Question

1. Why is it important to know where your evidence comes from?

2. How do you know if your source is credible? How can you tell if it’s valid, accurate, or reliable?

Using Evidence

1. What challenges do you face when working with evidence?

2. Below is an example of a weak and a strong use of evidence. What are the differences between the two? What makes the second example a stronger example than the first? Identify at least 2 specific ways the first example is weak and how the second example fixes those weaknesses.

Weak:

Today, we are too self-centered. “We are consumers-on-the-run…the very notion of the family meal as a sit-down occasion is vanishing. Adults and children alike eat…on the way to their next activity” (Gleick 148). Everything is about what we want.

Strong:

Today, Americans are too self-centered. Even our families don't matter as much anymore as they once did. Other people and activities take precedence, as James Gleick says in his book, Faster: “We are consumers-on-the-run . . . the very notion of the family meal as a sit-down occasion is vanishing. Adults and children alike eat . . . on the way to their next activity” (148). Sit-down meals are a time to share and connect with others; however, that connection has become less valued, as families begin to prize individual activities over shared time, promoting self-centeredness over group identity.

Answer 1

Evidence can be separated into two categories, primary and secondary sources. Primary sources are first-hand experiences, accounts, observations, reports, or narratives such as diaries, letters, contemporary newspapers, or eyewitness accounts of events. On the other hand, secondary sources are critiques written by academics and scholars. They examine primary sources to present an argument or support a point of view. In this regard, it is important to know if the source is primary or secondary mainly to be aware of the bias in secondary sources when employing them as evidence.
Please post the other questions separately as we are supposed to answer just one question or four sub parts of the same question.