve your nonverbal Communication”http://honolulu.hawaii.edu/intranet/committees/FacDevCom/guidebk/teachtip/commun-1.htm
Segal, Jeanine PhD.”The Hidden Language of Emotional Intelligence”.http://www.helpguide.org/mental/eq6_nonverbal_communication.htm
HeathField, Susan M.”Listen With Your Eyes”.http://humanresources.about.com/od/interpersonalcommunicatio1/a/nonverbal_com.htm
February 12, 2009 at 6:59 pm
It seems that everyone agrees that the library is the best place to look for information. However, I think you make an interesting point about trying not to use internet pages when researching. It seems that part of the point of making the internet available to everyone was to allow free and open communication and easy access to information. But it seeems that that has backfired, as now there is so much bogus information out there that people don’t use it for research.
February 13, 2009 at 5:49 pm
Hi Rickey,
You mention that people have an instant bias against internet sources, while being more inclined to accept information from a book, article, or interview. I agree with this. But why should this be so? I mean, there can be just as many lies and errors printed in a magazine article or book as in an internet page. And while I’d be inclined to take at face value any info you got from your interview with Dr. Bushnell, because she’s a professor, I might not believe the info if the interview was with some random person on the street. Maybe the internet is less credible as a source in most people’s eyes because there’s so much information, that you have to pick through the random passers-by to find the “professors”.
-Casey