Prepared by: Rhéal Nadeau
Posted on: April 5, 2003
Exercise: Is that a fact?
Have you ever read a story or an article,
and found a glaring error?
Or
conversely, been impressed by the author's knowledge? (In either case,
how do you know the information is true or false?)
We all know a lot of things - and we all
have the capacity to learn
more.
Unfortunately, we don't always know as much as we think we do, and much
of what
we think we know is false. "Ring around the rosey" is not about the
plague,
for example, and it's not true that "rule of thumb" refers to an
archaic law
allowing a husband to beat his wife.
A basic writing rule is "write what you
know". This means, of
course, digging
into our own experiences - but also, learning to look around for
information on
things we have *not* experienced. This is where basic research skills
come in.
There are a lot of sources of information around, and learning to "look
it up"
is a valuable asset not just as writers, but in our daily lives.
First off, think of the many places you
can look for information.
The library
comes to mind, of course, as does a good Web search engine. Less
obvious, but
often more effective (and more interesting), are other sources. Look
around
you. Open your dictionary, and see what information it provides other
than
simple definitions - perhaps tables showing the monetary units of many
countries, or the key holidays of different religions. Look at the
humble
phone book; it points us to dozens or hundreds of experts on any
subject.
Think of the people you know, or have
access to, with expertise on
various
subjects. Besides acknowledged experts, everyone you know has interests
and
knowledge. Your neighbour or coworker may be interested in sailing, dog
training, classic automobile restoration, and would probably love a
chance to
tell you more on that topic. (It's amazing how much information people
are
willing to share, if they have the time and you ask nicely, telling
them why
you're asking.)
Look at the variety of magazines on the
shelves in stores; look at
the ones
that cover topics outside your usual area of interest. Buying and
reading one
of those is a quick way to get a glimpse into that topic - it won't
make you an
expert, of course, but you'll know more than you did before.
The Web, of course, is full of information
- and of misinformation.
Part of
good research is learning how to double-check. People will confidently
share
false information: sometimes out of malice or self-interest, but more
often
because they're not questioning their own knowledge. So part of
research is
healthy skepticism.
The exercise for this week will more
vaguely defined than usual.
We'll ask you
to do the following:
First, take a look at your resources - the
usual ones of course, but
also, take
a look around the house and see what other resources there might be. Go
to a
library or a bookstore, check what courses are offered by your
community
college, go exploring on the web. Is there something you've been
wondering
about or wanting to learn more about? Say you've been curious about
Ford's
Edsel (often given as a prime example of corporate failure): you can of
course
look it up in the index at the library, or search for "Edsel" in your
favourite
search engine. But would you think to look for the address
"www.edsel.com"?
(It exists - it's the web page of the Edsel club, and includes quite a
bit of
information on that car and its history. And this is an example I
picked at
random for the purpose of this exercise.)
Trust serendipity: if your research takes
you in an unexpected
direction, and
you learn something other than what you were looking for, that's fine!
Second, dig a bit deeper into the topic.
Find *one* interesting
piece of
information - something you didn't know before that you find
interesting. Then
find at least one alternate source that either confirms or contradicts
this.
Remember - sometimes finding out that
something is *not* true is
even more
important than finding out that it is! So try to challenge some of the
things
you've heard and accepted as true. For example, you might go to sites
such as
www.urbanlegends.com or www.snopes.com and poke around till you find
something
that makes you think "is that so?" (Remember - the exercise then asks
you to
find supporting or contradictory information.)
When you've done this research, post your
submission to the list
telling us:
- how you did your research;
- what you learned that you found interesting;
- how you double-checked that information, and what was the result
- was the information confirmed or contradicted elsewhere?
- any conclusions you draw, about what you learned, and about what
you learned about looking for information.
This exercise is not open to traditional
critiques, so when
"critiquing" a
post, instead of commenting on the writing or content, try to add to
the
information, and/or to suggest other sources of information on that
topic.
This can come from your current knowledge, or you can do some further
research
of your own. When doing this, remember that the goal is not to argue
what is
true or not true, but instead to learn to look for information that
will help
us make that decision!
Of course, there's a limit to how much we
can find out in a one-week
exercise.
On the other hand, it's often amazing what a few minutes of research
can turn
up. And remember to let your mind run free, and look for opportunities
to
learn. (For example, I used the word "serendipity" above - were you
familiar
with that word? Do you know its origins? The first step in research is
asking
questions, then pursuing the questions that seem most interesting. If
that
leads to other questions, that's often a good thing - and it certainly
is for
the purposes of this exercise.)
Be creative! Have fun!
Rhéal Nadeau's wrap-up
Posted on: April 13, 2003
Thanks to everyone who participated this
week - so much interesting
information
was posted that I wasn't able to keep up with all of it!
My goal with this exercise was to remind
us that research need not
be hard or
dry or boring, nor does it need to involve hours and days in dusty
libraries
(though never forget the value of libraries - they still contain better
information, on the whole, than the chaotic Web.) I think the
submissions
showed that - research can be fun, and good research draws on multiple
sources.
(This week, most of the research was done on the Web - due in part to
the
nature of the exercise - but we also saw people consult people they
knew, go to
books or family papers, and so on.)
The critiques did not quite live up to my
hopes - the exercise said:
"try to
add to the information, and/or to suggest other sources of information
on that
topic." The next time we run this exercise, I'll remove that "try";
after all,
there is little value in a critique that says "good information, good
job"
without adding something more.
So to conclude, remember to recognize
opportunities to learn, and to
find out
more about the worlds we live in.
Rhéal
Web site created by
Rhéal Nadeau and
the administrators of the Internet Writing Workshop.
Modified by Gayle Surrette.