Finding and Using Evidence

Research

It is so common a for each generation to think that they have had it harder than the new generation that clichés have come about because of it.  Perhaps the best known one being how adults would talk about how they would have to walk to school in the snow, uphill, both ways. I find myself sounding like this when I talk about research techniques.  You see, I grew up in a time when research had to be done in a library, but right now, research can be done at home at any hour of the day.  And, you can find any information that you want.  This is obviously convenient for many people.  But there are some ways in which it is harder to do research than it used to be.  Therefore, in this lesson we are going to account for the information age that we are living in and cover some of the basics of quality research. First, we’ll talk about finding sources, then how to evaluate evidence quality, and finally citing sources in speeches.  

Finding Sources

So let’s start with how to find information in go toward the source that most people are familiar with the Internet.  The internet is great.  It could retrieve any information you want, at any hour of the day. This is great for convenience, but the unfortunate side effect is that you don’t know what information is necessarily dependable.  In fact, any term that you put into a search engine will retrieve any information that you want.  Do you want to find an article that says the earth is flat? You can find it. So the internet increases convenience, but it decreases dependability and quality of information.  Perhaps the most famous search engine is Google, but there are others like Bing and Yahoo.  Instead of just going for the results that you get off of a search engine query, perhaps you should go towards the news sources that they have, like in Google News, because then at least those sources have some sort of editorial board that tends to look over information and–at the very least–spell check it before it gets published. 

Another excellent area to find sources is an oldie but a goodie; the library. It’s not as convenient as the Internet, but the reason why the library is still relevant when doing research is that the librarians that work in these buildings are actually trained to find information.  In fact, they might be able to find information better and faster than you can on the internet.  Regardless of whether or not you go to a library or on the internet, we suggest that you search out databases.  There are databases like Ebsco-host and Lexis Nexis. What they do is that they compile dependable information from academic journals. Not everyone has access to these databases, so check what databases your school provides, or you could visit a local university library. They’ll let you use their databases as long as you were inside the library itself, on their computers. 

Evaluating Sources

But let’s be honest, finding information in this day and age, isn’t the difficult part. The difficult part is finding quality information.  So here are a few simple suggestions for when you find information in order to evaluate its quality. 

1. Primary sources. The first   one is to know the difference between primary versus secondary sources.  A primary source is one where the research, and the analysis is done by the author themselves, versus a secondary source which uses other people’s information and just sort of regurgitates it or reformats it.  One of the most famous secondary sources out there is Wikipedia.  This is the primary reason why teachers don’t want you to use Wikipedia in your work cited pages because it is a secondary source.  Always put the effort into finding primary sources.  If only one source cites another, it’s the researchers responsibility to verify the accuracy. 
2. Identify bias. The second suggestion is, be very critical about identifying bias.  The only way you could really do this is to compare your source against other sources.  Do a quick check of the publication and see if there are any reviews talking about the bias of that particular publication.  Bias is something that could really undermine any type of research that you were doing. 
3. Publishing standards. The last suggestion when evaluating evidence is to select sources with some sort of an editorial process.  Make sure that the author’s name is on the evidence.  Don’t cite anything that doesn’t have an author.  Avoid sources without an editorial board like blogs.  The more rigorous the editorial process the more credibility the source generally has.  

Flat Earth “evidence” is being manufactured and published at alarming rates.

The Flat Earth Debate

In one sense, online research easier than more traditional methods. In another sense, research is much more difficult because of  the abundance of information online. There is no greater example of this than the resurgence of the belief that the Earth is flat. The amount of information online claiming to prove the Earth is flat has increased steadily to the point where celebrities are willing to publicly defend such arguments.

Citing Sources

So you have found information and you are satisfied as to the quality of that information.  How do you cite it in your speech?  Perhaps the two most common questions I get about citing sources are when to cite sources, and what to include in a source citation.  Knowing when to cite sources is a little bit more difficult than it seems. 

1. The first thing is to avoid citing sources for common knowledge.  You don’t need and piece of evidence to explain that the sky is blue, or that the earth is round.  That’s commonly known. 
2. Also, sources are not a numbers game so don’t think that more sources is better.  You want to have a good amount of sources but you still want to include your voice in your research. 
3. Cite sources any time that you are declaring something as a fact that isn’t common knowledge, or isn’t intuitive.  Ultimately, If you feel that any of your audience members might doubt the veracity of your claims, that’s when you want to cite a source. 
4. You should always include the name of the publication, and the date. This is not optional. 
5. If the publication date includes the day…include the day in your source citation.  Including the time might be a bit overkill.  But if the date is only a year without a month or a day, then just include the year of the publication. 
6. Whether or not to use an author’s qualifications is kind of up to the person doing the source citation. If you feel that the authors qualifications will boost the credibility of your evidence, go for it.  If you think that it will just distract your audience, go ahead and leave it out. 
7. Speakers should consider the language they are going to use when citing sources. If every single time they say: “According to,” “according to,” “according to,” it starts getting a bit repetitive. Think about other ways to introduce it as like, “as noted by,” “reported in,” “as stated by.” There are many different ways to introduce or citations, and adding variety helps your audience to follow your speech. 
   

So we briefly touched upon how to find sources, how to evaluate that evidence, and how to cite them in speeches.  Keep in mind that these are just basic techniques, and as you practice you will find more and more ways to increase the quality of your evidence and find new and better sources.  Research takes time and practice.  People forget that the Internet and the information age are a relatively new phenomenon within our culture.  Who knows what advancements in technology are going to take place over the next few years.  One thing you can be sure of is that this generation will make sure that the next generation knows how easy they got it.