Saturday, 31 March 2012

EVALUATING EVIDENCE



 CREDIBLE EVIDENCE


It is important to decide how credible (believable and authoritative) a piece of evidence is within an argument. As you look at the evidence supporting a reason, ask yourself whether or not this evidence matches with readers' experience of the world. If it doesn't, does the evidence come from a source that readers would accept as more knowledgeable or authoritative than they are?

If one reason given in an argument is:

On the university level, argument is valued by professors of various disciplines who say that they would like for their students to be able to take a strong position and support it with ample reasons and evidence, statistics taken from The National Inquirer and given in support of this reason will typically be much less credible than ones taken from The Journal of Higher Education.



Credibility of an argument was based on two criteria of the source which are:

  •      Free of bias


  •             Expertise




Expertise was determined by:

  • Education

  • Experiences

  • Job or Position

  • Reputation

  • Achievements




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