Matthew's Honors FYE Blog: Week 12: Evaluating Information & Academic Research

Introduction

Research - something that we all have to do at some point in our life. This week in our FYE Classes, we learnt how to properly evaluate and use information as well as how to conduct the process of research.

This is truly shocking and legitimate information that I didn't make up(5)

Class Discussions

(1)

On Monday's class, we briefly went over the "CRAAP" test (best acronym ever) and our Peer Leader, Taylor, demonstrated how to use Galileo. Furthermore, she showed us how to narrow our search and which database to use when looking for information to use in our research. Afterwards, Doctora McGrath asked us to determine whether the articles on her Power Point slide where true or false. At first, it was tricky to determine which ones were accurate and which ones weren't. Eventually I got the hand of it by checking the source as well as the actual information in the article. Some of the articles had really funny and weird titles. Using "common sense", you could figure out that some of the articles were obviously fake. Sources such as CNN and BBC are well-trusted whereby one could assume that they were reliable. On the other hand, Articles made by "The Onion" were fake since I knew that they were a satirical website. It was really fun guessing/figuring out which articles were real. At the end of class, Doctora told us to craft a question related to our Major and find an academic and non-academic source to assist in the research to that question and fill out on a table for Wednesday.

A Door Hinge (2)

Given such freedom to choose whatever topic I wanted felt like a blessing to a curse. Knowing my indecisiveness, I would probably spend more time choosing the topic as opposed to actually getting information about it. To remedy the problem, I decided to think of the most boring topic that I could possibly fathom. After deliberation, I decided to do something related to door hinges (pretty boring lol). I spent some time brainstorming the physical and chemical properties of door hinges as well as the real life applications of door hinges and their current limitations. I further narrowed down by research to compare the sustainability of Aluminium and Steel door hinges. Finding a non-academic source(3) was literally a Google search away. On the other hand, finding an academic article(4) was tricky. I had to ensure it followed the requirements of the "CRAAP" Test.

Unaltered photo taken circa 2019 (5)

On Wednesday's Class, Dra. McGrath wasn't their due to prior commitments. Instead, Taylor was in charge of the class. She gave us a sheet to evaluate our non academic source and compare it with our scholarly source. After filling it out, I was able to determine that while my non-academic had information relevant to my research topic, it wasn't suitable since it failed to meet the other criteria. On the other hand, the scholarly article that I chose was able to pass the "CRAAP" Test.

Reflections

I totally didn't make this up (6)

It's important to learn how to properly use information in Research to avoid embarrassing yourself and looking like a pillock. From what I've learnt in class, I would say that I'm more prepared to properly use and evaluate information in my academic and non-academic life. I was also made aware of the dangers of fake articles. In the modern era, we are plagued with the burden of determining what's factual and credible and what isn't. It's pretty easy to create a fake article. Last year, me and my friends used to make a few funny articles that were fake. Although we used it as a means of entertainment, other people may use it as a weapon or tool to spread hate or misinformation. Hence, we have to carefully evaluate what we read as the information presented to us shapes the way we feel and think. All in all, I hope we all learn a thing or two about how to utilize and appropriately evaluate information.