What...Why…When…Who..do we judge ?
I often judge in general and I don’t necessarily like that part of myself. However, deciding what sources to use or not is quite crucial going through our academic life. Judging, therefore, is right on the spot here and we shouldn’t be easy on them.
After surfing through the sides Sarah has suggested to us ( UE, SD SU, OWL) and thinking myself what criteria I normally follow, I came up with a very simple and short list of the least things we should consider before using any source in our own work.
Here it comes:
Who are the authors and how involved are they in the problem (why not google them right away)?
On what kind of side is the source posted and who is responsible for it?
When was it written?
Why was it written?
Of course the first thing we should notice is how it is written, but concerning the fact that we want to use this resource in our own work, it’s quite pointless to put that on the list…we are naturally careful about that.
…quite simple I think, isn’t it? It almost feels, as pretty much in all we judge, we should ask ourselves these lovely four Ws.
It’s definitely important to always have them ready, never forget them because sometimes it is very easy to get carried away, isn’t it…?!
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- Praga/Padova, Czechia
7 comments:
Hi Nina!
How are you?
I've just finished to write my post..As you have written in your post I also tend to use the first sites I finnd without pay much attention to their realiability...it's not good but sometimes you don't need a specific or perfectly trustworthiness site or you don't even know out to evaluate its reliability! What is true is that we should verify it and try to be always critical,especcialy when you use the net for educational purposes!
Chiara
Hi Nina!!
It is true, we are used to judging things, situations (and sometimes people) almost every day. As I wrote on my post, I have always had criteria to judge the material I use for researches, but I have never had the chance to “list” them so far or to really think about them.
I read your suggestions and I noticed they are very similar to mine. Authors and updates are very important to me as well, because it is quite pointless to consider an article or an essay which has been written two or three years ago. I must say I did put in my list the question “How is the page written?”, although I agree with you on the fact it might sound pretty obvious…I felt I should point it out because it is not so rarely to find stuff which MAY seem valid but is not written in a proper style so is simply too complicated to understand.
You are right, apparently the issue is very straight-forward: when we come across any kind of material (especially when we are working online), we should ask ourselves these simple questions. But from my own experience I have learnt that it is not always so easy since sometimes the websites do not contain all the information we should take into consideration. It happened to me that I found material without the author or there was just his name without any info about who he was; in those cases I found difficulties in judging that stuff…So I just gave up and looked for something else… :-) I think that if a website leaves out such fundamental information it cannot be considered a good one ;-)
See you on Monday!
Hi Nina!
I agree with you: judging can be boring and annoying sometimes, but this the only way to make the most of our tiring and sometimes endless searches!
I realised that, most of the times, I end up in a useful website almost by chance, while I’m aimlessly surfing on the Net without a particular target or while I’m looking for a completely different subject. For example, while I was looking for an online English thesaurus, I ended up (I don’t know HOW) in a WONDERFUL and RELIABLE website entirely devoted to post-colonial studies (the background topic of my future final dissertation) and I immediately saved it in my bookmarks! Why didn’t I find that website while I was desperately looking for it? Is it just because my search methods didn’t work properly? Or is there something else!? It is weird but also frustrating sometimes, innit? It gives you the idea that finding the right material is impossible, because, to a certain extent, all the search tips or guides don’t hold water (I hope I’ve used this idiomatic expression correctly)…
Let me know what you think about it!
See u
Alessia
P.S. : in the second line it is "this is". I forgot the verb!
Hi Nina
well, as far as the Wh's are concerned, I can only agree with you. Certainly HOW a page is written is often the thing I personally consider most; if not when picking a page as a source surely when deciding to read it through or just drop it after a couple of lines..!
I liked the very first and very last line of your post, about judging in general and how it may feel bad to do it. I think it's and intreaguing topic: judging may make us feel both ill at ease and self-confident at the sae time because we claim for ourselves the right to draw the line. We actually say something which we do not expect to discuss anymore, because we've judged the matter and therefore we came to a conclusion, a personal decision. Yeah, we have to do it a lot, not only when surfing the net, but pretty much every other moment too.
I don't think it's a bad thing in itself. In fact, I don't really like people whose constant approach to anything is 'well, yeah, whatever,I don't know...'. It's a sort of mental laziness, an apathy which upsets me: not ever having an opinion is like saying 'Please, somebody convince me! Tell me what to think! Or better yet, YOU do my thinking!' and this saddens me so bad...
I remember back when I was a kid what the priest in my religion class (a pretty bright fellow, for a catholic priest!...) once said about the Book of Revelations: basically God is supposed to despise those who are always mild in their way of taking a stand. Pretty much like in Dante, where 'the mediocre' are not even considered bad enough to enter the Inferno, because they're nothing much in any sense!
Well, I guess I got carried away again. I think anyway that to judge is ok as long as our personal guidelines are kept somehow adaptable. The only bad judgment is a rigid 'once and forever' one, if you ask me. Of course, this is harder to apply that the Wh's criteria, but then again the wwworld has to have its pros, right?
Well, see you.
Hi Nina!
Like Enrico, I was especially strike by your first paragraph. Basically because I find myself having the same thought: I'm always judging and sometimes too much! I often wonder if this is bad or just a way to be critical towards things, and don't end up accepting everything only because it's there.
I find really interesting Enrico's comment, and I sometimes share his feeling towards people that don't do some thinking about important stuff and are without opinions.
But talking about the main topic we are supposed to discuss...
I completely agree with you when you say that we should keep in mind the four WS, in order not to be carried away. It is something I've written in my post as well.
See you in class, then.
Byee.
Anna
Hi Nina!
As you might have noticed we pretty much wrote the same things this time. I always google the authors I find on the websites. And I agree with what Eleonora says that it's important HOW a website is written and if it's updated regularly. I'm very thourough when I try to find information for educational purpose. In fact, sometimes it's taking me more time to extra-google all the information within the information. Even if it can get very boring like Alessia says but it's the only way to make sure to have reliable sources and articles I think.
See you soon.
Caroline
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